Solar power?

[mkymo]

I've prices out running electric to my shop, and putting in a 60amp panel. I don't need much out there cause it is more of a man cave than workshop. The price was surprisingly $$$$. Mostly cause of the trenching and wire having to run to the back of the property where the shop is located. So I have started looking into small solar power system for it and wondered if anyone has any experiences with them. Good or bad, thanks!

Mike

 

[sherlocktk]

I am getting solar installed on my house today. (6.1kw system, Grid tie) If you are looking for solar, you need to figure out what you are running out in your shop. If its just a couple of lights and a TV solar would be adequate. You would be looking at offgrid solar. (which means batteries and a more expensive controller). That system is likely to run about $2000 if you diy it for a 1kw system. Assuming you need a couple hunderd watts to mess around in the garage.

My guess is its cheaper to dig the trench and install the sub panel.

 

[69gp]

The only way solar will help you out is if you have a grid tie system that puts out 25 to 35 KW a day. If you get a harbor freight system it will will only give you a few hundred watts a day, then you would need batteries and an inverter. not very effective. Fixed panels ramp up then only produce max power for roughly 2 hrs a day then start to drop off. A tracker system which would follow the sun would give you better performance by about an additional 20 percent.

site is where i was working at today 5.5 meg site

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JpAVQybT_w0E2rb8IlXQCndSv1pqdiaMynJDLVh70gM=w403-h226-p-no

 

[kd3pc]

as sherlock indicates a few lights, and a small tv/stereo, even a small drill or some such....$2k or so....

anything 240, or that pulls amps....will be more, sometimes exponentially more, as the controllers, and inverters are $$. Solar is really not an answer for HVAC or high current devices. Whole house retrofits can easily get in to 10's of thousands of dollars and that assumes you have solar friendly HVAC and gas range/hotwater.

Hamilton Ferris has some nice DIY systems at reasonable prices.

 

[HOTFR8]

Plenty of topics on Solar power on the forum if you look for them.

 

[James-W]

While solar could be the best way to go in some situations, in your particular situation I think running a cable to the shop would be the best route.

 

[hh76]

I've been designing and installing solar for about 12yrs, and can tell you that if utility power is available, it's almost always more cost effective than a stand alone solar system.

The exceptions usually come when the load is very small, such as a light or 2.

If you wanted enough battery power to run a tv, lights and other odds and ends for more than an a couple hours, I'd suspect that your battery bank alone would be approaching the multiple thousand dollar range.

 

[ambenz]

Have you thought about a diesel generator?
You can add a cheapo solar system for lights and put in a diesel for major power when you need it.
As mentioned, still more $$$ than digging a trench...Do It Yourself and save a lot of money because labor is the most expense in the quote.

 

[CrashTestDummy]

Cost to bury cable depends a lot on the distance, which I suspect in this instance is a couple of hundred feet, at least. A few years ago, we ran cable to power our 200A service to our new shop. The distance was almost 200'. They used some pretty big copper to make the run, three of them, and the cost just for the wire was ~$7K.

 

[ForceFed70]

I wouldn't recommend solar for your application. You're looking at a minimum $2000 investment that won't run as much as a single 15A circuit would do. Plus you'll have to replace batteries every 5 years or so which will easily cost you $400 each time.

 

[ACDNate]

Are you looking at cost to do it as a sub panel from existing service or a stand alone service? In my case it was better to pay the power companies "share" to put stand alone on my garage than to try and do a sub panel myself.