Subscribe to the Blog
solar wind power
DIY Solar Energy: Homemade Solar & Wind Power System
Alternative Energy Questions:
People who know about Solar Power and Wind Turbines?
I am looking at my bill and I use on average about 50 KWH per day.....I dont know if thats high but I want to know what size of an solar power panel should I get or wind turbine to at least cut this in half or more....I would rather want the system to be grid tied.
By the way I live in middle Tennessee we are in zone 4 so we get 4.5 hours of direct sun and I dont now about average wind speeds.
So basically to get 50 KWH in 4.5 hours, you would need 12 KW of panels. At about $10 a watt installed, that would cost you $120,000. I think a wind turbine would be less expensive but you'll have to check to see if your neighbours will let you have one.
You should work on insulating your home first to try and get your power usage down. If you have airconditioning, you may want to consider running an absorption chiller off hot water from some evacuated tube solar collectors. Running absorption based air conditioners directly off solar heat is a bit of a toss up since small scale chillers are expensive but the solar thermal collectors are cheap compared to photo-voltaics.
