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One of the major expenses of installing a solar power system in your
home is the purchase of an inverter. Inverters convert DC power to
AC power. Although photovoltaic cells and battery packs produce and
store DC electricity, most home appliances run on AC power;
therefore, you’d have to convert from DC to AC to use solar power in
most commercially available appliances. A typical inverter runs
anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000. There are smaller inverters that can
be used for each individual appliance for around $150, but the
problem here is that you would have to purchase an inverter for
every appliance you intended to run. Generally when homeowners
plan for their energy consumption needs, they base their power needs
on the rates of consumption found in traditional AC-power homes
(around 8,900 kilowatt hours per year). If you are starting from the
ground floor by building your own green home, power consumption
needs can be greatly reduced. The average power consumption in a
green home is only around 900 kwh per year. The more energy cuts you
can make, the more affordable your system will be. The possibilities
are only as limited as your imagination and resourcefulness.
It may be that you are not ready to take the plunge and go
all-out in creating a sustainable home. If that is the case, there
are still many alternatives available to you that would reduce your
need for nonrenewable resources. One possibility is to use your
local power company as a storage facility for your solar home. In
this arrangement, you are still on the grid, but you have access to
your local power company for peak times when your usage may exceed
your energy production capacity. Conversely, during your downtime,
when you're not using much electricity, a federal mandate requires
that your local power company buy from you any electricity you
produce but don't use. Unfortunately in many states, you have to pay
the retail rate for their electricity, but they purchase any you
sell to them at wholesale rates. Check with your local company if
you're interested in this approach.
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 How much would a good stand-alone solar power system cost? The
prices vary greatly depending on available sunlight in your area,
consumption demands and system options, but as a ballpark figure, if
you’re planning to buy a solar power system based on the average
power consumption of an American home (8,900 kwh), plan to spend
anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000 for a stand-alone system. If you
can reduce your consumption to the 900 kwh range, you can expect to
pay as little as $5,000 to $10,000 for the system. So you can see
that it pays to make as many cuts as you can. This may sound
expensive upfront, but when you consider that you’ll be eliminating
your monthly power bill, it can actually be less expensive in the
long run.
It's up to you to decide where you can make cuts and how much
you're willing to invest in sustainable power. One thing is for
certain: On-the-grid power rates will continue to rise, and so any
changes you can make will pay off over time, not only by decreasing
your power bills, but also by reducing our demand on nonrenewable
resources that damage the environment.
[Text from file received from
Chuck Hall]
Chuck Hall is a sustainability consultant and author. His latest
book, "Green Circles: A Sustainable Journey from the Cradle to the
Grave," is now available at
www.cultureartist.org. You may contact him by e-mail at
chuck@cultureartist.org.
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