Day Brown wrote in a message to Kyle Hearn:
DB> Probly not. 70% of solar power being the hours just before
DB> and  after solar noon... you'd loose at least half.
My current electric bill in Texas over the summer was $20 monthly. The $80 
deposit was good for four months. Most bills around here are $100+. I suppose 
I should be happy with what I have :-)
DB> Earth bermed house on a SSE facing slope with diciduous
DB> trees;  shade in the summer, sun in winter, no AC needed. 
DB> Full sun in  the 3-4 hours before and after solar noon;
DB> earlier or later in  the day, the lower angle has too much
DB> atmosphere for much over  10% of rated panel power, even if
DB> on a tracker.
I have been looking at an alternative process called a "monolithic dome" that 
is made here in Texas. They basically build a form, blow it up, pour several 
concrete over it and spray polyurathane foam in it to seal up the cracks. 
They typically are painted white rather than the black one normally sees on 
roofs. They are very energy efficient to say the least.
I'm wanting to partially bury one of those and eventually have a large solar 
array outside and go off grid entirely. I'd love to get started and become 
more knowledgable before I move out in the boonies next year. Assuming I 
wanted to completely overkill energy needs and have plenty of power stored up 
to last several days, how much of an investment am I looking at?
DB> Convert a chest type small freezer to a fridge- dick around
DB> on  the thermocouple if you havta. 4X8 foot of solar will
DB> run it.  I have run a peltier on 12v @ 5-6 amps, water
DB> cooled it with a  line from my spring, and got frost on the
DB> 5"x5" condensor.  It  would keep the milk cold in a large
DB> picknic cooler, that I had  added more foam insulation
DB> around... 3-4 cu ft.
Ok.
DB>  
DB> Another 4X8 foot array to power the rest of the house,
DB> stereo,  9" 60 watt color tv/vcr, one of my 12 volt desktop
DB> computers,
I assume 3 or 4 or these things would be more than sufficient to run a 
regular size house then 2000-3000 ft^2?
DB> RV florescents (when the tiny tube burns out, you can rig up
DB> a  large long lasting tube of the same wattage that works
DB> years)  a few halogens [bright but power hungry] and normal
DB> car bulbs  in the rest of the house- yard light, shop, bath,
DB> etc. 
DB>  
DB> I have used inverters to run infrequently used stuff, like a
DB>  blender, cake mixer, vacuum, etc. I have also seen
DB> inverters  *fry* Canon BJ printers.  some stuff nowadays has
DB> PFC types  of power supplies, and no telling how it will
DB> react to the 
DB> jags in inverter output.  IF you see "PFC" skip it. 
I currently have electronics and such run through a 2kw UPS, super heavy duty 
surge/spike supressors as well as line conditioners. I had a $5k mac fried a 
few years ago a few weeks out of warranty and learned my lesson the hard way.
Thanks for your help. I'm probably going to go ahead and ask the landlord if 
I can put up a few small panels and see what else I can learn.
kh
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