Nebraska Solar Energy

[ita]

honestly, I've thought about adding a solar panel or two because of the fluctuating energy prices. It's an initial expense, but would more than pay for itself over time and then I would also not have to worry about outages any time the wind blows. We've also had multiple weeks where utility work has been done near our house and have lost power for multiple hours at a time either due to planned actions or accidentally cutting the wrong wire. It's a nuisance, of course, but it makes you think 'what if I didn't have to rely on the a-holes all the time?' The fact that it's "green" energy is a bonus

We've been debating adding a panel or two as well. The initial expense is pretty sizeable, but it would pay for itself in time. And the convenience in power outages would be a nice insurance.

For those who have looked into it or actually gone through it, what is the price range for panels and battery installation for a residence?

[thenewguy]

it's cloudy today, solar energy doesn't work.

Just to point out to people who don't know, this was a joke. Solar power still generates when it is cloudy and can even generate during a full moon.

lol, yes, thank you. I should have said that...cause I'm sure the sarcasm didn't translate well

[TransitOriented]

honestly, I've thought about adding a solar panel or two because of the fluctuating energy prices. It's an initial expense, but would more than pay for itself over time and then I would also not have to worry about outages any time the wind blows. We've also had multiple weeks where utility work has been done near our house and have lost power for multiple hours at a time either due to planned actions or accidentally cutting the wrong wire. It's a nuisance, of course, but it makes you think 'what if I didn't have to rely on the a-holes all the time?' The fact that it's "green" energy is a bonus

We've been debating adding a panel or two as well. The initial expense is pretty sizeable, but it would pay for itself in time. And the convenience in power outages would be a nice insurance.

For those who have looked into it or actually gone through it, what is the price range for panels and battery installation for a residence?

Everyone's favorite answer....it depends. It's like asking, how much does a house cost, how much does a car cost, etc.

Depends on your wants/needs. Depends if you grid tie or not (pretty much everyone grid ties). Depends on your roof. Depends on your installer. Depends on what extras you want. The actual panels themselves are pretty cheap, but they are such a small part of the overall cost of the system.

[ita]

honestly, I've thought about adding a solar panel or two because of the fluctuating energy prices. It's an initial expense, but would more than pay for itself over time and then I would also not have to worry about outages any time the wind blows. We've also had multiple weeks where utility work has been done near our house and have lost power for multiple hours at a time either due to planned actions or accidentally cutting the wrong wire. It's a nuisance, of course, but it makes you think 'what if I didn't have to rely on the a-holes all the time?' The fact that it's "green" energy is a bonus

We've been debating adding a panel or two as well. The initial expense is pretty sizeable, but it would pay for itself in time. And the convenience in power outages would be a nice insurance.

For those who have looked into it or actually gone through it, what is the price range for panels and battery installation for a residence?

Everyone's favorite answer....it depends. It's like asking, how much does a house cost, how much does a car cost, etc.

Depends on your wants/needs. Depends if you grid tie or not (pretty much everyone grid ties). Depends on your roof. Depends on your installer. Depends on what extras you want. The actual panels themselves are pretty cheap, but they are such a small part of the overall cost of the system.

If you or anyone have an estimate or actual cost avaialble, please feel free to list how many panels, type of panels, year estimate/installed, etc. More details the better. I am just wondering if this is something that is within reach of a median income home owner (me).

[Busguy2010]

So, a few questions for anybody with knowledge on the subject... I've been thinking about solar energy for my greenhouse and I really have very little clue on how it works. I think I vaguely understand that you have the panels, hook them to an inverter, and that charges a battery that you can then hook an outlet to? Is that generally how that works? I just kind of want to try it out on my greenhouse to dip my toe. Getting a little tired of heating it with the wood stove, so wondering if it's even plausible to run a space heater just enough to keep the place in the 36° range. How many panels that takes, how big a battery I'd need, what kind of knowledge I need to have to calculate what amount of energy I need, what knowledge I need generally, etc. I think I have a small idea, but not sure where to start.

I see they have some pretty cheap panels/ kits on Amazon and Harbor Freight, but it seems like that isn't the expensive part. I've seen jackery too, but they want like $3,000 and that doesn't seem like it would meet my need, but maybe I'm wrong.

Any conversation on the subject is appreciated oh and put it in layman's terms please, electricity is NOT my strong suit lol

[almighty_tuna]

You're mostly correct. At a high level the panels (20VDC) would provide power to a controller which would output at 12VDC to charge the batteries, then the inverter gets power from the batteries and provides 120vAC.

In order to figure out how much power you need you must first choose your heating solution and check its specs. Frankly, to make this even easier for you, get a 12VDC heater and you won't even need to worry about an inverter to 120VAC.

