Goals - Solar Power
Solar energy has become increasingly popular in the last few decades. It’s no wonder why, as solar energy is our planet’s most abundant energy resource. Solar has come down in price almost exponentially in the last 20 years making it one of the easiest sustainable solutions to get into. It's important to understand why you want solar. Solar power and energy systems exist at different scales of cost and complexity.
Whether it's to save money, have backup power to run some or all of your house, or live entirely off the grid with solar.
- I want to run my lights, fridge, and computer during a power outage
- I want to run most or all of my house when the power goes out.
- I want to to reduce my power bill.
- I want to run a energy system for my remote cabin / yurt / house
How to start for any solar goal:
Living off an energy system is simple math. How big is your battery? How much energy are you using daily? and How much solar comes in each day. See figure below
For any solar power goal, the first and most important task is to figure out how much energy and how much power(in real time) you will be using daily.
The Watt Meter!
This is one of the cheapest and best useful tools for figuring out basic single appliance energy. It plugs into the wall, you reset it to zero with the blue button, then plug in what you want to test and let it on for a day. When you come back, read the KWH on the meter and add that to your daily energy!
Emporia whole house meter
This is the best cheapest whole house meter on the market. At a cost of less than $200 and about 3 hours to install, its one of the best house and 16 individual circuit meters that exist!
Power Company Bill
Viewing the entire yearly consumption of your house energy can lead to some good basic starting metrics for what solar might be able todo.
Energy Calculation example:
