Saving Energy

[Paul B]

Well it has been over a year since I installed solar panels on my roof and a 95% efficient condensing gas boiler.
I am happy to say that so far I have saved $3,320 this year in energy.
The solar panels have dropped in price by about half since then but with the rebates I received I still got them cheaper than I would today.
The super efficient boiler cost me less than $1,000 a year in gas and that is for heating 3 zones, hot water for two families and cooking.
My old oil burner used to cost me about $3,500.00 a year and that was just for heat.
This boiler paid for itself in one winter because I received $1,300.00 back in rebates and more in taxes.
(I always do all the work myself)
According to the solar readout I also prevented more than 9,000 tons of co2 from entering the atmosphere.
Today it is very sunny and I am generating almost 3,000 watts. My tank only uses about 650 watts.
The money I saved in utilities will buy enough boat gas to take some nice long trips.

 

[sandswhitson]

That is very cool. I remember seeing pics of your setup and a link or something to where you got the panels from. Do you think you could post that again. I would really be interested in something like this.

 

[Paul B]

http://www.npcpsolar.com/residentialprogram.html

 

[lvsuckerfish]

not sure if that will work here in washington I think I seen the sun 20 times in 4 months lol

 

[IWishIWasAFish]

Your solar panels could still make power on a cloudy day, just not as much. Sounds like it might work out well if you installed a number of extra panels and hooked into the grid so that you sold energy to PSE on sunny days, and bought it from them on really dark days...

http://www.solarhome.org/solarpanelsfaqs.html#faq8

When we own a house, I think we'll go for it

not sure if that will work here in washington I think I seen the sun 20 times in 4 months lol

 

[Paul B]

I do sell it back to them on sunny days but they don't pay you what they charge you for it. It works on cloudy and even rainy days only much less.
Yesterday it was raining here and it was still generating 350 watts which is about a fifth of what it normally puts out, but still enough to almost cover my tank