RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

Hi Lindsay,

How many kwh's in a year is 1800.00 worth of power? Does Florida encourage grid tie connections?

If I went with Ontario where recently the power companies had to purchase solar generated power from home owners at $.80 per KWH it would not take long at all to have "pay back".

On the other hand--where I live, Saskpower pays a measly $0.04 per KWH to the grid tied owner, so pay back is a lot longer. I feel it is short sighted of them because most of the electric power here comes from brown coal.

I asked first, but you can use mine at $1800/year in Florida which ranks 5th lowest per capita electrical usage in the 50 states (57 for some of you). I mean how much would it cost to equip my house for year around solar PV electrical usage. We have natural gas heat and water heater. 2300 sq feet and we know how to utilize overhead fans which make a big difference. The cost should not include the 30% federal tax credit or any state or utility rebates. How much does it cost to have turnkey solar so I can have power on demand for all need as I do now?

Hi Lindsay,

Got a link for a typical 3 bedroom 2000 sq ft energy audit?

Got a link for the typical 3 bedroom 2000 sq ft American home turnkey?

Hi Lindsay,

With the cost of panels as low as $0.80 cents per watt the pay back is no long infinite.

Hard to have a small concentrator system on a home. Or an RV *grin*

They are more common in other parts of the world. SOme even use molten salt instead of mineral oil. Solar is great for heating water (or preheating). In the 1950's they were common in Florida for both preheating hot water and for pool water heating. There were even a lot of DIY installations. Photovoltaic is great for area where it would be expensive to run power, like on road signs and billboards. If you already have power say to a home, they have an infinite payback and make little sense. They also much have some type of storage system which is expensive. I have a solar trickle charger on my coach batteries. We have a poster here who claims to be solar, but his panel will not even run a one slice toaster.

Hi Lindsay,

Hard to have a small concentrator system on a home. Or an RV *grin*

Great results on the crash test except for everybody being killed. That 70 mph test is like a head on at 35 mph. I am of the school that I want to be in a heavier, larger car in a crash. When a big car head ons a mini car, the G forces are a lots less on the heavier car. I agree there is some losses on fossil fuels, but oil is transported all, but the last stage via pipeline, gas is all the way via pipeline and coal is usually by cheap rail. I am a big fan of solar except for the fact that the power generated does not begin to pay for the interest on the capital. This makes it totally dependent on heavy governmental subsidies. The concentration method of solar is much more efficient than photovoltaic, but has been fought tooth and nail by the environmentalist.

Hi Lindsay,

That's why small solar makes so much sense to me. On site generation with low losses.

It is unfair to say that fossil fuels don't "lose energy" when transported, because it takes energy to operate pipe lines, railroads and trucks.

Do look at the smart car crash testing video. It survives a high speed crash--but the G forces are always tremendous in any such high speed collision.

smart car crash video

LindsayRichards wrote:
Safety is also a huge factor. These mini cars (not even meeting the standards) will be flattened in a highway speed crash. It is all political as we have massive amounts of untapped fossil fuels in the US. It is all about global warming even though we haven't had any in the last decade and a half. Electricity for any EV must be made somehow. Wind and solar are a tiny fraction and electricity loses large amounts in transmission unlike fossil fuels.

tomman58 wrote:

The Weekenders wrote:

Fezziwig wrote:

LindsayRichards wrote:
... All of the shale oil goes to US refineries...

The USA (thus, it's taxpayers) own no refineries, they are privately owned and may sell their product wherever they wish. They are in no sense "US refineries" other than they happen to be located in the US.

... and it's value is contributed to the supply side of the world wide supply demand equation.

The product goes into the world-wide pool and is in NO sense US gas. Any gas we in the US want must then be bought out of that pool. Thus, "US refineries" do NOTHING for energy independence or increasing US supply.

... ND oil country has no unemployment, McDonald's pays $15/hour with a sign on bonus, wages are very high, and property values are spiking.

And when it goes bust (as ALL resource exploitation does, unless it's under rigid government control like Saudi Arabia, etc.) there will be widespread poverty, unemployment and general misery, beyond anything the local government can handle.

People are fleeing CA and going to ND.

Good riddance. They're just plugging up the roads anyhow. Let ND have all that mess. And they WILL get the mess.

ND is beautiful and will remain so.

ND will be destroyed by this "rape the earth" crowd just like every victim of resource exploitation in history.

Beautiful NoDak will remain just that. Coalmining areas from years past near Fallkirk and Washburn are incredibly restored and is now very productive farmland. Old timers say it looks better than before the mining. I suspect we will be just fine in the western 1/3 of NoDak as well. JMO

beautiful ND ??? I mean unless you like hours on end of lawn get real. The girlnext door is five miles away and if that one is ugly you need to move! LO.

Lawn? Some city people, HAHA! It is praire. Michigan is the poster of awesome. :R