What is the purpose of these articles?
* No offense, but many Americans have no idea of their electrical power consumption. We know how many miles per gallon our vehicle gets, how many gallons it holds, and how much each gallon costs, but not how many kilowatts we use a day, how many watts it takes to make a cup of coffee or watch a movie, or what it costs.
* Have you ever been an hour or two into a power outage yet STILL walk over and flip a light switch expecting light? Or leave the TV on on the Weather Channel all day like we’re trying to stop doing? We tend to take our grid for granted because for the most part, it’s always been there providing cheap, reliable power. But what if the price increased, the grid failed, or you just want power where there is no grid? It’s a great time to learn about alternatives.
* Because our most frequently asked question is “What will a SUNRNR run?”, part of our mission has become educating consumers in electricity basics and understanding the answer to that question is all based on load and time. A SUNRNR can be perfect for many applications, but keep following our blogs to better understand your requirements/options and see if a SUNRNR is appropriate for your application. We would prefer to lose a sale than to have an unsatisfied SUNRNR-owner.
Quick Tutorial/Power 101:
* Power companies bill in kilowatt hours (kWh). 1 kWh represents 1000 watts of electricity being used for 1 hour (or 1 watt for 1000 hours).
* Beware - the “hour” part of the unit mentioned above sometimes becomes invisible or assumed.
* Watts = Volts x Amps (Really important! Doesn’t matter whether you are talking 110 V AC, 220 V AC, 12 V DC, etc, Watts are Watts!) One SUNRNR with an 8D battery stores about 2000 of them without recharging and recharges at a rate of 260 W/hr.
* Appliances have data plates or spec sheets giving either watts or amps with which you can calculate daily (or monthly) requirements. If given in watts, that’s how many watts you would use if you ran that appliance at maximum FOR AN HOUR. If given in amps, multiply by 120 (common US AC appliance) or 220 (other) to get watts then see previous sentence. (Examples)
* National average grid electricity cost: $0.11 per kWh (increases expected, but anybody’s guess)
* National average household daily grid electrical energy usage: 31 kWh (Note: Take this statistic w/a grain of salt. It’s based on 2007 census and definition of “household”.)
* Another way to look at the usage above is that every household is using just over 1 kW EVERY HOUR of EVERY DAY.
* Next installment will use the data above to address your power (and money) requirements for stepping away from the grid.
So You Want To Get Off the Grid?
People have diverse reasons for wanting to go solar – be green, be prepared, be cool, no grid, etc. The following may help decide just how far off the grid you can afford to go.
1) Calculate your kWh daily usage by dividing total kWh used in billing cycle by number of days in cycle. Total kWh is on your bill or may be approximated by multiplying your electric bill in dollars times 10. (Different calculation from cost per kWh which incorporates taxes, fees, etc.)
2) Divide this number by the number for your location on this map http://www.energysavers.gov/pdfs/208.pdf (i.e. Virginia = 4, New Mexico = 6, Oregon = 2, etc). This accounts for the average number of hours of sun a given location receives per day. In other words, 1 kW of solar panels produces (your number here) kWh per day. The result is how many kilowatts of solar array you would need to generate the power you use daily.
3) The installation of a solar electric system averages $7,000 per kW of solar array required daily and calculated in 2) above. Multiply the answer from 2) by $7000 to estimate the cost to eliminate your electric bill by converting to solar. (Beware: it’s more like $10,000 per kW instead of $7,000 for the cost of a grid-tie solar system with batteries.)
4) Consider the federal income tax credit of 30% available for the above and any state incentives your state might provide (see www.dsireusa.org or http://statesolarincentives.net/).
5) Estimated payback on a grid tie solar electric system will take about __ years assuming electric rates rise __% each year. (many variables - one reliable site quotes 15 years at 5% increase)
6) Can you afford to go fully solar? If not, please consider partial alternative energy solutions like supplemental solar, grid-tie, or portable units.
