do i get enough light energy falling on my house to be self sufficent?

Question

do you get enough light energy to help cut costs

Answer 1

Self sufficiency from solar power depends upon how much area you can make use of, your geographical position and climatic conditions, how much energy you need and how much you're willing to pay for your solar system.

Answer 2

Depends if you mean to use the solar energy for heating or for electricity.

For solar heating, you can reduce costs significantly. But if you're in a mid-latitude climate (eg. New York, Pennsylvanie, Ohio), it's not enough to be self sufficient. It may be self sufficient in Arizona however.

For solar powered electricity, it's worse. There's a marginal cost cutting benefit, since presently photovoltaic cells are only roughly 15% efficient.

Hope this info helps.

Answer 3

It'll certainly cut costs I'm sure, but we don't know how much light energy you get, you might live in a huge guge bungalow and have covered the whole roof in solar panels. Anyway, you could get one of those water mills and connect it to a generator and use that to power your house too! If you have a spare couple of grand and a stream handy!

Answer 4

Yes

There are different products available for lower light areas. Best bet would be solar heating for hot water, powered by a PV operated pump. Not dependant on mains electric, making another saving. Even in winter you get hot water (about 50C) if you use double glazed panels.

Answer 5

You probably need about an acre to be able to photosynthesise enough food for a family.
another acre of copice woodland to photosynthesise heating fuel, furniture and buiding material
see Ben Law http://www.permaculture.co.uk/info/Grand_Designs2.html

tesla, http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1, recon $30,000 of solar pannels would meet your average motoring needs

a few low energy lights, laptop pc, no tv washer/dryer etc. could be met from a few sq feet of photovoltaics

Light pipes reduce the need for artificial light