[nebugeater]

So, a few questions for anybody with knowledge on the subject... I've been thinking about solar energy for my greenhouse and I really have very little clue on how it works. I think I vaguely understand that you have the panels, hook them to an inverter, and that charges a battery that you can then hook an outlet to? Is that generally how that works? I just kind of want to try it out on my greenhouse to dip my toe. Getting a little tired of heating it with the wood stove, so wondering if it's even plausible to run a space heater just enough to keep the place in the 36° range. How many panels that takes, how big a battery I'd need, what kind of knowledge I need to have to calculate what amount of energy I need, what knowledge I need generally, etc. I think I have a small idea, but not sure where to start.

I see they have some pretty cheap panels/ kits on Amazon and Harbor Freight, but it seems like that isn't the expensive part. I've seen jackery too, but they want like $3,000 and that doesn't seem like it would meet my need, but maybe I'm wrong.

Any conversation on the subject is appreciated oh and put it in layman's terms please, electricity is NOT my strong suit lol

If you are on Facebook, join this group.

Hobby Greenhouse
https://www.facebook.com/groups/249360229989416


I follow it, and I think a lot of the questions you have are covered with discussions there.

I follow it because of the Hydroponic Aerogardens that I have in my basement. Not what this group covers really but I learn a bunch there

[almighty_tuna]

To dive just a hair further into it, if you had a 25A 1100BTU heater such as this one:
https://www.camperid.com/family-safety- ... ifications

and a 12VDC 100Ah battery, the math says that if you run it at 100% duty cycle it will only take 4hrs to drain the battery. So you have to make sure you're providing either enough power to keep up charging, or alter the duty cycle of your heater to account for a lower output panel array.

[Busguy2010]

If you are on Facebook, join this group.

Hobby Greenhouse
https://www.facebook.com/groups/249360229989416


I follow it, and I think a lot of the questions you have are covered with discussions there.

I follow it because of the Hydroponic Aerogardens that I have in my basement. Not what this group covers really but I learn a bunch there

Thanks! I'll look into that. Interesting you do Hydro. I think I'll start a gardening thread to discuss that subject there.

[Busguy2010]

To dive just a hair further into it, if you had a 25A 1100BTU heater such as this one:
https://www.camperid.com/family-safety- ... ifications

and a 12VDC 100Ah battery, the math says that if you run it at 100% duty cycle it will only take 4hrs to drain the battery. So you have to make sure you're providing either enough power to keep up charging, or alter the duty cycle of your heater to account for a lower output panel array.

That's the hard part for me is that all that terminology goes right over my head. I have no idea what any of it means and how it interacts with what I'm wanting to do, so if you have any time to break it down, it's much appreciated!

In simple terms, that looks like a pretty small heater and I doubt it would get the job done for me, especially if it only will last 4 hours. The heater I was thinking of using is also pretty much the smallest space heater you can buy at Lowe's and it sounds like it draws more energy that one you linked.

So basically I need to try and find out :

How much energy that heater draws.

How big of a battery I'd need to run it overnight during the longest nights/shortest days of the year just enough to keep it above freezing.

How much solar panel I'd need to charge that battery enough for my intended use.

And is it even possible with a relatively small setup? Or would I need basically a solar farm in my yard to run that heater?

Any guidance is very much appreciated!

[almighty_tuna]

So the 25amp draw is how much power the devices uses. Ah is amp hours. A metaphor would be orange juice; if you have thirsty child who drinks 1C of juice per hour (100% duty cycle, in other words that kid is drinking at full capacity) and a jug that can hold four cups of OJ, that kid will run you out of juice in four hours. But if you tell that kid he only gets 1/2C of juice per hour (aka turn down the heater to half or only run it 30min per hour) then that same jug of OJ will last now 8hrs.

How big is your greenhouse? Info on the Ferrellgas website states:

For example, a 300 square foot room typically requires 7,000 BTUs to maintain a comfortable temperature, while a 1,000 square foot room requires 18,000 BTUs.

A simple formula to determine your heating needs is:

(desired temperature change) x (cubic feet of space) x .133 = BTUs needed per hour.

Once you have your requirement for how much power you need to heat your space then you can look at what you need to supply that demand.

[Busguy2010]

Thanks! According to that calculation and if I simulate the awful cold we had earlier this month, I'd only need 2,000 BTU/hour to keep it above freezing, and that's in the most extreme conditions.

It's starting to sound a little more feasible.

SO if I just go with the extreme and guess I need 2,000 BTU/hour for 18 hours during the harshest periods, I'd think that setup would be more than adequate for 98% of the other time.

Just going with that 2,000 BTU/hr for 18 hours, how serious of a solar setup would that require?

