solar power for heat and electricity????

[st8champn30]

i have been reading these post, and running into the same common problem, which was utilities. you can really avoid them, so why not think outside the box. im sure there are commercial grade solar vc (voltric cells) for electricity and to heat water. if you lease, then maybe you can neg. with the landlord to see if you can work something out.
just a thought.

oh, this forum has a lot of great topics that are being covered for newbies like myself.

[Howard]

Solar power is great, but totally avoiding the electric company does not sound practical. To do that you would need a huge solar system and huge battery storage system -- $$$$$$.

A better system is a grid tied system with what is called net metering. I have one on my home. It generates about 12,000 KWH per year. The way it works is that during the day I produce more power than I use and my electric meter spins backwards while at night I draw electricity off the grid and it spins forward -- no batteries.

[DuboisLaundry]

laundromats use so much heat for dryers and for hot water, much more than a home or office building, I would probably start with just solarizing the electricity. If I still had enough solar collecting area left, then I would think about hot water.

[Spin_City]

st8champn30 - I have read a few articles about mats using solar for hot water (including the home page of this site). Never heard of a mat using solar for electricity at their mat.

Is anyone using solar for elec. or hot water at their mat? How is it working out?

Howard - That sounds interesting. Do you do it at your mat too? Did you buy the set-up? Who makes it?

[Howard]

Don't do it at the mat although I have talked to the landlord about considering installing a system for the entire shopping plaza. The system I have at home works GREAT! It takes up about 800 sqft of roof space [space that is not used for anything /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ] and produces 12,000 kwh of electricity per year. For a business you can currently get a 30% tax credit for installing such a system with no practical limit on cost. For residential that tax credit is limited to $2,000. Most states have very good rebate programs for installing solar pv systems. When I installed mine NJ was giving rebates of $5.50 per watt which worked out to about 70% of the system cost. That rebate has since dropped to $4.35 a watt, but that still is not bad. In addition to the savings on electricity, you can sell the rights to claim you produce green power. There is a market in NJ for those rights, which comes out to somewhere between $220-$260 per 1,000 kwh. So, I sell those right each year for about $3,000 in addition to my electric savings.

Anyone in NJ that has a southern exposure is crazy not to install a solar pv system.

[Spin_City]

Howard - Where did you get your system?

[Howard]

I specified the system myself and used a contractor that specializes in these systems. There are dozens of them listed on the NJ clean energy website. It you want to know the specific firm contact me directly and I would be glad to share info.

My system is comprised of 54 Sharp 185Watt panels and 4 SunnyBoy inverters with a Sunnyboy controller that connects to my homenetwork and monitors the system in realtime.

[st8champn30]

i have always been a fan of innovation; reading popular scinece magazine present and future trying to get new ideas that are probable. it does hurt to to be optimistic with a twist of realitly thats how dreams and desires come true.

as of right now i dont have a business let alone a laundry, im currently in iraq, baghdad and i have two more years left in my contract. i have been trying to get finanicially free (85% successfull) by the time i get out i should have a good chunk of change. reading these post here and on richdad.com ( by robert kiosoki who wrote rich dad, poor dad) has enlighten my out look on the un told realities of the aspects of businesses that are untold. so reading, reading, reading has been my motivation, so i dont become another statistic. in turn, if comming up with farfetched ideas like solar power or even wind power for energy effecient uses helps the people on this forum then great. keep this in mind, oil prices are rising there are new and improved ways of doings, the nation and the world are researching and finding improve energy sources.

there companies that you can find on popular science, mechanics and entreprenuer magazines and their that do commercial setups. and even in some states will pay you for the electricity that you produce.

once again, if it suites you needs great, if not im sorry. maybe you can talk to the landlords and some him/her the money you'll be saving them and yourselves. if you own the building, then you in a better situation.

just an idea

thank you for your post.

[Spin_City]

st8champn30 - I hope you make a ton of $$$ in Iraq and come back with enough to start your own business.

If you are there in the military, thanks for your service! We all appreciate it! If you are there as a civilian or in the military, stay safe and best of luck.

[st8champn30]

yes i am in the army and my second time over here. i am about switch to the coast guards, who dont deploy. hopefully will be in socal (southern california), my home state. i heard that san diego, l.a. area is a great market competitive bout if you can find the right area you should do well. i still open to options if anyone has any. thanks
p.s. i am also open to ideas to gain fianacing for a laundry. due to all of the varibles, not reported income for tax reason and many more that could or did already happen.
thanks