Solar project part 2

[NoHope587]

Tomorrow work begins on adding a 584sqf room to the back of the house. The idea is to extend the roof line down to the first floor. I get more space to put additional solar panels and the wife gets a sun room. We will be adding solar tubes to counteract the loss of light. Once the project is complete I should be producing about 1000kwh more electricity than I use per month.

[Pocketcoins]

Good looking dog  What would a project like that cost you and just how much will the power pay you for 1000kWh of electricity?

[NoHope587]

Phase 1 cost just under $20,000 and reduced the electricity bill to around $40 a month (not bad for a 2,700sf house in Texas) Phase two is going to cost about $22,000 for the house extension and another $27,000 for the panels.

Currently I get 11.5 cent per kwh produced up to 500kwh then 6.5 cents per kwh after that. Once phase 2 is complete I hope to be producing enough to put me in the commercial bracket then I'll get around 10cents per kwh for all excess power produced. So I will be looking for an income of around $100 per month. More as the cost of electricity rises. I also get a federal tax brake of 30% of the initial cost of the panels when I file my 2013 tax return.

The math does not make much sense until you take into account the low interest rates on savings. I figured the money would be better invested this way than sitting in a savings account earning around 1% per year.
Phase one was paid for in large part by metal detecting finds. The house extension will also be  funded partially by just under $5,000 in the metal detecting account. Going detecting every day I'm home adds up even provides exercise.

[NoHope587]

Work begins under watchful eye of the family mutt

[Goose]

What is that green stuff all over your back yard? (After 5" last night, we now have 19" of some white stuff just laying around.)

[NoHope587]

What is that green stuff all over your back yard? (After 5" last night, we now have 19" of some white stuff just laying around.)

Don't know but it only shows up a couple of weeks a year before the brown stuff takes over...

[Pocketcoins]

The Dog can't understand why you didn't put a bone in the hoe and fill it back up. After all they are such nice hoes.    I understand about the interst, it's a joke anymore. I've been putting some of my money into my house also. Kind of tour between needing to save and not getting any interest. Banks give you less than 1% then want 10% to 30% when someone wants to barrow. 

[longnine009]

Do  you store electric on batteries for night use?

[NoHope587]

Nope I pull from the grid at night and feed it during the day.

Cost of batteries are prohibitive at the moment Later i might consider a  system

[Paint Your Wagon]

In rainy belgium the payback period was 7 years when they still sponsored solar panels
The sponsoring is withdrawn and the payback is now 10 years
And then came the cable providers and they want money everytime you use the net to get
rid of surplus electricity
And then the government made all non solar panel houses pay for the subsidy by augmenting
the price of electricity by a solidarity tax for non panel users
So everybody loses
So solar is dead countrywide and we now go to public windmillturbines cause it is nearly impossible for
a private person to get a building license for a 50 meter high turbine
They got and are building parks in the north sea

[longnine009]

Ever since the 1980s I thought a revolution in
solar power  was just a year  or  two away.  Maybe
now it really will be  with  graphene. I hear
they can get double the conversion rates with
it.

For our snowbirds,  there's always firewood.
and rum.  

[NoHope587]

As long as people are looking for a quick profit then there will never be a solar revolution you need to step back and look long term to see the benefits but people these days just don't have that kind of mentality.

PVL is fairly cheap and easily installed by just about anyone but is not efficient.
graphene is approaching 10% but still a long ways off being as efficient as Gallium. or even Silicon.

[longnine009]

I think your right Richard. There is no  long term in America.
And we waste tax breaks on crap like ethnol: 1 output for
29 inputs.  I can do better than that eating beans and farting
in a jar.  

We should have started in earnest  after the embarg in 1973.

[NoHope587]

I feel a little better in that they have the corner posts in.
I would really have preferred to see the slab go down first and all four pillars in place before starting on the roof but it seems things are moving along just not in the order I expected.

[Pocketcoins]

Maybe they are wanting to get the roof on in case it sets in raining. Looking good. 

[Triggersmob]

I like the idea of building roads out of solar panels. You could create vast area of electricity production this way.
Even the lights from vehicles at night would produce power.
http://solarroadways.com/intro.shtml

[NoHope587]

Finally the roof is coming together work is Monday the dig out the slab and footings.

[NoHope587]

Slab down and brick facing on the columns goes in Saturday.

[Goose]

Oh-Oh, do I see a hand print in the slab?

[NoHope587]

If there is its my wife's thats the kind of thing she would do

[Pocketcoins]

Tell them it's in the wrong place could they please move it to the left about 2 inch's.    Looks like they have down good work. 

[NoHope587]

Well the construction phase on the house is complete.
Now will be taking a break for a few months while we save for the additional panels. The only advantage of being away from home right now is I can't spend anything. At least the family Mutt is enjoying the new addition.

included a before pic for reference.

[Triggersmob]

Looks good, but what happens about the windows to the upstairs rooms.

[NoHope587]

Windows were not from an upstairs room the central living room goes all the way up to the roof. I will be installing solar tubes at a later date to add more light to the living room. The blinds on those windows have been closed since the house was built (too high up to reach)

[Goose]

Lengthen the blinds' cords.

[Pocketcoins]

Dog is thinking,"finely my own place  , it about time.