re: The worlds best solar product is here

First time I saw the place I thought it was a new shopping or fitness center. Friend at work told me it was a house.

How many amphrs per day and what sort of discharge depth were used to figure out the system requirements?

A relatively quick online search and a few calculators I found spit out approximately 43k watts per day (considering 8 hours per day on the 4 1.5 ton units and moderate electrical use elsewhere), and using a 24V battery bank, maximum of 2 days without sunlight, and a 50% discharge depth I came up with approximately 7200 amphrs per day.

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Its autoclave aerated concrete. Very nice inside.

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I thought that I saw ICF's in the architect's pics, I'd def go that route if I build down here again.

So I'm all set to watch the Super Bowl and damn it I need to call a buddy to come jump start my house

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it was to prove the power output. It just so happened to power it for 24hrs.

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I can see that,picking the perfect day for the test would be key,for a lot of reasons.

I absolutely believe a home can be created to be entirely energy self reliant. I think being realistic going in,keeping consumption down,having several different ways to produce power,are the only way to make it a reality.

A well insulated house,on a day with good sunshine,with solar panels shielding most of the roof,a high of 80 and a low of 30,it could be pretty easy to keep consumption down. On a cloudy,stifling summer day,with storms moving in and temps around 100 for 16 straight hours,it's a different ballgame.Output would drop way down,while consumption would go way up.

People lived without AC in the south for 200+ years. It's not a necessity.

If the idea is to conserve energy,transfer of temp would need to be controlled ,no matter what you use to heat your water or cook with.

Gulf Coast, there is no reason why a solar water heater wouldn't work most of the year.

This stuff can be done,keeping consumption and waste down seems the most important part to me.

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This stuff can be done,keeping consumption and waste down seems the most important part to me.

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Sure, but you'll need incredibly deep pockets. Unfortunately energy efficiency =/= cost effective for the vast majority of homebuilders. There is a ton of give and take some of the energy-effiecient products/methods are just too damn expensive to gain mainstream support anytime soon.

I'm not trying argue against this being the future, but I'm not sure a solar system on a 6k square foot house is really that much of a game changer in the grand scheme of things.

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People lived without AC in the south for 200+ years. It's not a necessity

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I saw a show on the history channel a while back that was kind of eye opening. Without air conditioning, pretty much any "big" city outside of NOLA wouldn't exist in the south in close to its current capacity. All the other cities didn't flourish until air conditioning. Not enough people willing to work in concrete office buildings, stacked up in the burbs, etc. When it's 90F out all the time. NOLA only got to where it was due to the incredible port location.

In reference to the solar panels, I still have doubts about battery banks and costs. I would put a grid tie in system on a house in a heart beat if I was building new (and if it didn't make the house look God awful). But I seem to recall battery life of closers to 5 years and thousands to replace them. Plus the upfront cost of the panels isn't all that cost efficient when I'm paying like $120 a month for electricity now.

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Pics not working for me. Link

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TD doesnt want pics on the site or a link. Sorry.