Show your solar/alternative home energy source

[Bmachine]

I think, when I ran the numbers, I would not live long enough for the ROI.

It all depends on what ROI you are looking for. If it is dollar bills, it could take a while. For us, it was the kind of planet we will leave for our children and their (potential) children. Cleaner air, a tiny bit less warm. For us, the ROI is very high.

 

[eriknetherlands]

I recently installed my photo voltaic system myself, its 17 panels, and converting to 380 volts, making 5kwh peak. Just enough to cover a 3 kid household. The garage roof wasnr bigger. It was 4500 euro's , and made about 4.5 euro's of electricity today.

The installation costs are about 25 to 30 percent of the total bill if you get them installed. If you install them yourself, it shaves a good 2 years off your return on investment (roi).

And it was a weekend well spent with a ten year old son on the roof.

 

[JayWltrs]

If we use stand-alone alternative energy, we still have to pay the electric company some per KW charge unless we completely disconnect. Some BS about system balance. It was really a protective device industry forced through our PUC. Scuttled my plan for a mixed-source shop, but I’m moving so slowly it’ll probably be affordable to dump the grid altogether by the time I get started.