Solar energy - makes sense in my situation?

 Just a quick question: I live in the tropics (just under 12 degrees north of
the equator), my electricity costs me US$0.30/kWh, and my usage averages
1100 kWh/month. Does replacing my mains supply with a solar system make
sense, and if so, where can I get recommendations for systems that I should
be looking at?


Thanks and regards,
Brian Steele

 

That seems like a lot. How is it used? Do you have a solar water heater?
Do you have air-conditioning? Is it carefully zoned so unoccupied rooms
can be warmer?


It would likely make more economic sense to reduce electrical consumption
first with compact fluorescent vs incandescent lamps, more efficient
appliances, and so on.

Nick

 

Well, lessee - I've got an electric water heater, two PCs (on for 16
hrs/day), two laptops (on for 16 hrs/day) and one bedroom with AC. I've also
got a water pump - the water supply from the mains is somewhat "transient".



Most of our lights are flourescent at the moment.  Not sure about the
efficiency of the appliances though.


Regards,
Brian Steele

 

That should be solar, before investing in PVs. You might put a Sola Hart
hot dog on the roof with a thermosyphoning panel below it or get PVs that
also collect heat.

Nick

 
An heat pump water heating saves much.

When the heat pump takes the heat out of the room,
1 kWh electric power for 4 to 5 kWh warm water.



The PCs are hot and increase power consumption of the air condition.

16 + 9 hours * 270 Watt
(150 for PC and monitor,
120 for air condition dealing with the waste heat) * 30 days = 202,5 kWh
per month alone.

The notebooks are fine as long as they are real notebooks
with mobile P3 or Pentium-M (Centrino)

There are also pseudo "Notebooks" with hot P4 CPUs.



--
Roland Mösl
http://car.pege.org  cars and traffic
http://live.pege.org  building and live
http://www.pege.org