Quote:
Originally Posted by koland
Removing trees will increase your summer cooling costs (but that can be offset with proper insulation and reflective barrier; plus the panels block heat gain). If it has any effect in the winter, it will be to decrease heat costs, due to increased solar gain (if you have windows/glass doors properly sited).
No, they won't cover all your needs. But they can easily keep your essentials running (frig, freezer, a fan and some lights). then again, even a 5KW generator won't do a whole lot more, at least not well or long term. And most buy much smaller ones; it takes about 3KW minimum just to run a single small air conditioner, for example (the startup compressor is more than a 2kw can handle). other than the A/C, though, I can run my entire camper with a 2KW unit (have to juggle to use the microwave, as it's 1.5KW on it's own). For the house, we have a 5KW diesel unit (so it doesn't have to be taken offline ever few hours and serviced; gas units simply aren't designed to run 24/7). For the house, we can run all the frig/freezer units, lights in the basement level and a number of computers (at one time, I had an office with 13 stations; it handled that with no sweat -- I really should redo our balancing, though, as we could probably watch TV and run the upstairs lights now, since TV's use less power and I don't have as many computers running).
Try to run something 220 on that, though, and you need to watch what else you run at the same time (it's a lot easier to use a propane water heater in the camper than try to run a house-size hot water heater along with the rest of the house). don't think I'd try the oven on it, either.
Then again, I'm not trying to stay on that generator all the time (if I were, we'd have to redesign a bit and bring propane gas back, on a permanent basis; no natural gas here, but it went out in the NE, too, so not something you can count on).
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How do you heat your home? I do have natural gas and the gas company does install natural gas generators that kick in when local power goes out. It does cost $5,000 - 10,000 depending on size but again they need to be installed somehow elevated. Everyone lost their central a/c units also. So things can't be placed on the ground in areas where flooding can occur.
I never realized how destructive salt water was until Hurr Sandy. My water and gas meters had to be replaced. The salt corroded the cast iron casings.
Regarding solar: it just wasn't worth the initial expense with the 30 year payback especially as I don't plan to stay here nearly that long.