• Serinus@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    You must be talking about more than just energy. Solar panels and a $10k battery don’t cost that much.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You must be talking about more than just energy. Solar panels and a $10k battery don’t cost that much.

      I promise you, that isn’t an exaggeration in the USA. I recently had 17KW of solar panels installed and 10KWh of battery in my home.

      10KWh fully charge will power a my home’s regular power consumption for less than a day, and that isn’t even charging any EVs. OP was speccing out one week’s worth of batteries and in many parts of the USA (and the world for that matter) you don’t get enough sun all day to even charge your batteries and power your household consumption. Hence my comment on reducing lifestyle consumption, or restricting your living to geographies that get more sun. I can talk full detailed numbers about my first hand experience if your interested.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Huh. Last I looked I was figuring around 15-17KW would be enough to fully power both my home and an EV. (You can actually look at your usage history from your electric provider to get past usage.)

        I don’t know what “one week of batteries” means. If he means to power his house for an entire week with no solar production, that’s insane and probably is $150k. But you don’t need that much to be 98% independent.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Huh. Last I looked I was figuring around 15-17KW would be enough to fully power both my home and an EV.

          And that 15-17KW of installed solar panels will cost you between $35k-$60k in cash (not a loan) without batteries (and before any state and federal incentives which have specific requirements). Most people don’t have that kind of money to part with for this application.

          The devil is in the details. Assuming full sun it should be about right. However, even overcast days can cut your production down to 20% of normal, thats even forgetting storming days, and then there’s winter where you’ve got snow covering your panels for possibly days on end.

          Further it gets into what your state and power provider has for “net metering”. Your panels produce well when its fairly cloudless and sunny. So that covers about 10 hours of the day (for part of the year, with the part being different depending on which hemisphere you’re in on the globe.) The best case scenario with production and the most generous net metering rules is that you generate an excess during the summer sunny days, and that carries you through pulling from the grid for your solar production shortfalls later in the cloudy fall and winter. However, most net metering schemes mean you only get a fraction of the power back later in the year that you give to the power company.

          I don’t know what “one week of batteries” means. If he means to power his house for an entire week with no solar production,

          I think thats what that poster meant.

          that’s insane and probably is $150k. But you don’t need that much to be 98% independent.

          I don’t disagree, but that was their definition, not mine.