The FIRST thing to do in setting up any solar home is to determine its actual energy needs based upon the best allocation of resources. For example, this guy could probably have saved 10-15 THOUSAND dollars by purchasing a high efficiency refrigerator, like a SunFrost… even “Energy Star” refrigerators are horribly ineffecient.

Depending upon the amount of sun one’s home receives it should be possible to power a home which has no electric heating appliances for $10-$20 thousand total. I know many people, including myself, who get by with much, much less…. my entire off-grid system will come out under $6k with the fridge (I am currently on a propane fridge).

The guy gets most of his heating from solar thermal panels and radiant floor heat loops, and he lives in Maine. He also gets most of his electricity from solar PV. I plan on doing exactly what he did soon.

Anyone interested in adding solar thermal/PV should check out http://www.homepower.com I’ve been a subscriber for a few years now.

Oil for home heat and hot water runs me close to $6K a year, and that’s going up by the day. Show me a solar heating system that can reduce my oil usage (particularly in the winter) and give me a good ROI…

What is the point in installing them, if they are polluting the environment much more than using the grid? (Think about the huge amount of energy required to obtain defect free crystalline silicon, and the chemicals involved in the cleaning process of sand). Not more than one or two years ago, people were trying hard to get %40-50 in energy gained/energy lost in production ratio, even with best case scenarios (i.e. crystalline Si used in CPU manufacture etc.)

I think in order to go really green, biogas generators (for farms with lots of animals) or solar heat transfer mechanisms (like solar water heaters on rooftops that are highly popular around here, or water circulation based generators feeding from panel heaters if you have a huge field) should be considered. Especially the panels are quite easy to manufacture yourself, some black paint two layers of glass, an aluminum box for the whole setup, some PVC piping and you are ready to go, just calculate the optimal incline/heading depending on your location and add a hot water container. It is too early for the domestic use of Si Solar Panels. But with the increased funding to nanotechnology something will come up soon, I am quite optimistic about graphene defect based trap devices.

P.S. You do not need to clean dust off the standard two glass heat capture solar panels used in water heating, the difference is not worth the effort.

you also have to consider, if you did get a setup that big, a lot of states/cities/counties have rebates for putting power into the grid. whatever you don’t use would go back into the grid, and in california at least, you’ll get a check in the mail for it. it’s a lot like being a tiny powerplant, and i’m pretty sure you’re paid for what you put into the grid at the same rate others pay to take it out.

so you could go either way, you could get the same size setup as this guy did, and not only cover your energy costs, but get rebates for covering others energy costs; or you could get a smaller setup that covers your power usage the same percent amount as the guy in the article, for a grand total that is less than he spent

does that make sense? i feel like i didn’t communicate it clearly