7) Check back soon as we address the age-old question, “What can a SUNRNR Portable Solar Generator run?”
(Special thanks to www.huffmanelectricalsystems.com for much of the data used above.)
What can a SUNRNR Portable Solar Generator Run?
* Let’s say you are an “average Virginia household” using 30 kWh per day (which, by the way, would be about a $65,000 residential installation - see above). You’d need the energy stored in 15 SUNRNR units to get through the day … ONCE. I say “once” because then you’d need two days of bright sunshine to recharge before doing it again.
* A SUNRNR was never meant to be a residential solar system installation, but it could easily provide supplemental power for a home, primary power at a remote location such as a hunting cabin or camp, or backup power during an outage. The beauty of it is its ability to provide a useful amount of electricity anywhere and anytime - like a gas generator, but without the gas, noise, or emissions! Again, no fossil fuel, no sound at all, and no CO or CO2!
* The battery stores 2 kWh and can recharge at the rate of 260 W/hr when two solar panels are used. Think of it in terms of a banking analogy about making deposits (recharging when possible), saving (reducing consumption), withdrawing (using), and maximizing your balance in general. Please review our previous blog regarding electrical requirements, what you want to run, when, and for how long. While recharging, a SUNRNR could run a laptop, light, fan, fridge, and more while not dipping into the stored “balance”.
* To maximize your “account” balance over time, we recommend using LEDs for lighting. Say a typical incandescent is 100W (that’s 100 W every hour). The current new technology, CFL “twisties”, would give the same light for 20W. That’s substantial, but the new and future LEDs will do the same for just 3 watts!
* And yes, a SUNRNR can run a refrigerator, but for how long is based on numerous things including outside temperature, frost-free status, and door-openings since a refrigerator doesn’t run constantly.
* We also offer Power Modules that easily connect in series to double, triple, etc the power storage and generation available. These additional units allow the SUNRNR concept to go beyond replacing gas generators and compete in the partial home solar system arena.
* The above is totally focused on the solar side of SUNRNR! Please note we have incorporated a wind turbine charging portal!
Alternative Energy Return on Investment
* As stated previously, the national average for electricity from utilities (grid) is $0.11 per kWh. A rough estimate for electricity from solar today is four times that amount. Throw in federal and state incentives and hope for $0.30 per kWh. (Wind turbine data coming soon.)
* Alternative energy is not currently cheap or cost-effective, but as grid and gas prices rise, incentives increase, and renewable energy technology costs fall, it will get better.
* It is also important to remember that SUNRNR is not trying to compete with the grid, so comparing our kWh cost to theirs is moot in a sense. (We certainly have the advantage if considering running hundreds of feet of power line.) And since we’re renewable, cost per kWh gets even fuzzier. Our major goal is to provide clean, off-grid energy.
* In round numbers (and making assumptions slightly in our favor), let’s say a gas generator comparable to a SUNRNR costs $1000, uses one gallon of gasoline at $3/gal per hour at max, and is used on average one hour a day every day. After two years and 700 gallons of gasoline, a SUNRNR would be paid for, fuel is free, and the next required maintenance would be in three years or more. Added bonuses: 700 hours incessant putt-putt noise not heard and 700 gallons of gas not consumed.
* That’s an acceptable and environmentally-correct return on investment.
* So far, this discussion has been focused on personal and/or local use. It wouldn’t be complete without commenting in broader terms. Nationally and globally, the ROI could be dramatic, but difficult to define with a number. There would be numerous advantages for this country if FEMA would use solar generators instead of gas-powered at disaster sites like hurricanes or during the ice storm in the mid-West earlier this year. (And I love reminding people that it is difficult to get gas to run a gas generator for electricity when you need electricity to pump the gas.) As for globally, the US provides so much costly aid to other nations to help fight disease and improve quality of life. If we could get portable, renewable power to these people to allow for clean water and light at night, we would be teaching them to fish, not giving them one, and the investment could return many-fold.