Solar Energy

Like I stated earlier, solar energy is free, solar panels are not. If you want a 20 watt panel the price will be something over $200 while and 80 watt unit may run $600 or more. For about thirty dollars and up you can get various sizes of what are called battery maintainers. Next there is the batteries to store the power you captured from the sun. Collecting all the sunlight in the world, with the world's largest solar array will not do you much good if you do not have a method to store the electricity. First, rule out automotive batteries. They are not made to be totally discharged and recharged the countless times necessary for a battery used for home electricity. Probably the best way to go is to obtain the large industrial six volt batteries that are used in fork lifts, golf carts, etc. You need two of these wired in series for each 12v battery required for your system.These sets can then be wired in parallel to give you more amp hours when using them. I have taken a third option and chosen to go with heavy duty marine batteries. While not as powerful or quite as reliable as the industrial sets, they are made to be discharged and recharged, they are less expensive than the six volt sets, they are readily available virtually everywhere and they are smaller, easier to handle and take up less space. They make an excellent compromise for a home back-up system. Whatever battery you decide on, you will now have to decide on how many you need. For just lights, a radio and a couple of small items, one or two twelve volt batteries will do. The more appliances you run, the more batteries you will need. You may find that for everything you want to run you will need a dozen or more 12v batteries. That would mean at least two dozen 6v batteries. Now you are also going to need an inverter. Unless you chose the option of going to all 12v appliances for your back-up unit, all of these 12v batteries are still not doing you any good. The prices of inverters can vary from about forty dollars for a 140/250w unit to eight or nine hundred for a 2400/5000w unit. The first number denotes how many continous watts can be drawn while the second number denotes the surge power available. The surge power allows motors to start, etc. The inverter draws power, so it will shorten the amp hour life of your battery. Most inverters are rated at about 90% efficient. When purchasing inverters, you need to decide whether you want one inverter that will handle all of your load, or several so you can use a seperate battery and inverter for every couple of appliances. With 12v power, it takes part of the power to push the amperage down the line, so the shorter distance between your battery and inverter and the shorter distance between the inverter and the appliance the better. The ideal way would be to have a battery and inverter right at every appliance you are going to run. This is not realistic because we do not want batteries sitting all around the house. Batteries give off a gas that is poisonous and should not be kept in a closed, non-ventilated room. You may want to keep your batteries in a basement or heated porch and have a vented hood over them to vent the gas out of a window. Batteries are best kept at about seventy degrees faranheit. You may not be able to locate your batteries where they can be hooked up to the solar panel and the house at the same time. When solar houses are being built this is taken into consideration. When retrofitting for a back-up, it can be a problem. You may even need to put your solar panels on a garage or shed with a southern exposure and bring a set of batteries to the house while another set is charging. This adds to the expense as two complete sets of batteries are needed, but gives you more leeway on placement of the batteries. This could even save you enough money on wiring that it would not be too much more expensive. Solar is an excellent way to go in certain locations. Areas of the south and especially the southwest of the U.S. are ideal for this option. Other areas of the country may require a different option or a combination of generators.