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The Nitty-Gritty on Solar Energyby Serge Charlebois
July 3 2008
| | | | Free energy is pummelling the earth everyday in the form of solar rays. Plants have been using this energy for millennia to create food for themselves via photosynthesis and have been supplying the food chain in the process. We humans are starting to really catch onto and get excited about this immense, limitless source of energy and how we can convert it directly into electricity. Supplementing your energy consumption with green energy is one of the best things you can do to have a direct impact on your carbon footprint. Many of us are now looking at new ways to draw on green energy instead of conventional, dirty energy from coal-powered plants and unnerving nuclear plants. Before making any decisions about purchasing green energy, it’s a good idea to assess your family’s current energy use and take actions to shrink that number as small as it can go. The Nova Scotia power website has a very thorough energy consumption calculator. Visit http://www.nspower.ca/energy_efficiency/energy_calculator/ . Like I said, it`s very thorough (read long) but it gives you the chance to look at all the things that run on electricity in your house and think about where you can shave off any excess. For more energy saving tips see: . If you want the quick and dirty version of determining your energy consumption, check your utility bill to see how many Kilowatt Hours (Kwh) you consume (on average) per day. Once your energy use is lowered and stabilized you can start thinking about your options for green energy. Now that you’ve put in place some house-hold rules about light usage and have switched all the lights in the house to compact fluorescents and have plugged your entertainment center into a power-bar and started unplugging small appliances (coffee-maker, blender, anything with a little light on it or a remote control) between uses, you’ll be saving a pretty penny on your power bill. The first and simplest step to embracing green power is to support a green utility company like Bullfrog Power. Take the money you’re saving on your new consumption plan and pay the little extra to know that your home’s energy is generated cleanly by wind and water generators. You can sign up online in about 5 minutes (www.bullfrogpower.ca) and the switch from your old supplier is taken care of by Bullfrog which means it’s quick and painless for you. What’s the price difference? Energy utilities charge you 5 cents/kwh, Bullfrog costs 8.9 cents/kwh. That’s about $20-$30 more per month depending on your energy use. It’s an easy pill to swallow if you think of that money going to support green energy initiatives and help them expand their clean-energy production and rid us of our coal and oil dependence for good! Also, Bullfrog Power has pledged to donate 10% of their profits to organizations that support sustainability. Now that your home’s energy is green, you want to become a little more independent and are looking at solar panels for home or cottage use. You should know right away; it’s gonna cost you money. Yes, the technology is expensive, the installation is complicated and the government incentives are laughable but if you can afford to do, then do it. Can you honestly think of anything more worth-while to spend your hard-earned cash on? You can? Okay fine but this is a good one too. Let’s get down to brass tacks, how does it work and what does it cost? Every solar harvesting system requires the same things to run properly and legally. You need solar panels (Photovoltaic cells) that covert the sun’s energy into AC electricity. You need an converter to turn the AC electricity into usable DC electricity. Depending on the system you choose you may need batteries for storage. You’ll need all sorts of wiring, cut-off switches and lighting protectors and you’ll also need a certified installer. It’s a complicated process so unless you’re an experience electrician, this isn’t a DIY week-end project. There are different systems to choose from: the two main categories are autonomous and grid-connected. Autonomous systems are equipped with battery storage and will work independently from the electricity grid. These systems cost more because of the extra equipment and installation requirements. Grid-connected systems are, as the name suggests, connected to your electrical grid. Your home will run off solar energy when possible and be supplemented by the grid when sunlight is too low or when your consumption too high. This is the system that will sell energy back to your energy provider when you’re producing more than you’re using. The main flaw with a grid-tie system without battery back-up is if there’s a black-out, you will be in the dark even if the sun is shining. Pricing for these systems will vary from company to company but to give you an idea, these prices were provided by Sun Volt Unlimited in Bracebridge, Ontario (http://www.sunvoltssolar.com/locations.html) and include installation costs and taxes. A lower output, 680 watt solar system including installation and taxes will run you $9000. This system produces around 3 Kwh of energy per day. In a house like mine with 5 occupants and an average energy use of 22-25 Kwh/day, this system would take a 14% bite out of our overall grid use. A larger grid-tie system that can potentially run your whole house would have more solar panels (at 5610 watts) and produce 23 Kwh/day. A system like that including installation and taxes is $47,000. Something in the middle (3000 watts producing 13 Kwh/day) is $27,000. If you’re looking for a system with storage capability, you’ll pay more because of installation and the extra storage equipment. So, is it worth it? What’s the pay-off time? It definitely is worth it when you think of all the dirty energy you won’t use. And if money is no object to you, then there’s really nothing to think about. Unfortunately, money is an object for many of us, so here it is: The pay-off time (the time in which these systems will pay for their initial costs via the money you aren’t paying the electrical company) ranges from 25 to 50 years depending on the system (the bigger system, the quicker the pay-off). It’s hard for many of us to deal with that sort of forethought but then again, if you’re considering solar panels for your home, you’ve already taken on a similar (and much bigger) investment called a mortgage. If clean energy and independence from the power company is priceless to you, I encourage you to install the biggest, baddest solar farm possible on your roof! If you’re really pumped about solar power but can’t see yourself dishing out that sort of cash, there are other options for you. Consider a domestic solar water heating system. They are the cleanest most cost-efficient way to heat your home’s water. Since water-heating is one of your home’s biggest energy guzzler, it’s a great place to start. Solar water-heaters can’t heat your water all the way so you will need to keep your traditional water-heater. What they do is reduce your water-heater’s work load by 75% and hand it off to your electric or gas water-heater to finish off the job. Nevertheless, that’s a 75% reduction in the energy and cost required to heat your water! These systems are installed on your roof and work by Photovoltaic cells just like a solar energy system. There exists another type of solar water heater called “evacuated tube” system. For more information on those visit http://www.sunvoltssolar.com/products/solar_domestic_water_heating.html and scroll down to the second section. The cost of a solar water heating system is $3700 for a small system (for 1 to 3 people) and $4600 for a large system (4 to 7 people). Installation not included in those prices but an experienced DIYer could install one of these systems themselves (plumbing skills required). So that’s the nitty-gritty on solar energy for your home. An encouraging fact is that the price of these technologies are on a steady decline with each passing year and as more and more people become qualified to install them, so will the installation costs. As we all know far too well, the price of petrol, natural gas and electricity keeps going up and up and the earth’s atmosphere keeps accumulating more and more greenhouse gases. With all these factors in play it’s easy to see that alternative energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal are the way of the future. For a listing of solar retailer across Canada visit www.solarbuzz.com/companylistings/canada.htm Thank you to Glenn at Sun Volts in Bracebridge ON for information and pricing. | | |
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