Monday, June 1, 2009

Solar Panels Installed

One ton of coal produces about 2000 - 3000 KWH of electricity.
We use 2500 KWH of electricity every year.
This pile of solar panels is 3' x 5' x 2', probably the same space as a ton of coal.
These panels may provide all the electricity Katrina and I use for the rest of our lives.
They are guaranteed to have at least 80% output after 20 years. They will probably have 60% output after 40 years.
10 Evergreen 205W panels = 2050W * 5.5 solar hours = 11KWH * 75% efficiency = 8KHW/day


After many hours of hard work here they are installed!

The batteries should come tomorrow. The Inverter/Charge controller should come early next week.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeff and Katrina, you have made awesome progress in this project. Thanks for keeping us updated! We continue to explore our options to improve our old house and make it more efficient as well as getting quotes to go geothermal with our HVAC needs.

Best,

Ham

Anonymous said...

Wow that is so awesome. I have no idea what a project like that costs, but you have inspired me to look into it :) Great work

Nick said...

Hey Jeff, the solar panels look great! I'm curious, what would you do if a hurricane was approaching - leave them up or take them down?

Jeff and Katrina Kruse said...

I have designed the mounts so I can lower the back end so the panels will be flat.
I will leave the panels the way they are (17 degree tilt) for a small tropical storm.
For predicted winds above 50 or 60 MPH I will lower the panels flat.
A class 4 or 5 hurricane and I probably would take them down.

Fran and Steve said...

Steve is so interested in your project. He was wondering how much each panel weighs and whether they can be removed by one man in the event of hurricanes. Also, even when you have them in the down position (high winds), are they vulnerable to flying debris? Thanks. Fran

Jeff and Katrina Kruse said...

The panels are 41 #'s each. Since they are so big and you want to be carefull with them it realy takes two people to take them up and down.

They make all different sizes. I purchased mine almost soley based on price. I could have bought some smaller panels at a little less per watt but they were 60W panels. I would have needed 34 of them. They would be easier to handle but I would have had to make more frames and drill a lot more holes.

A 100MPH coconut would break a panel. They can handle some good size hail but not coconuts.