06b. Sun Power: Low cost home power systems

Cooking appliances, power tools, cleaning devices, artistic equipment, water pumps, heaters, computers, drones, cars… electricity power is used in everything. We live in an age where the bloody hammers have USB connectors (maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much). One of biggest hallmarks of off the grid living lies in generating your electric power from home. Having your own power means no longer being at the mercy of energy extorting power companies. Unlike your neighbours, who can either pay a skyrocketing bill or be cut off, you have options. In fact, if you are still connected to the local grid unused power is automatically ‘sold’ back to the system. Rather than being a consumer, you become a provider and receive rebate checks every month. And as an added bonus, you don’t have to participate in black outs. So when a storm or earth quake knocks out the local grid, squirrels eat power lines miles away, or some one from the power company makes a mistake, you are not caught out in the cold. You got your own electricity, and better yet, you are in control of it.

Power companies promote the idea that generators cost millions of dollars and require specialized engineers to build and maintain. The underlying supposition is that the common home owner doesn’t have the resources nor the knowledge to consider an on site generator, so it is easier to hook up to the grid, pay the bills and let the professionals worry about the details. It is true that electrical generators to power a city may run into several millions and even setting up the infrastructure and relays to get the power evenly distributed to all houses would require several more millions. It is complex and requires specialized skill… when we are talking about a power grid for a city. But when it comes to powering a single home the story is quite different. No relays, no transmission stations, no miles of suspended cables. No specialized computer monitoring stations and no specialized equipment to figure out how much everyone is using so they can all be billed correctly.

Most generators are little more than a few magnets spinning on a flywheel with something to make it go. Power companies don’t want you to know generating electrical power from home can be done safely and easily even for a novice. If you can follow video instructions, if you can be careful about safety, and spend a few hours building, you can literally create systems which can save you hundreds of dollars every month and have peace of mind. Not to mention it becomes a valuable asset if you ever decide to move.

Given all the perks, I don’t know why everyone isn’t going green and producing their own energy from home. Oh yes… they don’t know how.

Below we are going to cover several different methods to generate electricity from home, with pros and cons for each system and links to where you can get detailed building instructions.

Solar Power - Pros and Cons

When people think of green energy, solar power is one of the first that come to mind. Solar power has been around since the 80s and are a proven method of power generation. Governments are often willing to give subsidies for installations and nothing shows your personal commitment to clean energy like a roof of solar panels.

Once installed, solar panels are virtually maintenance free. They have no moving parts and rain typically takes care of dust and blocking debris so you don’t even have to clean them. Solar cells degrade over time, losing .5% power per year. Most manufacturers guarantee over 80% effectiveness after 25 years. Theoretically solar panels built today could be producing power for the next hundred or more years if you don’t mind the gradual power loss.

The big downside of solar technology is the initial installation expense, which can be over $10,000. People selling solar talk about this as an investment. The money you save will eventually catch up to the price of installation, at which point you are making money instead of spending it. This time frame is typically 6 to 10 years. They don’t mention that a fire, a windstorm, or a mishap while cleaning gutters or negligence of neighbours using spray paint in the wind could cause unforeseen damage which can wipe out your savings. 10 years is a long time to go without mishap.

The other major problem with solar power is consistency. No sun, no power… so they don’t work at night and they aren’t going to produce as much power on a cloudy day. Snow can also be a problem as it can block receptors for months until it melts. There is no real way of knowing how much power they are going to produce until you set them up and run them for a few years. You may see a wide range of different outputs even in the same region. Even if you have graphs of weather patterns over the past few years, we are currently experiencing global climate changes. Weather is becoming weird and less predictable everywhere.

Most data suggests that a typical American home (2,000 square feet home) consumes approximately 11,000 kilowatt-hours annually. So, when we divide our total consumption by the expected output of one solar panel, we see that roughly 13 to 15 solar panels of this size would be enough to power a home of that size.

Solar Power - On reducing initial cost

Reducing the initial cost would make solar power more viable for wide scale adoption. Fortunately, this isn’t a new idea and there are some great guides on just how to do that. Sure a home made panel isn’t likely to be as energy efficient per square meter as a professionally designed one from a dedicated factory. On the other hand when you know how to build them yourself you can just make a second panel. And if you are only paying material costs, well that mean you could easily make a dozen home panels for the price you would pay for one factory panel.

The second factor, is that if you know how to make them you can easily replace them as they degrade over 25 years, but you can also add more if you find they are not enough to meet your current power needs. The third bonus is that when your neighbours ask you where you got all these panels from you can say you built them yourself. And if they are impressed you could offer to build them for them. Set your price about 30% less than a factory model and sell them, your neighbour is getting a great value and saving money by going solar, you are helping out the planet, and you have an additional side income.

All you need to get started is a little know how information. Check out this course on building your own solar panels here.

Solar Power - On Increasing Power

One of the issues is the inconsistent power production of solar panels. Some have been exploring new ways to configure solar panels to allow a significantly larger output in the same area. If you combine the ideas from the 3d solar panel guide with the ability to build them yourself, you may find you have access to more free energy than you know what to do with.