Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
And yet - there are homes in the north that use solar for their entire electrical system in their homes all year 'round. Granted, some of them also have fireplaces or wood stoves to supplement on the worst of days (or just for ambiance) but not all of them do. There are homes in Oregon that are 100% powered by solar, completely and totally off the grid.
There's an entire municipality in Connecticut (North Haven) that powers most of its municipal buildings with a single solar farm placed atop an old landfill. They have generators for emergencies such as nor'easters but otherwise the solar works just fine. It's kept the costs of running the town down and saved taxpayers millions of dollars over the time the system has been running.
I'd suggest that the reason it's so inefficient here, is because the people who install them are doing a bad job and/or the roof construction is not sufficient for installation of solar panels - and not because solar is a bad option. This state gets plenty of sun all year. The only time it'd be inefficient is on days when it's cloudy during the entirety of the daylight hours with few or no breaks in the clouds.
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This is not about solar panels that generate electricity. This is about a solar heater for a pool - where they put a panel on the roof that runs water through the panels (usually small black tubes), the sun warms up the tubes, which in turn warms up the water that is then returned to the pool. These systems do not work when you need them to. They can't raise the temp fast enough, and can't keep up when it gets cooler.
Solar panels are a completely different system. They do work, and can power a home (and potentially an electric heater for a pool). However, with the exorbitant cost to install, a home owner will never break even. Basic math in a spreadsheet will show that. I've heard folks say it's fantastic, I pay nothing each month... but they leave out the $25K it cost to install... how long before that's paid back? Not in what's left of my lifetime.
I would love to see solar work, especially here in Florida. The current technology and cost is simply not there yet.