solar power for home?

D

deepak3775

Adept
hi,
i'm from u.p. where a lot of power cuts(12-14 hrs a day) take place.this gets even worse in summers.
does anyone know what a solar power set for a fan and cfl cost.heard it is partly subsidised by govt.
deepak
 
Generators are not a solution either. You cannot have it as anything but a standby power source. I have been working for years to have a cost-effective solution. Spent a fortune with a few prototypes until I ran out of more funds for further R&D. The closest to a really cost effective system, though, has already been patented and was a big blow to us - here is a commercial version of what we were working on for the last 4-5 years- WhisperGenTM heat and power systems
Oh well.. still churning out ideas, let us see if we get anywhere with those. The latest one is a low-cost wind turbine as an alternate source and a geothermal-cum-solar A/C .. all mad ideas that are either duds or prohibitively expensive. But I would still persist with these rather than be at the mercy of some power company.

Hopefully some day soon I can provide you people with a solution that will make all of us happy and make me rich :D
 
^^ I dont see why generators are not a solution. whispergen is just a stirling engine. Whats wrong with a regular generator/engine? Whats so special about a stirling engine? I hope you are not wasting time and money chasing the golden goose.

Photovoltaic panels are too costly in India. Panels are cheaper in the US even without subsidies. On top of that the electricity boards have pathetic/nonexistant buy back programs. Maybe if MoserBaer sets up their PV manufacturing facility here, things might improve soon.

Till then get a genset like most ppl suggested - a diesel/gas 4-stroke generator will be cheaper to run.
 
Well, for one, the costs are ridiculous. Initial purchase price as well as running costs. I do agree that there is no other choice at the moment. But it will never really replace the grid supply which is still the cheapest form of power available. Moreover, you cannot expect sustained power for long durations. It will always be a standby power source.

Next, what is special about a stirling engine? Nothing. No, I am not wasting time and money chasing a golden goose - the idiom is slightly confusing for idiots like me :D not sure about the golden goose story.. anyways, glad to know you know stirling engines. But something like this could be pretty useful I think SES :: Technology
Still not a replacement but would really make me happy to have that kind of power generated for free. Not sure about the rest of the people. Also, the idea is to reduce the cost of the equipment and/or the technology that would generate this power.

As for solar panels, even with the polymer based cells the cost has still not come down to reasonable levels and not likely to supply enough for the entire household. Things are looking up this year on that front, though, and we might get more efficent and afffordable solutions soon. All these are still band-aids, not something that could replace the electricity boards that you apaprently dislike/detest. Yes, the golden goose is still out there somewhere, maybe if I spent a little more time and lot more money I can find it.. :) Thanks for the genset suggestion. I dont know if that will work out for me, though... thanks though.
 
can i get in and ask idea in this thread for a solar water heater for my domestic hot water requirement . which collector would be good for me a flat bed or a etc type, iam ready to spend up to 20k. i live in india,tamil nadu, kanchipuram.
 
i can give you a few ideas :-

1) to power up a CFL you need a huge solar panel.

2)you need batteries to store the power.

3)average life of a battery is 1.5 years after which you have to buy a new one.

4)Amount of investment needed to power up a CFL with solar panel is far much costlier than a 500watts inverter.

Conclusion :- GET YOURSELF AN INVERTER..
 
Praks said:
Can an inverter be charged with Solar panel rather then electricity ?
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Well.. that is how it works actually. The solar power generated is not used directly. It is stored in batteries and then used in the domestic supply (if you can call it that..)
Just to answer a few other questions unanswered previously.. 'cost effective in the long run'.. most certainly.. :bleh: if you run long enough.. honestly, we will probably be better off waiting till the end of this year when cost effective panels will be out. The cost per kilowatt is not too good at the moment but things will change.
I would suppose that solar and wind power projects would be best left to government (if at all they decide to go in that direction) but if you wish to do something on your own there are lots of sites where you could get plans and DIY ideas for your purpose. You could, for example, make your own solar cooker/heater/kiln or a small wind turbine.. but trust me, it will not be enough to power your computer, at least not without considerable expense and battery storage capacity. *sigh** .. let us see..
 
well i do have a solar water heater but the days when you want them , is when they dont work well ...in summers you get hot water :p but then its good , been searching for solarcooker , i have had no luck so far .... lecamel ... anywhere i can find them?
 
solar pvs are not cost competitive to grid power at the moment so untill we have scale economies or higher efficiency panels we will have to wait
 
kippu said:
well i do have a solar water heater but the days when you want them , is when they dont work well ...in summers you get hot water :p but then its good , been searching for solarcooker , i have had no luck so far .... lecamel ... anywhere i can find them?
Click to expand...
Kippu :eek:hyeah: .. not the dromedary kind, man; but more of the squamate reptile is what I am.. cameleon, hehehe...
Anyways, kippie... here is the info you wanted SOLAR COOKER MANUFACTURERS OF INDIA scroll down to Coimby and you will get the address.. (Ctrl+F ? ) or TULSI SOLAR COOKER not great but will do.. actually if you need to do something on your own, you will get the best results.. the commercial ones use a flat reflector panel.. you will get amazing heating with parabolic reflectors.. but I am not sure whether any of those are available commercially. Same reason your SWH does its best work in summer. With a parabloc reflector you could obtain temperatures enough to run a small furnace (hmm kippie, you could make glass/ceramic bricks for your projects LOL)
See if you can get any info on the net with fresnel reflectors.. (Yep.. the same thing you see in vray material rollout.. except in this case we wouldnt need to use perfectly parabolic shapes to reflect the sunlight using this concept).. Lots of tiny glass shapes (doesnt even need to be a mirror surface) and placed as an array would probably give you enough heat to melt metal.. depending on surface area and sunlight, of course.. Will find more links and DIY projects and send it later to you.. take care Kippu..
 
well there was a person who was interested in doing this and i suggested him to go take a look at auroville solar kitchen , it was the largest in india , till they did it in tirupathi and now the largest is at shirdi .... parabolic design as you suggested and lots of tiny pieces , we werenot allowed to go up to see it in dayight , something like we might get burned or eyes will go ....but it was fascinating ...

thanks kishore .. or chameleon :p
 
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