Consider solar hot water. It might represent a savings in your area, and if so, would cost less to install.
Also, try to spend what few dollars you have on insulation and efficient appliances and lighting. It's not sexy like solar panels, but saves money just the same.
At Costco, you can buy solar security lights. Those are basically a solar panel that charges a small battery, and LED lights that come on with a motion sensor. If you want to have light only for a brief moment when someone walks up, those would work. But again, they won't pay for themselves in terms of the electricity saved.
You first have to determine how much electricity you need for the two lights (use CFL's for lowest energy need). Say each of them is 25 watts, and you leave them on 12 hours/day. That's 600 watt/hours ((25 + 25) x 12) per day. In most places, you get about 5 hours of peak sun, so you'd need a 120 watt panel (600/5) to power them (under ideal conditions). Of course, if you use the lights less, you can get by with less panel. You'll also need an inexpensive inverter unless you change your lights to 12 volt lights (available from RV and marine dealers - they're expensive).
But this doesn't factor in the effect of clouds, and you also need a battery (or tie to the grid with an expensive inverter) to store electricity for when the sun doesn't shine. So your system need to be proportionately bigger. Usually you size a battery to provide three days of power with no solar input.
To store 600 x 3 = 1800 watt hours will require 2 T-105 golf cart batteries being charged by roughly 300 watts of panels. Just to reliably run those lights 12 hours/day, you're looking at an investment of around $1500. Of course, if you use them less, the system can be smaller.
I'd recommend getting a 50 watt panel and a small marine battery (with a 6 amp charge controller) and using that to run a couple of 12 volt reading/task lights. That will set you back maybe a couple of hundred. If you want details, I can be emailed through Answers.
DK
Most of us already know that the price tag of electrical energy, gasoline, natural gas, wood together with other energetics are repeatedly going up. Regarding that base we must always ask ourselves can our house budget stand with so many expenses. Each individual investment will need some amount of cash but still this isn't the end and even with investing each single day by day or every year by year we pay for electrical power, natural gas, wood, etc. Keep in mind that even with the use of solar-energy systems it is necessary to do some investment, even though it is minimal when compared with others.
Using passive solar power is free, but you may have to vegetate a few days and watch how the sun and your house play with each other...work with each other...let each other rest. It is as much a philosophical prospect as it is a constructive engineering survey. Take your time on this and you will find the newness that you can acquire for older ways.
Solar panels are expensive, it takes a real commitment to make any impact on your electric bill. It's one of those long-term things that pay for themselves eventually.
I would one day love to convert my house to solar power but i don't have a lot of money and I don't know how to do it my self. I would love to start slow and maybe get my back and front porch lights to be on solar. any ideas on how to get started on a fix budget.
