Rather than rely on city electricity, we have installed solar panels so that we can use the energy from the sun to provide us with power.
The Photovoltaic Solar Power System
We have eight golf cart batteries, a Xantrex charger/inverter, and four Kyocera 130 watt photovoltaic panels.
We decided to have a centralized solar power system which runs electricity to five buildings, the furthest of which is 200 meters away from the panels. By using modern efficient invertors we convert 12V power to 120V and are able to efficiently send electricity over long distances and avoid the need to buy specialized 12V devices.
Simple maintenance of the batteries twice a year is required.
Conserving energy
The primary dollar cost savings are from our conservation of electricity rather than the fact that our electricity comes from solar power. If we did rely on city power, our electric bill would be very small. We use an estimated 5% of the electrical power that a normal household uses.
We have enough power to use laptops, watch occasional movies, and use compact florescents and LED lighting. We are conscious of every device we plug in. Hair dryers, coffee makers, and irons use too much power for our system to support. Charging cell phone or camera batteries is done during the day, when there is plenty of sunlight. Every afternoon we check to make sure we haven't left anything plugged in that is not being used. We must work together and remind each other to not waste electricity. Several ghost loads (devices left plugged in, using a small amount of power) can become a large enough drain on our system that it will not be able to provide us with luxuries such as the internet or an evening movie. Improvements in LED lights continue to give us more light per watt.
Other sources of electrical energy
We are always watching the latest developments for new sources of electricity. Wind power does not appear to make sense here. Fuel cells combined with solar electric production of hydrogen may provide for our energy needs in the future.