It's cool I looked up the BTU of wood and so if I needed 36,000 BTU per night, there's between 6M and 10M BTUs in a half cord (thats the amount I buy or harvest about every 3 years for my greenhouse), on the low end that checks out to about 60 nights per year if it's that harsh every night, and I usually need to heat the greenhouse from February 1st - April 20th or so.

Well anyway, I'm running low on wood, that's why I'm considering switching to electricity if it's possible.

[Busguy2010]

So now I need to figure out how 36,000 BTU/night relates to how much energy my heater pulls, what battery size I'd need, and how much solar panel I'd need to charge it, I guess?

According to a calculation I just looked up, my 1500W heater (assuming that's on high) can do ~ 5,000 BTU/hr, so I believe it would do what I need it to do.

I'm just having a hard time relating that to what capacity battery I'd need and how serious of a solar panel I'd need.

[almighty_tuna]

Pretty much. If you put two of those batteries together (parallel) you'd get 8hrs of full duty heating time from one of those heaters. Consider maybe a fan to move the air around so that would be some minor additional power overhead. Some dirty back of napkin math using a Renogy DCC30S charger with max 400W of input (4 100W solar panels) would theoretically charge one 100ah battery in 4-6hrs. Two batteries in double that time of course.

You could also consider how to make your greenhouse more efficient for this type of installation. Do you really need to heat the entire greenhouse or just the area with plants. I'm picturing my dad's old greenhouse where there were shelves of plants up to around 3-4ft and the rest above was just empty space with the glass part of it. By lowering the volume of air you're heating up you could save a lot of battery. Can you essentially make a quasi-blanket fort so you're not heating unused space far above the plants?

Man, diving into the solar world with a project using one of the most energy hungry devices - heaters - is rough!

[Busguy2010]

Maybe I'd be good just to try it to see how long it works. I just don't want to be foolish and spend $1,000+ to find out a panel or two will only power the heater for 5 minutes. I just have no idea what I can expect.

[almighty_tuna]

Yeah, it's relatively cheap to just do some testing with a heater and see what your real world needs actually are.

[Brad]

Just and FYI, I have a Jackery competitor. Its a good battery for what I need but its not good with heating elements. Its good for my CPAP and charging camera batteries. However I tried to use it on a small single cup coffee brewer and it wouldn't even power on. Then my wife tried to use it with a crock pot with very limited success. I think you will need quite the battery to run a space heater all night.

I have seen quite a few van/camper setups that use these Battle Born Batteries with their solar setup. https://battlebornbatteries.com/

[Busguy2010]

Thanks, I was kinda looking for an anecdotal idea of it. So still looking at pretty big battery = $$$$

Anyway, I still want to find out how big a battery. If I can find one under $1000, I'd probably do it. Anybody know how I'd calculate the amount of amp hours my heater would draw?

[Coyote]

$62 million federal grant is expected to usher in new era of solar power use across Nebraska

LINCOLN — A $62 million federal grant awarded Monday to a Nebraska nonprofit is expected to launch a new era of solar energy use across the state, making it more accessible and affordable to a wider audience. The “Solar for All” grant, on a practical level, is to install power systems for more than 9,000 historically disadvantaged Nebraska households that stand to save at least 20% in monthly utilities costs. The funds are designed to create jobs, reduce pollution and increase the amount of deployed solar energy in the state by more than 60% over the five-year grant period, said Brian Depew, executive director of the Lyons-based Center for Rural Affairs, which won the award.

But more importantly in the long run, Depew said, the grant should build momentum in a state that has been slower than many others to jump on the solar energy train. Part of that, he said, is because Nebraska enjoys relatively cheap power. “It’s exciting,” said Depew. “We are just at the vanguard of solar in Nebraska, and this can be part of building our solar industry in a way that goes beyond the folks we’ll be able to serve through this project.”


A community solar project in Norfolk celebrated its completion in June 2022. (Courtesy of the Center for Rural Affairs)

[Coyote]

Nebraska nonprofit awarded $62.4 million grant for solar power development



LENEXA, Kan. (WOWT) - The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that a Nebraska-based nonprofit has been selected to receive grant money to develop solar power programs that target low-income communities. The Center for Rural Affairs is receiving $62.4 million through the Solar for All grant competition. The award is part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, created under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The EPA says Solar for All will serve the state with support for rooftop and multi-family solar infrastructure, with a focus on low-income households. A portion of the money will also be set aside for use in collaboration with Nebraska Tribes. The Center for Rural Affairs is among 49 state-level awards handed out by the EPA Tuesday, totaling about $5.5 billion. The program will help meet Biden’s goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy by 2050. In all, the EPA estimates the 60 recipients of Solar for All will allow over 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged homes to deploy and benefit from solar energy.