[aprssig] Fwd: Solar Power Works!

Peter Laws N5UWY n5uwy at arrl.net
Mon Sep 5 13:45:37 EDT 2016


On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 2:21 PM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
>
> Glad to hear you are on board!  And for anyone else who knows eventually
> they will go solar, then every monthly utility bill you pay from now until
> then is just throwing your own money away with nothing to show for it.

Well ... no ... I have electricity to show for it, which cooled,
heated, and lit my house (and heated my water) and provided me with
lots of entertainment including amateur radio.  I've done what
HomePower (I've subscribed for 15+ years) has always said: lower your
load first.  The GSHP wasn't cheap ($15k nearly 10 years ago) but it
helped bring my power bill down a bunch. My currently usage 535 kWh/mo
(total last 12 mo usage/12).  My gross kWh cost is about $0.15/kWh.
The only thing not electric is the Weber, which is about 3 tanks/year.

My problem with solar, both PV and DHW, is that I need a bunch of roof
repair and that won't be cheap.  And that has to be done before panels
go up.  In the mean time, I do what I can to reduce consumption.  Of
course, having the roof redone will likely lower my heating load in
the winter.  :-)


-- 
Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!



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