was up, need a little ballpark figure 600 sqft house not to save world just not to depend on hydro 2 people regular living. what size of a system do u think i'll need thx
solar hook up
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EbS-P
Minister of Fire
not a clue lol, looking at a house in the country want stable hydro.we keep heat at 21c two people regular living, supplemental wood heating nothing out of the ordinary
First off, look up your net metering:
Looks like you CAN bank kWh that you produce in excess (e.g. in May-June) against needs in December. The bank gets zeroed out on March 21st every year. This is Good.
Second, look up your resource:
natural-resources.canada.ca
This is ~1100 kWh/kWp. That is a 1 kW system (that puts out 1 kW under ideal conditions, will give you 1100 kWh per year. This is on average, and will be ±10% per year. My guess is that your solar resource is very low Dec-Feb, due to lower sun and cloud cover, but the net metering 'bank' will cover you then with hydro. This is not a great resource number.
Third: Look up your current annual kWh usage. The interbloobs think you are paying 0.073 per kWh, or about 15 kWh/$. $5000/yr usage would imply you are using 75000 kWh per year, which seems very unlikely. If you were using a more reasonable 10,000 kWh/year, that would cost you $730/year. If your electricity is this cheap, combined with poor solar resource, your solar is going to have a terrible payback.
If you were using 10,000 kWh/year, and you wanted to replace it all with solar, you would need a large 9 kW rated array (since it would generate that much). That would not fit on a 600 sq ft house roof, and would cost tens of thousands of dollars. To save $730/year?
Last: If your hydro bill is really $5000 per year, you are probably using a vast amount of electricity compared to what it should be. You can probably find lots of power wasting appliances, etc, that would payback well if they were replaced. Looks like hydro has some good programs to get you started...
Net Metering Option I for Customer-Generators
Customer-generators can feed their surplus power into Hydro-Québec's grid in exchange for credits on their electricity bill.
www.hydroquebec.com
Looks like you CAN bank kWh that you produce in excess (e.g. in May-June) against needs in December. The bank gets zeroed out on March 21st every year. This is Good.
Second, look up your resource:
Photovoltaic potential and solar resource maps of Canada
natural-resources.canada.ca
This is ~1100 kWh/kWp. That is a 1 kW system (that puts out 1 kW under ideal conditions, will give you 1100 kWh per year. This is on average, and will be ±10% per year. My guess is that your solar resource is very low Dec-Feb, due to lower sun and cloud cover, but the net metering 'bank' will cover you then with hydro. This is not a great resource number.
Third: Look up your current annual kWh usage. The interbloobs think you are paying 0.073 per kWh, or about 15 kWh/$. $5000/yr usage would imply you are using 75000 kWh per year, which seems very unlikely. If you were using a more reasonable 10,000 kWh/year, that would cost you $730/year. If your electricity is this cheap, combined with poor solar resource, your solar is going to have a terrible payback.
If you were using 10,000 kWh/year, and you wanted to replace it all with solar, you would need a large 9 kW rated array (since it would generate that much). That would not fit on a 600 sq ft house roof, and would cost tens of thousands of dollars. To save $730/year?
Last: If your hydro bill is really $5000 per year, you are probably using a vast amount of electricity compared to what it should be. You can probably find lots of power wasting appliances, etc, that would payback well if they were replaced. Looks like hydro has some good programs to get you started...
Be energy wise and waste less
Why should we use less energy? How can we use energy more efficiently? Get information and tips that will help you take action now.
www.hydroquebec.com
the house i,m in now is not the 600sqft .5000 bucks is in my old field stone 2ft stone walls even hydro quebec was shocked when we called to check cost per year, i think it was around 8 grand .we have done a helluva lot of chasing down leaks to get it to 5 lol,still not finished
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
With a bill like that, odds are you need to substantially improve your insulation and air infiltration. Solar generally only makes sense when you start with relatively efficient home and high unit costs for electricity. Air infiltration and insulation are what are called "low hanging fruit" you grab those first as they have the best payback. In order to come up with even a ballpark we would need to know how many KWhrs you use monthly. My guess is Hydro Quebec has a meter on your house and you should be able to get copy of the monthly usage.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Yes but the house he is in now is not the house he is thinking of solar for.
I have designed several solar systems, first thing I need to know is how many KWhrs a month they need.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Yeah. But $8000 to heat 600 sq.ft. anywhere in North America would be something to see, nonetheless!
maple1
Minister of Fire
Well, yes. But I'm assuming the present house is a lot bigger than the 600 sq.ft. future house. Along with being a lot craftier.Yeah. But $8000 to heat 600 sq.ft. anywhere in North America would be something to see, nonetheless!
A tin shed with 600 sq ft floor area, and lets say a 1200 sq ft exterior area, let's say its R-1 insulation level, worse case. In a QC climate, that might need 200 kBTUs per square foot per heating season, so you would need about 240 MMBTU/season. Since 1 kWh = 3,400 BTU, we get 70,500 kWh to heat it with resistance heat. Since $8000 is more like 110,000 kWh, which is 60% above that figure, we should figure that it is both R-1, and you left a few windows open all winter.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
The mod's can tell you my post to that effect had a comment about heating a screened porch for less, which I had deleted to avoid offense.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Yes, true. But in this case I'm thinking the use in the current house might have nothing to do with the use in the future house. Or if it does, find a different future house. That is a huge amount of electrons.
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
Yes, but I think PeakBagger's remark was meant: if you want to know how many panels you want on that (potential) future 600 sqft home, you need to know how much power you're going to need (in that future 600 sqft home).
So regardless of current vs future home, if one wants input for a PV design, the first and necessary input is "how much power do you need".
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
But the point is that if that bill is for your current home, and you're looking at solar for that other home (that you don't own yet?), it won't help a lot.
Heating mode, domestic hot water mode, insulation, refrigeration, AC, water (well pump?) etc. all signifcantly affect power needs of a home.
Heating mode, domestic hot water mode, insulation, refrigeration, AC, water (well pump?) etc. all signifcantly affect power needs of a home.
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