Henry Dover answers:

Normally, you can purchase and have installed for your home a solar energy system for in the 20 to 30 thousand dollar area. These costa are also offset in a lot of states that will subsidize this cost to varying extents depending on your state. The federal also provides income tax incentives.

For a home of about 1500 to 2000 square feet, you would be looking at about 300 to 400 square feet of panels. You would be generating only in the daylight hours, sunny or cloudy days.summer and winter. The panels should be directed close to perpendicular to the sun’s rays at noon. The optimum would be to follow the sun through its arc (not reasonable at this time). The energy is changed with an inverter to A/C power and connected to the main electric grid, sold back to the power company when you are producing excess, you would draw back from the grid when you are needing more than you are producing.

Do a search for solar panels through “google”, you will find more information than you can read.

Do not listen to the “Nay sayers”, this can be done.

Henry Dover answers:

Rough figure;
Estimate Your energy use: $500 2 25Cents/KWH = 2000 KWH/Mo.

Estimate panels requ’d @ 150W/Pnl. & 20 ‘Good sun’ days/Mo., and 6 good sun Hr.s/day
you’d about 120 panels, and appropriate storage batteries & inverter.

Henry Dover answers:

Hi, The cost of installation will be far far more than your saving, & the costs of maintenance, by the time solar panels have payed for themselves they will need replacing, But then there is saving the planet issue, ask yourself why all the government/council buildings are not fully self sufficient on heating & power, it’s because of costs, Do as we advise, not what we do is their motto, Hope this helps in your choice:):)
Check what money saving Guru Martin lewis says.
I’m a plumbing & heating engineer & the financial cost’s still out way the financial saving, & i would only have to pay for the materials, you will find a salesman that will tell you different. Do the maths & it will all become clear. I have & it does not equate to any financial saving long term.

Henry Dover answers:

Solar panels are warranted for 25 years. Generally, companies warranty for half the product’s expected life span, so they expect 50 years from them. We can’t tell for sure how long panels will last, because the first ones made are still working.

If you have a solar system with battery backup, the batteries do have less than a 10 year lifespan. But 80% of solar installations are straight to the electric grid with no batteries.

If you are looking for a good return on investment, look into solar water heating. It’s a much bigger bang for the buck for saving energy. Let the sun heat the water instead of the dirty fuels.

Henry Dover answers:

To be honest with you… And if you are an opportunist, I would maybe look into something just like this (hint… A huge corporation called Citizenr? Is being developed to deal with some of the country’s energy demand, and the way it works, in short …for a deposit, you can add solar to the grid by putting state of the art panels on your home at the solar utility company’s expense, that is provided and installed at the company’s expense. If you use less energy than you generate, it goes back to the grid an you get money back, you help others, you reduce oil dependency and you ultimately save money)…

Please check it out… I don’t work for them but I have researched this because it is something I’m thinking about as well… (and this link provides an intersting perspective on it but will lead you to their official site)…Citizenr?

Http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=60064384&blogID=222015123

I want to quickly add; I’m willing to bet, this is where things will be going once Citizenr? Launches, …something to think about.

Regardless whether you decide to get panels on your own now, or invest in the solar power utility company concept, either way, you’re doing a very good thing.