Breakfast

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Rufus
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Location: Greater Toronto Area

Re: Breakfast

Post by Rufus »

My next door neighbour has gone all electric: solar panels on the roof, Tesla car and even an electric boat. Because of the nose bleedingly high electricity (or hydro, as we call it) rates in Ontario he claims to be ahead and is even selling power into the grid occasionally.
Bryan
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MotifSky
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Re: Breakfast

Post by MotifSky »

I usually have for my breakfast different sandwiches, fruits or pan fried eggs with bacon/tomatoes/sausages :D And coffee of course! :D
brothers
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Location: Oklahoma City USA

Re: Breakfast

Post by brothers »

Rufus wrote:My next door neighbour has gone all electric: solar panels on the roof, Tesla car and even an electric boat. Because of the nose bleedingly high electricity (or hydro, as we call it) rates in Ontario he claims to be ahead and is even selling power into the grid occasionally.
I'm missing something. If the electricity rates are quite high, why would it be desirable to use devices that consume electricity? Obviously I've gone down the wrong track in my thinking . . . .
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
ShadowsDad
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Location: Central Maine

Re: Breakfast

Post by ShadowsDad »

If he's making his own juice running the electrical appliances is in essence "free".
Brian

Maker of Kramperts Finest Bay Rum and Frostbite
Or find it here: Italian Barber, West Coast Shaving, Barclay Crocker, The Old Town Shaving Company at Stats, Maggard Razors; Leavitt & Peirce, Harvard Square
brothers
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Re: Breakfast

Post by brothers »

Right, now I get the point. However, I do wonder exactly how much it costs to purchase and install solar panels/buy a Tesla/buy an electric boat? One wonders how the dollars and cents add up when spending is equal to or exceeded by saving.
Gary

SOTD 99%: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, soaps & creams, synthetic / badger brushes, Colonial General razor, Kai & Schick blades, straight razors any time, Superior 70 aftershave splash + menthol + 444
Rufus
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Location: Greater Toronto Area

Re: Breakfast

Post by Rufus »

brothers wrote:Right, now I get the point. However, I do wonder exactly how much it costs to purchase and install solar panels/buy a Tesla/buy an electric boat? One wonders how the dollars and cents add up when spending is equal to or exceeded by saving.
Good question Gary. I haven't asked him how much the panels cost or what he thinks the payback period is to the extent it ever pays back. As for the Tesla and the boat, the car costs about $100k and the boat about $50k. Go figure! Seems to have the attributes of an AD. :mrgreen:
Bryan
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fallingwickets
Clive the Thumb
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Re: Breakfast

Post by fallingwickets »

Maybe its just one of those things...you know; the stick it to the man thing. If i were in that income bracket, every cent of the panels, teslA, boat cost would be worth it, in fact it would be priceless to tell the utility company to go !*%@$@#!$ themselves :D :D :D :D

clive
de gustibus non est disputandum
ShadowsDad
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Location: Central Maine

Re: Breakfast

Post by ShadowsDad »

Clive I don't know where you live, but I have 20 years of experience with a PV solar system. We have 8 125 watt panels in a battery backup PV system. Due to what we would get paid for our excess juice it's not worth buying the gear to sell it back to the public utility. I buy from them at retail and would sell to them at wholesale. 20 years ago the system cost me $12k - 15k. Labor was free because it was my design and execution. I have no idea what it would cost today. We got no subsidies or anything, it was all on our dime. It is capable of running our home if we don't run the A/C but we got rid of our electrical heating appliances and went to gas to allow that. But I really put the system in for power outages and not for economy, and we get outages due to the forested nature of the state, overhead lines, and rural location. Solar is marginal in Maine due to our weather, so I kept the tie in to the public utility. I also have a 8k generator for those times when we have an outage and the PV system won't handle the load, and/or to recharge the batteries when that's required.

Has our system paid for itself? No. If it was bigger it might but as it is now it can't. But I won't go bigger due to the nature of our weather and due to the space the batteries require. I must have a battery back up system because a grid tied system is w/o power in an outage and at night.

If one has the $ yes, it's one way to flip the bird to the power company. But utility produced power is quite a bit less expensive unless one gets a subsidy, that is, has the neighbors helping to pay for it through their taxes.

