Solar at Home: Scientific American Blogs

Jan 3, 2010 07:10 PM | 9 comments

Tools for doing your own energy audit

Editor's Note: Scientific American's George Musser will be chronicling his experiences installing solar panels in Solar at Home (formerly 60-Second Solar). Read his introduction here and see all posts here.

The last piece of my solar array fell into place three weeks ago when the utility installed two new meters on my house, one that registers solar energy generation (for determining tradable credits) and one that registers net home consumption (for billing). So far, my array has produced as much as 8.1 kilowatt-hours per day, which is actually a bit more than the PV Watts calculator predicts for a system of my size (3 kW). But the job isn't over yet. It may never be.

Dec 14, 2009 05:45 PM | 78 comments

Solar panels for the rest of us

By George Musser

Just last week, I blogged about how the future would bring solar panels with built-in electrical inverters, greatly simplifying the design and installation of solar arrays. Well, the future is here already. Two days after my post, California installer Akeena Solar announced that Lowes's California stores would begin selling Andalay solar panels that, because they incorporate an inverter, output AC power rather than DC. “AC modules will be one of those technologies that change things,” says Andrew McCalla, CEO of Meridian Solar, the leading installer in Texas.

Dec 11, 2009 01:45 PM | 13 comments

Should you add batteries to your solar array?

By George Musser

Once upon a time, all solar arrays were off-grid. That was the whole point: solar enthusiasts wanted to, or had to, generate their own electricity rather than rely on a utility. They installed banks of batteries to store power for use when the sun went down. Today, with net-metering, we let the grid "store" the power for us. That said, batteries have not gone away entirely.

Dec 8, 2009 12:00 PM | 10 comments

Should you get solar now, or wait?

By George Musser

It’s the eternal question: Buy now or wait? Assuming you want to install solar panels on your roof, should you go for it or hold off for better technology or lower prices? I don't have a definitive answer, but let me offer a few thoughts that might inform your decision.

Dec 1, 2009 09:18 PM | 14 comments

The power of negative thinking, aka net-metering

By George Musser

Our solar project has sunk back into its bureaucratic mire: We're still waiting on the state to come out and inspect the array, so that the utility can install a new electronic meter and we can start to receive credit for any surplus electricity we generate and contribute to the grid -- a procedure known as net-metering. Paul Cronshaw of Santa Barbara, Calif., sent me a copy of his latest electric bill to show me what it looks like: his July, August, and September bills were negative and his October one was pocket change.

Nov 17, 2009 04:21 PM | 13 comments

Will solar thermal heat up again?

By George Musser

It used to be that the term "solar panel" connoted a solar thermal panel, which uses sunlight to heat your house or tap water, as opposed to a photovoltaic (PV) panel, which produces electric power. These days, though, attention (not to mention sunlight) focuses on PV. Many people assume that solar hot water heaters are all well and good for, say, Israel, but ill-suited to high-latitude, cloudy, snowy climes such as the U.S. Northeast. But Scott Wilson of Olney, Md., begs to differ.

Nov 10, 2009 11:00 AM | 16 comments

Stories from solarland: What's it like to install a solar array?

By George Musser

Editor's Note: Scientific American 's George Musser will be chronicling his experiences installing solar panels in Solar at Home (formerly 60-Second Solar). Read his introduction here and see all posts here.

I've gotten some great responses to my call for stories about solar installations. In this post, I'll describe the grid-tied photovoltaic arrays that people told me about, and in a subsequent one, I'll mention other approaches such as solar thermal. I'm struck by the commonalties among our experiences. People report comparable subsidies and payback periods.

Nov 2, 2009 11:16 AM | 18 comments

Calling all solar enthusiasts: Tell me about your system!

By George Musser

Have you installed a grid-connected solar array on your home? If so, I'd love to hear about your experience! I'm planning to pull together a series of blog posts that surveys the variety of projects out there to see what common themes emerge. Please contact me offline at solarathome@sciam.com and summarize what you've done: the size of the system, its performance, your location, the subsidies (if any) you've taken advantage of, any problems you encountered, whatever. If you're blogging about it, include the URL and I'll link to it.

Oct 29, 2009 05:50 PM | 17 comments

Prospects for solar: "It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995"

By George Musser

I may be one of the few people in my town to have solar power right now, but if the news I’m hearing from the Solar Power International trade show this week is right, a wave of installations is about to sweep the country. I wasn’t able to attend the show -- this blog is just a sideline for me and I couldn’t justify a whole trip -- but I had a chance to talk with two conference attendees, Mike Caliel, CEO of IES, a big national energy contractor that has gotten heavily involved in renewables, and Harry Fleming, CEO of Acro Energy Technologies, one of the biggest solar installers in California.

Both of them called the show “overwhelming” on account of the huge number of new companies -- especially new panel manufacturers, and especially Chinese ones. “These new guys are dragging down the prices for everyone,” Fleming said. A year ago, panels cost $4 a watt, now it’s $2 a watt for brand-name panels and as little as $1.50 a watt for lesser-known manufacturers. With so much new capacity, he said he expects prices to continue to fall.

Oct 27, 2009 11:03 AM | 36 comments

The albedo effect

By George Musser

Someone commenting on one of my recent posts posed an interesting question:

I wonder how much the albedo change of your roof offsets gains from electricity, much of the suns short wave energy must be being converted to heat therefore enhancing greenhouse (as well as producing some electricity) can you prove you are actually energy balance positive???

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