alternative energy

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jackrichington

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anyone else out there run their household on solar, wind, or other?? This is part of my solar array
 

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Nice set up and we should do more of the same.

Do you know that you can increase your energy output by using reflectors (mirror, reflective aluminum, etc.)? It is much cheaper than solar panels and all it does is concentrate more solar energy being fed to your existing panels. I heard you can double (or more) your output if you do it right.
 
How much sun do you get? I don't own solar but some of the power I buy is solar..I think it's 20% of my power has to be solar/wind/water power. The solar is my favorite of our state mandates because we only get an average of 67 days of sunlight per year! I do want use to use "green power", but if we have no sun, what's the point? Wind is good, but we are limited in that too. What we do have is a lot of water, but water power does more damage to the environment than good..as a general rule, not always of course.
 
Here are links to two different residential scaled wind-energy systems I've been looking at:

Energy Ball and Swift Wind Turbine. The problem with these systems, if you live in a city, is most local codes restrict anything like this to be no more than 30 feet tall. At 30 feet, you tend to get a lot of ground-effects turbulence that can kill the efficiency. Also, our local power company allows excess power to be pumped back into the grid (reversing the meter), but the credit they offer is only around $0.09 on the dollar :beat-up:
 
to yo-yo

Had no choice & glad solar & wind were avail when I moved to wilderness 25 yrs ago..no powerlines to bring power..unless of course, I had 50,000.00 to bring it in...It took many years to get system I have today..couple panels at a time, etc... and hey, how deep was that bit on the pen you showed earlier today..was the little end centered on the side?
 
chuck

I doubt the wind would have blown them off..they've been thru 2 tornados
 
Alternate energy is kind of hard to justify when electricity costs less than 5 cents per kWh. Now, if I lived another 100 ft north I would be on an electric coop where the cost is much greater.
 
pssherman said:
Alternate energy is kind of hard to justify when electricity costs less than 5 cents per kWh. Now, if I lived another 100 ft north I would be on an electric coop where the cost is much greater.
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5 cents/KWH, I have a hard time finding it for less than 12 cents.
 
Monty said:
5 cents/KWH, I have a hard time finding it for less than 12 cents.
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Our utility company, CWL, is partial owner in several electric power plants, so they don't have to buy electricity on the open market. The management has always been forward-looking and kept the total capacity well in excess of the demand. In fact they installed a couple of natural gas peaking generators, which are only needed in the summer, and sell the excess capacity on the open market. The profit they make on those sales have kept our utility rates essentially unchanged for many years.
 
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