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Issue #216 July 2008
Intelligent Energy Solutions
Living And Working Off The Grid
Part 1: Planning And Design
by George Martin
Start | Power Usage | Estimating Solar Radiation | Equipment | Solar Panels | Inverters | Charge Controller | Battery | Miscellaneous Items | System Cost | Sources & PDF
SYSTEM COST
OK, so how much did all of this cost? That’s a difficult number to come up with. I can tell you that the equipment, including all of the miscellaneous items, costs $36,000. That does not include the poles for mounting the solar panels, the backhoe for digging the holes to plant the poles (I ended up with a bigger backhoe than Steve’s and that gets me in even bigger trouble, as you will see next time), the trencher for digging the trench to bury the cabling to the panels, the wiring to connect all of the equipment, and the electrician to connect everything to code. But seeing the smile on my wife’s face when her hair dryer works on a cold winter morning is, well, priceless.
All joking aside, these details can eat into any budget. But I am here early on a winter morning writing this article, working on the Internet, watching the sun about to shine on the panels and recharge the batteries for another day of living and working off the grid.
Next time, I’ll describe the installation process and explain the system’s performance measurements. So, until then, do your energy analysis and start researching equipment.
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