Solar Supplies Power Energy Generation
Guide
Solar Supplies For Your Solar Home
By J K Hellios
In 2007, the Solar America Initiative awarded 13 cities
for their use of solar energy sources. The cities that
used the most solar supplies include Oakland, California;
Sacramento, California; San Jose, California; San Francisco,
California; Portland, Oregon; Boston, Massachusetts;
San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, California;
Minneapolis, Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; and Chicago,
Illinois.
The Department of Energy dubbed a number of other cities
as "Solar America Cities," awarding them with
funding to develop their solar supply harnessing potential.
The list of cities included everywhere from New York,
New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the northeast,
to Orlando, Florida and Knoxville, Tennessee in the
southeast, to Tucson, Arizona and San Diego, California
in the southwest, to Seattle, Washington and Denver,
Colorado in the northwest. The question is, how can
the average person, who wants to make a difference,
initiate change if he or she lives in a sun-friendly
city?
Costs Of Solar Power
Solar supplies run the gamut from $60 light-up "sun
bricks" to $20,000 home retrofits borrowing from
solar energy sources. The $160 Smarthome solar power
security camera runs solely off sunlight and is motion-sensitive
to conserve energy. The Sol8 outdoor laptop/cell phone/camera
charging station costs $140 and offers 13 watts of power.
A 20 watt solar panel can power a Wii video game console
for up to six hours. The brand new Venturi is the world’s
first "energy-autonomous" vehicle that will
take passengers up to 14 miles per day, run off solar
energy sources and a back-up plug-in charger as well.
Similarly, the Solar-Trike can take passengers up to
25 mph and will run for 6 to 8 hours on one 80 watt
panel solar charge.
Hybrid Solar Lighting For Your Home
The Sharp Lumi-Wall offers a new way of lighting your
indoors by using glass panels that store energy all
day long and glow at night. New Hybrid Solar Lighting
converts energy to fiber optics, rather than electricity,
and delivers 50% of collected sunlight into indoor lighting
(compared to 15% with photovoltaic). The solar designs
range from flat panels to briefcases.
As you may have heard, solar supplies for retrofitting
the home are still pretty expensive for the most part,
although the prices are projected to drop in the coming
years and have done so already. To calculate the cost
for 100% solar supply, you’ll need your most recent
electric bill.
Calculating Savings Of Using Solar Against Your Power
Bills
Take the number of kilowatt hours shown on your bill
and divide by 30 to calculate your daily average usage.
(For instance, if you use 700 KWH, you’ll be using about
23.3 KWH per day.) Next, divide that number by the hours
of full sun you get each day on a yearly average. (So
if you get 5 hours of sun per day, you’ll have 4.66
kilowatts or 4,666 watts).
Lastly, multiply that by 1.15 for how many watts of
solar panel you’ll need (5,360 watts). To do the job
yourself, it’ll cost around $7 per watt. If you hire
a solar contractor, it’ll cost you about $9 per watt
including the cost of panels, inverters, wire, mounts
and hardware. Therefore, the sample system would cost
around $37,500.
Hiring Contractors For Solar Services
Once you’ve decided on outfitting your home with solar
supplies, you’ll likely need solar services. Be sure
to check the state licensing board at www.cslb.ca.gov
before hiring a solar contractor. Your workers should
come with general liability insurance and worker’s compensation,
so you won’t have to pay if someone gets injured on
your property.
Don’t be afraid to ask for three references and review
past work for quality. You should also get three different
bids to get the best price. Remember that any job over
$500 requires a contract. If you’re paying thousands,
it’s worth the extra $200 to get an attorney to go over
the contract for you.
Never pay cash for the job and never pay more than
10% before the job is finished. Keep all permits, plans
and receipts in an envelope for future reference as
well.
About the Author:
J K Hellios has written a number of articles on solar
power and renewable energy including Solar
Powered Homes, Solar
Powered Lights, Solar Powered
Cars.
Keep a lookout for more articles available on this website
soon.
Little Known Wind Power Facts.....
This should come as no shock to you but the Earth is
running out of fuel resources. Fossil fuels are being
depleted daily and it takes millions of years for them
to be replaced. The cost of gas for heating homes is
continuously rising as shortages occur.
The Earth is at a tipping point. It is time to start
considering renewable, alternative energy sources or
everyone is going to be in trouble. Wind energy is one
of the solutions to renewable energy. Countless wind
farms are springing up all around the world.
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