# $1000 Investment



## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

I'm pretty unclear as to what you can get for what you put in with solar energy supplementing your electricity.

Let's say all you wanted to do was invest $1000, today, what could you do with it?


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Not a lot, but it really depends on the route you want to go.

For example:

You could buy three 250-300w panels, three micro inverters and the cabling, and spend about that much. You'd pump something like (depends on your location of course), say 3-4kwhours of electricity back into your home use. Monthly, you'd average probably 100kwhr on a year round basis. That is about 1/9th of the average US home power use (about 900kwhrs/month).

OR

You could buy a couple of DC fans, and say 3-400w of panels, and use the fans to keep your attic cooler, or vent a small greenhouse, or something along that line. Sun shines, space gets warm, fans exhaust it. Very simple direct use.

OR

You could set up a few hundred watts of panels, couple small storage batteries, cheap charge controller and cheap inverter, and have a very small, off grid, backup power system for something that might be critical to you....say a CPAP machine or something like that.

OR quite a few other SMALL power use machines.

You are NOT gonna run your electric stove, or water heater, or toaster or any other power hog appliance, but you can do things with a $1000 worth of solar.

Question is WHAT do you want to do ?


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## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

That pretty much was exactly the sort of answer I was hoping to hear TnAndy. It gives me an idea of what can be done. 

Most likely something like the first example you gave is the one I would consider. Can you tell me how difficult though, is it to have something like that tied into your house's electrical system? 

Would a setup like that be easy to expand if you wanted to later?


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

If you double that you can take a well offgrid as long as it's under 230' deep. The setup I put together to water our orchard cost just under $2k.

A $700 system allows us to have lighting and a radio for music at our weekend cabin. I know that doesn't sound like much but to bring the grid to the cabin would have been over $7k a dozen years ago and we'd have to pay a $30 minimum bill every month. So it didn't take long for a ROI.

The 6' by 16' solar air heater I built on the garage cost about $400. It doesn't fully heat the garage but does take the chill off making it comfortable for me to work out there in the winter.

WWW


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Shin said:


> That pretty much was exactly the sort of answer I was hoping to hear TnAndy. It gives me an idea of what can be done.
> 
> Most likely something like the first example you gave is the one I would consider. Can you tell me how difficult though, is it to have something like that tied into your house's electrical system?
> 
> Would a setup like that be easy to expand if you wanted to later?


First you might want to see what permits for that type of system will cost you. They could easily be over $1000 for a small system. Also need to checkout the interconnection & net metering agreement with the PoCo.

WWW


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## JeepHammer (May 12, 2015)

$1,000 worth of insulation, calking, expanding foam go a LONG WAY!

I did the 'Start Small' and 'Scale Up' thing, and it was HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE.

When I stepped up to the next level, all the smaller stuff didn't come along for the ride.
Most of it now works on post lights, fence chargers, ect.
Not exactly it's intended purpose, but it was laying around here.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

What are your power requirements? You need to know that before you can do much of anything. Do you want grid tied or offgrid?


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## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

I'm starting to think at this amount, which is more just a reference point to get me an idea of what one could do -- one really couldn't tie it in with permits at all at that cost, and so, better to have it used to keep a battery and some lights or an appliance going of some kind. Keep your rechargables, vacuums and such hooked up to it rather than the grid.


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## JeepHammer (May 12, 2015)

Shin, it's not JUST solar,
It's CONSERVATION.

Sealing up the leaks, getting things efficient so you use the MINIMUM,
Stuff like CF or LED lights, highly efficient fridge/freezer/furnace/air conditioner.

Your $1,000 goes a LONG WAY towards insulation, calking, expanding foam, replacing windows with thermal efficient windows, thermal efficient doors, ect.

Most people live in a home the contractor did everything the CHEAPEST they could get away with...
They weren't going to pay the bills, so they just plain didn't care, and the home leaks like a sieve.

Once you get the 'Hemorrhage' plugged up, and the bleeding has stopped,
Then you think about spending on generating your own energy.

Energy of ANY KIND is not cheap.
I applauded you for wanting to make your own RE,
You will need to make MUCH MORE of it to overcome the 'Leaks' & inefficiency, and that is going to be EXCESSIVELY EXPENSIVE.

A $1,000 on RE is a drop in the ocean, 
A $1,000 on sealing up the home is a HUGE deal and makes a big difference!

The flip side is, the more you learn about your home, the more you will be able to do yourself and the farther your money will go when you do jump off into RE...


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## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

Well I've got the closing on a new happy home for myself on the 12th, God willing, so it's time for me to be thinking about this sort of thing. 

I'll have to get appliances for it -- all used, can't afford better, and do the fixit work myself except for replacing the electrical panel.


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