Where would it make sense? The Southwest would be ideal I would think. Or if someone lived in a remote location where an extension of power lines would be too costly. Maybe where the power company has to buy excess juice at the rate they sell it at. We'd make out fine if we could do that since our batteries would always be topped off and the system would automatically buy and sell power as required. As it is now our panels sit in the sun and most of the time their potential power generation isn't used.
Brian

Maker of Kramperts Finest Bay Rum and Frostbite
Or find it here: Italian Barber, West Coast Shaving, Barclay Crocker, The Old Town Shaving Company at Stats, Maggard Razors; Leavitt & Peirce, Harvard Square
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fallingwickets
Clive the Thumb
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Re: Breakfast

Post by fallingwickets »

Im in NJ :shock: :( :( with plans to move to GA or SC in the next few years =D> =D> and so either way Im not spending any money right now on alt energy, but, BUT if the battery tech/price became reasonable, I would outfit the new house with solar and do it myself rather than through a solarcity type deal.

btw, a GIANT tip of the hat to your farsightedness going solar 20 years ago. Seriously, 93672 thumbs up to that

clive
de gustibus non est disputandum
ShadowsDad
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Location: Central Maine

Re: Breakfast

Post by ShadowsDad »

Well thanks, but it wasn't by choice. Or it was, but we had a huge nudge in that direction.

Early on it was all too obvious that we needed to do something for our numerous power outages. My first move was to just revert to pre-REA days and burn kerosene and such when needed. During a summer outage burning fossil fuels indoors for light gets real old because additional heat isn't desired in the summer. But it did work. Then came an ice storm that coated everything with 4 inches of ice ('98). We were w/o power for 5 1/2 days but the pre-REA plan worked to a degree. Pre-REA homes weren't air tight and ours is tight. When fossil fuels are burned they produce water and CO2. The water was the big problem. After that time our ceilings and walls were soaked. So while that plan worked it had it's flaws; heat in summer and condensation in the winter. That's when I decided on spending the $ and explore solar. Clearly I wanted a battery back up system. It began with 4 lead/acid storage batteries for lights alone. That showed promise and I did my research on PV systems and the end result is what we have now. Now when we get an outage we have power that we produce from the storage cells at night or the sun during the day. The inverters control everything, putting juice into the batteries from the panels when draw is lower than production and drawing from the batteries when the draw is high. Now we are w/o power for as long as it takes me to grab a flashlight and walk a few feet to a switch box, throw a switch, and turn on the inverters; certainly not more than 10 seconds. If I need to start the generator I'll disconnect us entirely from the lines. For safety it's the only way I can feed the house and the inverters to recharge the batteries from the gen'. After having this wired up an dusing it for a time I realized that there is an alternate way to set up the system, and that's as a whole house UPS. I feed the system from the lines, and turn on the inverters while switching to inverters to send power to the house. In the event of an outage one can see the flicker in the lights as the system misses one cycle of power, then the inverters automatically take over. I only do that when an outage is highly likely.

If you do look into solar there are tables produced by the government that will tell you the usefulness of solar for a given area. It's based on the average days of sunlight. Maine is marginal at best. Today the news told us that Maine is 41st in the nation for solar, pretty low, and for good reason. As a state we do much better for wind elec' production, but one must have the site for that and I don't.
Brian

Maker of Kramperts Finest Bay Rum and Frostbite
Or find it here: Italian Barber, West Coast Shaving, Barclay Crocker, The Old Town Shaving Company at Stats, Maggard Razors; Leavitt & Peirce, Harvard Square
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fallingwickets
Clive the Thumb
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Re: Breakfast

Post by fallingwickets »

getting there slowly but surely:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/02/ikea- ... in-the-uk/

sorry for the thread hijack, but for atonement and for the record; fried eggs and toast for breakfast plus leftover burger from last night lol

clive
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fallingwickets
Clive the Thumb
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Re: Breakfast

Post by fallingwickets »

p.s made these last night after watching the zimmern video....15 thumbs up

https://youtu.be/zNRl4ykUCzI

clive
de gustibus non est disputandum
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