Solar power panels and alternative energy

[tperk9784]

I was reading in another post here on RC about someone looking for cheaper electricity. I thought to myself Hmm I wonder how much solar power panels are and how much juice they generate.

WOW was I surprised at how expensive they are. Too bad a couple power panels and a battery to store that electricity would be a cool way to supplement your tanks electrical needs. especially here in Florida.

 

[lifesworksataol]

i agree

 

[illal]

how expensive are they?

 

[Kewlworm]

I've read they are between 20k to 40k and up depends on your needs. It will start paying off like 20 yrs later...don't remember exactly.

 

[ReefWreak]

The nice thing is that I believe I read somewhere that the government will give you cuts/breaks if you have it, saving you money, and that they also require that any power you generate and do not use, and can feed back into the power grid the electric company must pay you market rate for those kw/h generated, so it's another additional source.

The only problem I have with those 20 years to pay off figures is how long are the solar panels going to last, how about maintenance costs.

 

[venom00viper]

can you just attach a few panels to the inside of your canopy and absorb the light from the tank. would that work? would be cool to be able to supplement some of the electricity.

 

[venom00viper]

something like this sounds nice:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Solar-Powered-W...yZ115710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[ninjamini]

Imagine putting solar panels on your house for $20-40k then hurricane wanda comes through and breaks all the panels. Not a wise investment for down here.

 

[ReefWreak]

I was thinking about that ninja, but I realised that the argument to that is that they'd be insured under homeowners insurance, with a deductible, of course. If there is enough wind to damage them, then you'd be sucking up the deductible with other stuff anyway probably.

Venom, I doubt that there would be much efficiency from doing that. It would cost a ton of money for the solar panels, and you would loose the efficiency of your tank's reflectors, which would mean why not switch to lower output lights with better reflectors and get the same ammount of light and not waste your money on solar panels. Make sense?

 

[tperk9784]

20 years is a long time for something like that to start paying off. and the prices I saw on the web were about half of 20k after rebates. but of course we could also be comparing apples to oranges.

I remember 20 years ago mom and dad put solar hot water heater panels on the roof and it started helping out with electrical costs right away.