Solar panels worth it?

el toro · LONDON, ONT

Solar panels worth it?

parklane · St THOMAS, ONT

We were looking at putting up 2 solar collectors several years ago, that were 10KW each. At the time the Gov. was paying 80.4 cents/KW. for 20 years. This equalled about 17% return on your $$$ The only reason we didn't go through with it, was the concern about them cancelling the contract, and us being stuck with about $200,000. worth of scrap material.

sasquatch · NORTH BAY, ONT

Doubt if solar pannels will save you any money. BUT,,,,,,,,,,,,, Having the conveience of some back up power is certainly a good idea. If you have a battery bank with the solar, and your'e using it in power outages in winter, you will get basicly no charge into the batteries, which then requires a generator to keep them topped up.
JMO but a good decent sized low RPM generator, in either gas or diesel is the best route, one that turns a maximun of 1800 RPM or less.

hemi43 · ONTARIO

el toro wrote:
Was thinking of installing a few solar panels to offset the cost of peak power, is it worth the trouble or not? If anyone has them have you saved any money without the ont. contract?

You didn't mention what size panels, but regardless, you will never get your money back out of your investment. You would be far better off putting that money into more efficient appliances. I plan on changing my home central AC this year to a higher SEER, even though my current unit is working fine.

oldkoot · BROCKVILLE, ONT

hemi43 wrote:
el toro wrote:
Was thinking of installing a few solar panels to offset the cost of peak power, is it worth the trouble or not? If anyone has them have you saved any money without the ont. contract?
You didn't mention what size panels, but regardless, you will never get your money back out of your investment. You would be far better off putting that money into more efficient appliances. I plan on changing my home central AC this year to a higher SEER, even though my current unit is working fine.

Dan,

You might want to look into a heat pump rather than a new A/C unit, this is the way I'm looking to go. Not only will it cool but spring/fall will heat your house ( might not be cheaper than NG) and cheaper to run than an A/C unit.

58Chev · ETOBICOKE, ONT

Whole house battery backup used for lower power bills

Here is a guy who uses battery backup during peak usage and charges them over night.

Gazoo · BADEN, ONT

With the constant rising costs of electricity, who knows?
I used on the high side, 1,250 kwh/mth, with Christmas lights, house lights on due to shorter daylight hours, electric fireplace etc...for the extra cold days. At a cost of $200./mth.

Not even shopping around for the best price on panels, this one at Home depot www.homedepot.ca/product/5000-watt-monocrystalline-pv-grid-tied-solar-power-kit/997341, would give me about 6 months of free power per year. This system would pay for itself in about 7-8 years, at today's hydro prices.

-- Edited by Gazoo on Wednesday 29th of January 2014 02:10:41 PM

-- Edited by Gazoo on Wednesday 29th of January 2014 02:11:37 PM

Gearhead · ELORA, ONT

58Chev wrote:
Whole house battery backup used for lower power bills

Here is a guy who uses battery backup during peak usage and charges them over night.

Off the grid peeps recondition old forklift batteries to use as a battery bank for saving power for night-time use

Radcop · PETERBOROUGH, ONT

IMO a waste of money. Never see a return for you initial output. I am biased towards Nuclear though.

el toro · LONDON, ONT

Thanks guys