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You will save money in the long-term, but the financial benefits of installing a solar panel are not immediate. Cost savings depend on several factors:
? How much sun there is where you live. This is measured in peak hours, i.e. the number of hours during the day that your solar panel is working to full capacity.
? How much electricity you currently use
? The capacity and cost of the panels you purchase. For example, a new solar panel producing 120 watts costs around $700. Used panels are cheaper, but usually only about 90 per cent as efficient as new ones.
? The price of other forms of energy. If other forms of fuel are at a premium, then solar panels represent greater savings. For example, during 2000-2001, average Americans spent 4.6 per cent of their income on energy. However, such prices fluctuate depending on many factors, and it's impossible to predict what will happen to fuel prices over the next few years.
As a general rule, it will take at least five years before your solar panel pays for itself.
I currently have a 450 amp hour battery bank and it has dropped my energy down about $40 per month. I will be purchasing 12 solar panels from the link below. They cost about $325 each and they produce 260 watts 30 VDC @ 16% efficiency (when buying solar panels look at the efficiency percentage: a good panel will produce over 13% efficiently).
If you want to see what it takes for a solar panel system please follow this link to an answer I submitted about my system I am building:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
A 3200 watt top of the line solar panel system comes out to $13k. I'm building mine in pieces. After the solar panels I plan to upgrade to the 6.4kwatt system by adding another inverter/charger. I still plan to stay connected to the grid but for charging the batteries only. I will not feed back into grid.
I also included the manufacture of the inverter I purchased:
Apollo solar inverter 3200 watt 24 VDC Output 120/240 30 amps; Inverter Switchgear Module; and T80HV charge controller.
We didn't actually buy them, but a rep, from a company called Solvis came to our door and offered us free solar panels. We asked what the catch was. He said there wasn't one. The company lease the roof from us, they own the solar panels, we would get cheaper electric bills and they would get the Feed In Tariff.
They said subject to a survey, we'd qualify, and they asked if we had insulation in the loft and walls. We said yes we do. They said, that's okay.
They fitted the solar panels after we had had the survey they told us about, and then they then informed us we'd have to have a certificate to say we were energy efficient. After that 2nd surveyer had looked around our house, we were told they would remove the solar panels as we hadn't passed the criteria, since we don't have central heating! Why didn't they ask us in the first place? Now we have to go through having the panels uninstalled, because the company didn't do their job, and explain the criteria to us when they first came to the door. No one told us about the certificate, or explained the criteria. No one said we had to have central heating to qualify. We are disgusted with Solvis, and are telling everyone we can not to do business with them.
This is Yahoo! UK & Ireland, you need a Nevada resident to give local information. We are limited to 4 kWatt in the UK for a domestic installation, ours is working very well
no....
For home 6.5kwatt & where they a good investment? We are thinking of getting them.
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