Free Energy?
This last weekend, Cynthia and I went to the Living Green Expo. While there, we found lots of great information about alternative energy sources. Most interesting to me was the development of Photovoltaic Shingles. In other words, roofing shingles that will produce electricity for your house!
I was a bit skeptical about it, but excited nonetheless. The shingles come in the standard shingle configuration, and can be nailed to your roof the same way you do regular shingles. There are a few extra things that needs to be done to make this useful, but ultimately, you will need an electrician and a roofing contractor (unless you really want to take your life in your own hands).
The roofer will have to drill holes in your roof to allow the wires to feed into your house. This isn't as bad as it sounds, since your roof is still protected by the shingles (ie the roof isn't going to leak).The electricity generated is DC, and need to be run into an Inverter. This converts the DC power into AC (standard house plugin). This power is then hooked up to the power grid.
The great thing about this is a little law which requires that the power company buy back any power you generate that isn't used by you. In essense, the power company pays you for having solar energy.
In addition, the State of Minnesota and Xcel Energy have a program in place to give you a rebate for the money you spend on solar electricity. You can get up to $8000 back for your troubles.
How's that for free energy?
There are already houses in the Twin Cities area which have this installed.
So why aren't you looking into it?
posted by Avinsen @ 12:19 PM
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4 Comments:
Wow!
Well, I'll have to look into it as soon as the mrs. and I get out of debt to Uncle Sam as it is. But that's a definitely neat investment to consider.
The rebate may be $8K but it's really $2K per KW with most rebates being for 2.1KW installs. 2.1KW hours per day will currently save you about $300 per year if you really get 2.1KW every day year round (unlikely in the dead of MN winters). There are several other home improvements for less upfront money that will save you more (insulation, etc.)
Even with the rebate at over $100 per shingle it's going to be tight. Generally speaking pv technology is getting better, but its not quite there for the home owner yet (imo).
Another thing to look at is solar heating systems (glycogen filled tubes, heat is then used to assist in water heating for furnace or other hot water needs.)
I've seen couple of houses with these in the Seward and Uptown areas.
Then again the biggest impact is to reduce current usage (shut off lights, look for phantom drains like a microwave, and eventually get more efficient appliances.)
Just another .02
pc
I understand that the cost to benefit ratio is still lopsided, so much so that it may be cost prohibitive for most home owners. And it is true that PV electricity is actually more expensive than regular AC from your local utility company. SolarExpert.com saids as much. But the cost over the long term is better than it looks on the surface.
Solar electricity is usually more expensive than conventional utility-supplied electricity. Improved manufacturing has reduced the cost to less than 5% of what it cost in the 1970's, but the cost (amortized over the 30 expected life of the system) is about 25 cents per kilowatt-hour.
As for the solar heating systems, there is actually one in my area. I haven't figured out the cost to benefit ratio on that. If anyone has any information on this, I'd love to hear it.
-YKL
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