On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:45:47 -0500, Ignoramus12838
wrote:

On 2010-07-15, Stu Fields wrote:
Having welding, machining, and ceramic equipment, our power bill was getting
out of hand. ( than $200/mo) We recently installed 30- 230w solar panels
and now have watched our power meter go backwards at rates up to 6sec/rev.
In just a few days our panels generated more than 200kwh and one of those
days had cloud cover. Oh and we used the solar installation to also create
a car port. It may take a few years to recover the cost, but just watching
that meter go backwards was worth quite a bit.

Can you tell us some more, like how large are your panels, where
approximately are you, what was the cost etc. I am very interested.

PV is currently available at the lowest prices ever.
http://www.sunelec.com/ (not working when I checked it) As little as
$2 per watt. You should be able to make good use of this.
http://www.solar-estimate.org/index....lar-calculator
Customize the entries to reflect however much DIY reduction is
appropriate. The payout will still be long. If you shop well and keep
costs as low as possible, you should be able to get it down to ~10
years. Less if subsidies are available, although then you might be
limited to using approved contractors etc.

Maintenance costs are virtually zero. PV tends to be warrantied for 25
years, which tells us something about its reliability. Grid-tie
inverter life is less easy to be confident of, my own are 15 years
old.

Bottom line: anybody who wants to do it can, most would rather spend
their money on other stuff.

Wayne