Will Power4Patriots work for me if I have a lot of shade on my property and not a lot of wind?
Video #7 from the Top 10 Questions From Customers Considering or Implementing Power4Patriots
Scroll down for transcript.
Allen: Okay, let’s move on to lucky number 7. And actually this is another, definitely a very popular question from folks consideringPower4Patriots or, now, how to implement it. The question is, I have a lot of shade on my property or not a lot of wind. Will Power4Patriots work for me? Will the system work?
Kriss: It will work, it will not just work as well. And the thing you have to keep in mind with any kind of energy discussion is you have to, before you can take energy out of it, you have to put energy into it. The more energy you put into it, the more energy you can take out. So if you are only getting an hour of sun on the system to power your entire home, you would need a really large system, or to power anything you just need that much more solar power so that you can store in that one hour you are getting of sunshine. So the best thing to do is to really find a nice sunny area. You want south facing, you want it to be unshaded as much as possible, the more effort you put into getting a nice sunny area, the more you are going to get out of this.
Allen: Yes.
Kriss: And on the wind, there are a lot of places that are not just not great for it. But there a lot of places that are great for this, especially post lines, lakes and people who are sort of a little further up and the higher you go the more wind there is.
Allen: Right.
Kriss: So if you can mount your wind generator high, you are going to get more wind. So there are ways around these things but the more you put in, the more you get out. So I would suggest really trying to find the sunniest place on your property. You don’t, a lot of people think, well I don’t, my roof won’t work, so solar won’t work. Well there’s a million other ways, now you’ve got other places to mount, you have pole mounts, ground mounts, you can build, you can put it on a shed. There’s a million ways to gather sunlight that’s not, it’s not only involved in the roof.
Allen: Yes, that’s a great point Kriss because I think your solar system, isn’t it on an external shed not attached to the house?
Kriss: Yes. And in fact it’s, that’s preferable on a lot of ways, the wind generator can be, if we get a really big windstorm, can be a little noisy. It can have a little vibrations out so we purposely mounted it away from the house and where we can get better wind speed or windy storms and you just wire it and conduit and layed in conduit to the power shed. And the power shed because of the way it’s. You will see some pictures which have got some videos and the way you get to see that is my system. We can actually adjust the angle of our solar panels.
Allen: Awesome.
Kriss: You can’t really do that on the roof top. So there’s a lot of advantages of having it away from that.
Allen: Okay great. Excellent.
___________________
Leave your comments below, we’d love to hear from you!
Watch the next video in the series: How long does it take to build a solar panel using Power4Patriots?
I HAVE SOLAR PANELS
I am posting this again to try and get an answer.
I live in an apartment. It is on the property line, Is there a way to mount solar panels on the easement that runs along the property line?
Jim,
I would not bet my survival on putting my panels on land I do not own. Simple as that.
I have a question of how can I know how much electricity a wind turbine can generate? Like I now know one cell produces 0.5 volts. How do I rate a wind generator to decide how many of it I will need?
Are solar panels also applied to motor home use on your end?
Yes, I put panels on the roof of an RV
Wind Power Location?
There must be some formula to determine how far away you can install the wind generator and how much loss will result.For, example, for every 100 yards of cable from the generator to your house, what percentage of initial power is lost?
This chart http://www.solarseller.com/dc_wire_loss_chart___.htm will help.
So, go down to the voltage of the system and or wind generator. Then find the maximum amperage of the generator. Then, going across to the right, you can see the maximum distance recommended for the wire size at the top. So the lower the gauge, the thicker the wire and therefore the longer you can go. But remember thicker wire costs more, so its sort of a balancing act!
I live in what called a Deed Restricted Community that wont tolerate any thing not attached to the main dwelling, e.g. No unattached sheds. The only solution is solar panels. I have a Pool to heat, which is done by a Heatpump. If the Panels have to be on the Roof, how many panels will be needed to run such a pump?
If you live in Fl., your deed restriction is null and void. Check the state law. I was a solar contractor for 15years and. Installed over 8,000 panels.
Hi Guys, I live in Jupiter, Palm Beach county Florida. This area is like a magnet to hurricanes. I am planning to be off the grid and need a few tips. (1) My roof is made of concrete tile & although not impossibe to install, I would like to mount the solar panels on the ground any ideas?( I live on 2 1/2 acres). (2) any tips to make the wind turbine & solar panels hurricane proof?
Earl Hanniford
I can still use this project with shade on my land.I do need wind also. It works together.
Jettie Peterson
sounds great can two gals do with?
In Salt Lake City we have long durations of inversions where the wind is not blowing at all (Or the air would not be so thick and stagnant)…times when the solar collector is not generating much, if any, power either. In these cases wouldn’t a generator be the best backup source of power along with the commercial power source? Would I need a much larger battery supply in such a scenario?
If there is a lack of sun, due to lots of trees on the property, are there some solar panel pole supports that can be used to raise the solar panels to where they can get the sun light needed? Please advise.
I live in North Carolina, but will be moving to northern Indiana, so I won’t be buying until I move in April 2013, I have enough to be moved without buying more, I just wanted to get all the info, so when I start getting off the grid I will be well informed, and so far the info you have sent me seems fairly easy for my skills. Thank You
We went through hurricane Ike and were without power for several weeks. We received some power from a gasoline powered generator. However, the generator power would not work on our Kitchaid refrigerator! I called Kitchaid and they informed me that their product would not work using gasoline generator power (?)! No one could believe that to be the case but it was.
Will I have a problem like that for my refrigerator using power from a solar panel?
You would need to connect your generator (or a solar or wind system) to a “pure sine wave” inverter.
Frank, if our wind generator is mounted on a chimney, whereby it is a few feet above the roof line, can we expect to feel noticeable vibration and hear too loud a noise during a windstorm?
Marion Lelong
Get it off the chimney now. Even the old TV antennas tended to destroy the mortar holding the bricks together.
How loud is loud? (decibels). We moved to the boonies because I am extremely sensitive to noises. Perhaps I should forget about wind,even tho we live in the mtns and it would be our best source. Any suggestions?
The acustacs are very poor
I did not get the videos containing questions #1 and 2. How do I get them? Is there a website where they can be accessed? If not, please email them to me. I am enjoying these questions. Thanks.
Ron Martinez posted a comment stating “…a good procedure to use when locating your solar panels is to use the “prime solar factor” calculation.”
I can’t find anything about that – can you enlighten me?
Thanks!
Your videos want work on my computer system. The internet explorer want work when the video comes on. sorry.
Sorry you are having trouble, Russell. You can also find these videos on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user8414704. Perhaps that format will work better for your system.
Question 7: I think a good procedure to use when locating your solar panels is to use the “prime solar factor” calculation. It may not provide the sunniest location but it should provide the best location and the option to relocate permanent facilities blocking exposure and/or removing vegetation.
The “shade” video does not work.