Posted by bob haller on July 25, 2015, 2:54 am
On Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 9:20:43 AM UTC-4, Vaughn wrote:
> On 7/22/2015 8:52 PM, Ron Rosenfeld wrote:
> > I suspect a fossil-fueled generator will be more cost-effective than a solar powered battery bank.
>
> In most cases I agree, which is why I have a natural gas powered
> generator. That said, if you do the math you will see that over a long
> outage a fossil-powered generator can drink an amazing amount of fuel.
> Operated 24/7, my little Onan could easily give me a $000 gas bill!
>
> Properly designed and thought out, a solar system can provide power
> year-around, not just during an outage. Mine isn't grid-tied, but it
> lights my yard lights year-round and supplies some of my home's internal
> lighting.
in a serious long outage your gas bill wouldnt matter to you
Posted by Vaughn on July 25, 2015, 11:21 am
On 7/24/2015 10:54 PM, bob haller wrote:
> in a serious long outage your gas bill wouldnt matter to you
Perhaps it wouldn't matter to you...
Vaughn
Posted by Ron Rosenfeld on September 4, 2015, 11:43 am
>On 7/22/2015 8:52 PM, Ron Rosenfeld wrote:
>> I suspect a fossil-fueled generator will be more cost-effective than a solar powered battery bank.
>
>In most cases I agree, which is why I have a natural gas powered
>generator. That said, if you do the math you will see that over a long
>outage a fossil-powered generator can drink an amazing amount of fuel.
>Operated 24/7, my little Onan could easily give me a $000 gas bill!
>
>Properly designed and thought out, a solar system can provide power
>year-around, not just during an outage. Mine isn't grid-tied, but it
>lights my yard lights year-round and supplies some of my home's internal
>lighting.
There is no question that running a fossil fuel generator 24/7 will be more expensive, in most cases, than an RE system.
But the OP wrote he wanted to "ease into" solar.
If one of the objectives is also backup power during an outage, then a whole different, and more complex series of considerations becomes adviseable.
One of our homes is off-grid, and our fossil fuel generator initially ran about 400 hr/yr. Adding 2kW of PV cut that down to 200 hrs/yr. So that is a savings of about $00/yr in propane.
At the time (around 2004), adding the 2kW of PV was about $3,000 (prices have come down quite a bit since then, but I already had batteries and inverters, so those costs were $), so there's not a good payoff. But it was worth it to me to not have to listen to the generator as often.
Posted by Jim Wilkins on September 4, 2015, 3:20 pm
> wrote:
>
>>On 7/22/2015 8:52 PM, Ron Rosenfeld wrote:
>>> I suspect a fossil-fueled generator will be more cost-effective
>>> than a solar powered battery bank.
>>
>>In most cases I agree, which is why I have a natural gas powered
>>generator. That said, if you do the math you will see that over a
>>long
>>outage a fossil-powered generator can drink an amazing amount of
>>fuel.
>>Operated 24/7, my little Onan could easily give me a $000 gas bill!
>>
>>Properly designed and thought out, a solar system can provide power
>>year-around, not just during an outage. Mine isn't grid-tied, but
>>it
>>lights my yard lights year-round and supplies some of my home's
>>internal
>>lighting.
>
> There is no question that running a fossil fuel generator 24/7 will
> be more expensive, in most cases, than an RE system.
>
> But the OP wrote he wanted to "ease into" solar.
>
> If one of the objectives is also backup power during an outage, then
> a whole different, and more complex series of considerations becomes
> adviseable.
>
> One of our homes is off-grid, and our fossil fuel generator
> initially ran about 400 hr/yr. Adding 2kW of PV cut that down to
> 200 hrs/yr. So that is a savings of about $00/yr in propane.
> At the time (around 2004), adding the 2kW of PV was about $3,000
> (prices have come down quite a bit since then, but I already had
> batteries and inverters, so those costs were $), so there's not a
> good payoff. But it was worth it to me to not have to listen to the
> generator as often.
======
Have you figured the lifespan cost of batteries?
-jsw
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> > I suspect a fossil-fueled generator will be more cost-effective than a solar powered battery bank.
>
> In most cases I agree, which is why I have a natural gas powered
> generator. That said, if you do the math you will see that over a long
> outage a fossil-powered generator can drink an amazing amount of fuel.
> Operated 24/7, my little Onan could easily give me a $000 gas bill!
>
> Properly designed and thought out, a solar system can provide power
> year-around, not just during an outage. Mine isn't grid-tied, but it
> lights my yard lights year-round and supplies some of my home's internal
> lighting.