Who has SOLAR or is considering it?

[Sunflower]

I checked out the worlds largest mat w/solar...

Anyone here investigating or using it? If so, what do you use for your water heater/boiler that the solar feeds?

[Toltlaundry]

We are putting solar hot water into our new laundry. We are still getting all of the information together- but we will probably have between 250-400 gallon storage tank to supply the laundry. Our laundry is attached to our storage building and we are going to have the solar hot water plumbed into our boiler system for the radiant heat as well. Interesting industry- hard to get information from vendors etc. on what we need specifically. Keep in touch and we will let you know how it goes.

[Sunflower]

Do you already have a boiler? I read your other posts and see we are in similar zones.

[Steven04]

I like the electric producing solar panels more because of its simpler design and is less maintenance. If you have a huge roof and enough panels its possible to generate more energy than used and you'll get money back from your electric co. With the new condensing water heaters, most of the gas is used on the dryers anyways.

The water heating solar panels require water pumps (uses more electricity) and a huge storage tank and with all that equip. you still need a water heater (uses gas) to get it hot enough. Not to mention, all those panels need plumbing and I think overtime water clogs/leaks are inevitable. The other concern is all that weight sitting on your roof, the weight of the panels/pipes plus water. If you live in the snowy colder regions, you'll have to worry about all those panels/pumps/pipes to keep from freezing.

Gas bills are usually higher than the electric bills, but in my store the electricity was more expensive this summer.

[Howard]

Steven, you are 100% correct. That is why I have a 10KW PV electric system on my roof at home. It generates about 1200kwh per month. When you factor in the cost of the system less the huge rebates and then look at the price of electricity and your ability to sell the srecs from the system the payback on the system is about 4 years for mine.

[Adamski]

Hi All,

There is a new company just north of Grand Rapids, Michigan that began manufacturing the film that is used in electric gererating solar panels. Interestingly, they are enlarging to quadruple current production. I think those solar panels are in their infancy like the first LCD displays were 5 years ago. 5 years from now, these solar panels may become even more cost effective.

The first plasma TV that I ever saw was 30" diagonal and cost $30,000. That was probably 10 years ago. What a difference a decade makes.

Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Toltlaundry]

We have a boiler for the radiant heat system- but that is not the boiler we will use for the laundry. We will try to set up some sort of heat exchanger to use the water that is heated from the solar to be used for the radiant heat. We are getting an AO Smith cyclone 199,000 BTU boiler for the laundry. We are finally getting some numbers back on the whole solar system (supposedly this week), I will let you know the ugly truth soon!