5 Comments

1. 

   Only establishment cost is little high. Maintainence and other costs are very less. It will cost few hundred bucks to buy a solar panel. Solar panels are effective in terms of performance when used for long.

   I have found this site which has lots of information on solar panels and generating electricity at home.

   Comment by Saurabh — @

2. 

   The cost can really vary, depending on how much energy you use, and how much sun your area gets.

   But the minimum cost for a US photovoltaic system will be perhaps $5000, and will not generate all the electricity that a typical home uses.

   A typical cost would be about $20,000, and would expect to pay back its price in 10-20 years, depending on how expensive electricity is.

   Maintenance is virtually zero. You can blast the panels with a hose twice a year to clean them, if the rain does not do that for you. After about 10-15 years, a large component called the inverter often burns out, and must be repaired or replaced at a cost of perhaps $2000.
   References :

   Comment by roderick_young — @

3. 

   If your handy, you can do it yourself and build a solar panel / wind mill for under 200 / 100 dollars, Its now affordable, will make to less dependable from the utility companies, safe for our environment, and save your money!

   Comment by Nick the Tile Man — @

4. 

   Roderick is correct.

   The panels are expensive, and if you are selling power to the grid, the unit that interfaces to the utility is a few thousand dollars. If you are not connected to the grid then you will also have expensive storage batteries to replace every few years unless you are very careful. Just about everything (high power inverters, grid-tie units, charge controllers, battery banks, solar panels) cost thousands so it rapidly becomes very very expensive. Even then, you still won’t be able to power air conditioners, electric stoves, electric hot water tanks, electric heaters or anything else that draws a lot of power.

   At current prices, investment is not an appropriate word unless losing money for a good cause is your "investment". Doing the math (present value calculations using the PV formula in Excel) is a worthwhile exercise and an eye-opener.

   Comment by pp_314156 — @

5. 

   It depends on how much electricity you consume and if you want to produce enough power to off load all or just part of your daily electrical consumption.

   Before trying buy a solar electric system to offset your electrical load there are at least 2 things you should consider first: 1) how can you make your home more energy efficient and reduce your power consumption in the first place 2) if you use electricity to heat your water or the air in your home then buy a solar water heater and solar air heaters, respectively. The latter is far more cost effective than buying a larger solar electric system to heat either the water or the air, and they will generally pay for their initial upfront cost in 3-8 years (solar electric systems currently (2008) take 15-20 years to pay themselves off without a rebate program).

   Solar water systems for an entire home cost from $1500-$4500. If you are an advanced Do-It-Yourself you can save thousands by installing yourself. I’d still recommend getting a licensed plumber friend over to make sure all of your soldered unions were done well.

   Solar Air heating systems range in price from $1100-$2000 for collectors that heat rooms from 300-750 square feet. These collectors offset about 30% of your heating needs for that space and are fairly easy for the weekend Do-It-Yourselfer to install.

   Once you’ve done all you can do make your home more efficient and to use solar heating (solar thermal) technologies to reduce your electrical loads, then it’s appropriate to consider a solar electric system.

   If you are looking to start small and power say a room or two in your home, then you’re probably looking at an investment of $2000-$4000. Solar electric systems which allow you to live independent of the electric utility grid (known as "off-grid") generally cost about 30% more than systems that are connected to the electric network (known as "on-grid" or "grid-tie"). A whole home system can have a raw upfront cost of $20000 and up (without any rebate or tax credits).

   The maintenance costs are minimally for both off-grid and on-grid solar electric systems. The difference is that off-grid system have batteries which require someone to do monthly maintenance on (i.e. checking their electrolyte levels and occasionally adding distilled water). Since solar electric systems have no moving parts they can easily last decades with minimal maintenance or repair.

   The good news is that if you are in the USA, as of 2009 the federal government offers an unlimited tax credit for solar electric systems ($2000/year tax credit for solar water heating systems). Additionally, many states also offer rebates for solar electric (and heating) systems. These rebates can offset as much as 1/2 of your costs for both the system and the installation itself (if done by a professional). Some programs won’t provide you with a rebate if you do it yourself.
   References :
   Calculators for Estimating the Size of a Solar Electric System: http://howto.altenergystore.com/Calculators/c5/

   For State and Rebate Information: http://www.dsireusa.org/

   Comment by AltE Sasch — @

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