Who here know someone with solar energy in their homes?

Answer 1

Hi!
I live in Australia and I'm part of the "alternative" community. I have spent many years travelling around the place and in my travels I've visited a lot of homes which are completely reliant on solar power for all their needs. I have lived in a couple of rental houses in remote communities which have foregone the outrageous expense of having the infrastructure built to connect to the grid in favour of the (approximately) $AUD4 000 to get a full solar set-up installed. It works. without any maintenance or worries at all.

The grand thing about solar these days is that there are a lot of companies which can design a set-up for exactly what you have or are planning, in that an audit is done of your requirements in terms of how many rooms with what appliances are in each, how many lights, what place you live in and the amount of hours of sunlight that are available etc. etc. Then they can design the perfect set-up for you.

As well as this, the Federal Government here provide a 50% subsidy for the cost of going solar...this is obtained through the premiums charged for "green" power in cities. It's not precisely "green" in that it's not solar or wind power you're getting but the premiums are what provide the government with the funds to provide subsidies.

I've also had the priviledge to visit a couple of completely sustainable houses - mud brick construction, composting toilet, solar power, vege patch, passive solar heating - what are known as "energy-neutral" homes in that they have zero energy requirements....right from the word "go"...

Hope this helps...if you want more details such as likely websites to get professional info, let me know. I'll be happy to point you in the right direction.

Love and Light,

Jarrah

Answer 2

In Mexico we got two schools in the bush about sustainable farming and autosuficiency ,both have solar panels for the lights ,computors and projection
with 4 panels and 4 batteries we got light all night

In South Africa,Australia,that i Know are many farmers who use solar Panels for pumping water as well as House use

in the USA are many isolated houses and farms that use solar Panels
and All over the world ,many modern Yachts have solar panels for their radio equipment

these are just a couple of examples , solar energy is all over the place

in Mexico the street lights on the outlaying roads have solar powered energy
so far Solar panels are still expensive mbut in realiry they are not expensive to make and could be made from recycled trash

the need just hast been big enough by the masses because they are addicted to government electric infrastructure
and the governments like it this way ,so not much assistance will be found to devellop alternative energies whilst they are making money with the ones they got .

but in the future ,(if we ever make it that far)alternative energy will be promoted and costs will sink
the problem is that the governments have not yet figured a way how to charge peole for the Sun and the wind .

Answer 3

I know of people that have some form of solar power in use in their homes, but nobody that has actually went to total solar power.