Alright my family and i are buying a new home in Bradford,Ontario, we we thinking about solar panels and had a couple questions:. how much are they each?2. how many will we need to power a single family home(4 ppl)3. where can we find them in ontario?4.how much money do they really save you?5.what kind of energy do they providfe you withand other basic info or a website i can check out would be great!thanks in advance!
the first person is absolutely wrong. A 200 watt panel is $000US. By the time you buy mounting systems, wire, inverters, electric panels, interconnects, labor and permits/inspections, the cost is about $7/watt. if you use 700 kw-hr (please look at the units, you use kw-hr NOT kw) per month that 24 kw-hr per day. in your area, a pv system will supply about 4 hours at peak production of the panels, so you will need 6kw in panels, that's about 30 panel or $42,000 in equipment.
all of the people on this site only care about pv. how about solar thermal? do you realize one of the most revolutionary solar thermal companies in the world has its headquarters in dorchester, ontario?(just outside london). its a simple way to eliminate your domestic hot water. works well in ontario, thousands of installs for domestic hot water per year happen in toronto by this company.....Enerworks.
Just think about it and don't do it unless Ontario and the Utility companies give a huge rebate. Forget tax credits. Solar voltaic panels generate electricity...it will take more than 20 years to break even...assuming they last that long. Solar panels that generate hot water may be OK but will take about 0 years for a payback.
The demand for residential solar power is growing rapidly. Traditionally, this has been very expensive, ranging between $0,000 and $$40,000 for an average home. Many states have rebates and other financial incentives for solar conversions, but the cost is still out of most people’s reach. What many people don’t realize is that you can save most of the up-front costs by building solar panels for your home yourself. With the many DIY solar kits available now, building a solar panel is simple enough for the average person to do. In fact, you can download your guide right now for under $50, make a trip to the hardware store and pick up your materials for under $200 and get started today.
I have a system that was installed last year. I have 20 panels which provide me with about 75% of my electricity. I do use less electricity than the average home. I use an average of 45 kwh in the summer, my neighbor uses more than double that. I paid $26K for the system, but I got a $0K rebate from my utility and the US gives a fed. tax credit. I am saving about $2K per year, so it will take just over 6 years to break even. I also have what I think is called net metering, my utility allows my meter to run backwards when I generate more energy than I use, so pretty much the entire time the sun is out in the summer. Having energy efficient appliances, reducing standby energy and using conservative climate control really helps keep my usage down. Weather striping, insulation and clean well maintained systems all help as well.
