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Old 10-29-12, 11:25 PM   #22
strider3700
Master EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Vancouver Island BC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ecomodded View Post
I am just now finding out the weaknesses of Solar panels, I "thought i heard" they were rated for a typical day not full sun.
Nope many are rated for perfect days that are only possible on a test bed in a lab.

I can't be that far away from you and I'm seriously considering going 100% solar. It will be grid tied because in the summer you'll make way more power then needed and in the winter not close to enough unless you massively oversize your array.

I have a 2200 sqft home with a heat pump sized for it. Here's a few numbers. When just the fan is on circulating the air it draws 600 watts. When the heat pump and fan is on it draws 3200 watts. When the heatpump hits a deice cycle it spikes to 15000 watts for about 30 seconds. When the electric furnace backup and fan kicks on it draws about 18000 watts.

It's going to take an insane battery and inverter setup to handle something like that.

If you do go 100% off grid take a look at some of your pricing. For awhile now I've been seeing that the panels are the cheap part of a system. The rest of the system has to be approaching 70% of the total price.

As well where are you finding remote acreage on the island for $75,000 I've been watching for a few years with similar plans and empty land over 10 acres in size is usually 150,000k and up. Most of the places that seem decent in my books is closing in on $300,000. Of course if you're going to the mainland then yeah there's some nice stuff for $75,000.

Hell I looked at 100 acres with a cabin entirely off grid powered by microhydro with so much extra power you'd retire rich if they ever got the grid out there and you could sell the excess. It was priced at $95,000 and was way up north.
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