Solar Power

Thinking about doing the solar power thing and I was wondering if anyone out there has solar power in their homes, could they tell me the pros/cons of it. How much it costs to install, can you install it yourself? And can you be "free" from outrageous electric bills?

Yes, you should.
Generally, the payback time is 6-11 years.
After that, your electric bill will be aprox $4.00 per month.
There are many financing and rebate options available.
I did one solar install where the homeowner installed the modules himself and we did the wiring.
Go here to estimate what it will cost.

http://www.genesispowersystems.biz/Estimate.html

I’m doing a school project and we need ways to be green. I have to power a retirement community in Florida. I have 15 large condos, 3 beach houses, 3 restaurnats, a pool, gym, hot tub, sauna, grocery store, gas station, and several offices. They don’t have to power everything but I would like to be as green as possible. Also maybe other suggestions on good ways to go green.

i would look at this in a diverse approch.
1. being that it is florida, i would start with using PV on the houses in combination with a couple of small peak mounted wind turbines (sources oynot.com, solardyne.com, sunwize.com and on and on).
2. condo’s are different. they usually have flat roofs so the turbines would be out of the question and so would PV. Instead i would use hard mount solar panals, and try to be energy efficent in other areas of the construction.
3. the pool is an easy one. your in florida, unless you want to cool it in the summer, and heat it in the winter, then just run the water through a condenser that is in a solar water heater loop. and the same answers apply to the rest.
But the best ans is think about it before you build, build with the surroundings, and plan for it by being construction wise.

No monitor. And not a souped up system. Let’s assume the power supply is rated for 300 Watts. And if I used the panel with a 12 volt deep charge battery?

There’s no simple answer. There are panels of many sizes.

If you want to do this you’d be better off with a laptop. They’re engineered for low power consumption and designed to run off DC. The DC/AC converter after a solar panel is costly and reduces efficiency. And they make very low power computers for use with solar panels in undeveloped countries.

I want to go to solar power at my home but don’t know how many to get or what size .
My power usage average is 60kWh daily use average

60 KWH / DAY? That is 2.5 KW (2500 WATTS) avg. constantly, and most solar panels only produce 40-100 WATTS during peak hours. It would take a lot of panels and panels alone are about $300-$500 each.

Must be something wrong with your usage number, or you have a huge house.

In order to properly calculate your system needs, you need to look at not only averages, but your peaks if you plan to go completely solar. If you just want to supplement and lower your grid usage, then just buy all you can afford. You will probably never save enough to pay back unless you have great subsidies, but you will feel good because you did cut CO2 emissions.

Why doesn’t the us government build acres and acres of Solar Panels around the us such as deserts in new mexico and Arizona and where ever land is available and build wind mills around them and Supply power to the us that way?

One reason is the amount of land taken up. As the questioner pointed out… "acres and acres" of land would be needed. Open land (what there is left of it) is needed for crops (read: FOOD) for forests (read: CARBON SINK –and human sanity!), for habitat for animals and birds. (For an eye opener do some research on how many bugs we’d have if we didn’t have birds — O! M! G! Without lots of birds, we will either drown in hordes of insects or in toxic chemicals trying to kill the insects, and end up killing ourselves instead.)

Even in the desert, habitat is destroyed by building acres and acres of solar panels, then you still have the inefficiency and huge cost of the transmission lines to get that power to where it’s wanted. Even the more-efficient parabolic reflector method takes up a lot of space, and still requires the large — and ugly — transmission towers marching across miles and miles of the countryside.

As was pointed out by others, solar makes more sense when done by individuals or small groups.

Now think of all the rooftop space in cities! You have people living and working directly under a possible site for solar panels. The panels would also create shade that would lessen the cooling needs of the same buildings. In Europe I understand there are cities and towns where almost every roof has solar panels. That is space that is NOT habitat or used for crops! (Except some buildings’ rooftops are now being used for rooftop gardens for FOOD! Another creative and wonderful idea!)

Solar could be just one answer. There will be many answers. Some large-scale, some done individually– home by home, building by building. But huge solar "farms" probably are not going to be a final answer.

Wind towers take up a lot of space too. They make noise that, if close to a home, is considered by many to be quite objectionable. The towers are huge, the blades are huge. They often kill birds that try to fly past. If you think it’s ok to kill birds, read up on the status of many bird species (declining), and where we’ll be insect-wise if we lose too many of our birds!

Wind turbine towers need to be very carefully sited in order to catch the winds, but not sited on the birds’ flyways. And of course they are very often the same, because birds use consistent wind current flows during migration to be able to travel so far without using as much of their own energy. Consistent wind currents are what the wind towers need also. There is a new design that is shaped different, more like a thick vertical tube, that operates something like the "squirrel-cage" fan, as opposed to a "blade" fan. These could be safer for birds. I do not know enough about them (yet) to say any more.

Wind power would need the same miles and miles of inefficient transmission lines as solar power needs when done in large "wind farms." Even if an individual puts up a wind turbine, he/she will have to deal with huge batteries (I saw one installation that had a 2- or 3-car garage-sized building for the batteries) and they’ll also need transmission lines to get the power to their own home, even if it’s nearby.

I personally don’t like the wind towers on the landscape. They’re very tall, much taller than they look in pictures. I also know that we need, NEED the birds to keep insect populations down, if for no other reason!

Conservation (just plain using less) almost always is the most efficient way to save energy. That comes first. Do everything you can to simplify your lifestyle. Insulate and tighten your home; turn the heat down a bit in the winter, and the cooling up a bit in the summer. Drive less, share rides, drive slower, choose a fuel-efficient vehicle, and keep it well-maintained. Don’t do it alone, do it all with friends: compare notes, check how you’re doing. Make it a group or neighborhood thing. Don’t think of it as a YOYO (You’re On Your Own) project; it’s for all of us to do, and it’s easier when done together.