[ilikemonkeys]

So, I'm buying a house in the next couple months and I'm going to be very interested in converting to solar.

Are there any experienced solar people around these parts?

Could someone recommend a good place to start researching this topic?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[blessingx]

Not experienced, but do visit the Solar Living Institute when in Hopland, CA. Maybe be worth a look at their site and subscribing to their newsletter. Also a pretty decent resources page.

 

[AlanY]

Look into passive solar techniques (large south facing windows, passive floor heating system, thermal shutters, etc.) as well as active stuff (solar panels, etc.).

I find this home pretty interesting:
Off Grid Central Alberta Monolithic Dome
Totally off-grid in a part of the world with very cold winters. (These dome homes are ugly, but they're very cheap to build and ungodly energy efficient.)

 

[Uncle Erik]

Well, I can give a little help. We have apartments in the desert, and while they're not optimized for solar, there is a huge benefit in using double-paned windows and insulating the hell out of everything. Utility bills drop off noticeably. Sealing everything helps, too. I foam around every pipe in kitchens and bathrooms and use silicon caulk, too. An added benefit of that is that it keeps insects out. There are no more bug calls on places that are sealed.

If you're going to do any renovation/construction, I highly recommend using sound board everywhere. It's not expensive, but it adds more insulation and really makes the place quiet. It's absolutely worth it for the quiet, especially if you're listening to nice audio equipment!

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you're going to do any renovation/construction, I highly recommend using sound board everywhere. It's not expensive, but it adds more insulation and really makes the place quiet. It's absolutely worth it for the quiet, especially if you're listening to nice audio equipment!

Not to take the thread off topic, but I'd be interested in knowing what specific products to use for sound board in the construction process. For years, I've been thinking about adding on to my house to build a dedicated HT room that would double as my main 2 channel listening room.

One of the things that has held me back is the fear that I'd get caught up in all kinds of "out of budget" specialized room treatments, as well as demanding wiring requirements and so on. So I'm now in the process of "mothballing" as much information as I can about cost effective solutions that really work!

I'd like to have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing before starting into a project like this because the raw construction costs alone won't be cheap, just in terms of the structural aspects and getting it all to tie back into the existing house.

 

[ilikemonkeys]

Thank you everyone!

I won't be building new. I"m buying a nasty old house and fixing it up. I'm thinking of putting a battery pack in the basement and a solar panel on the roof. I don't use a lot of electricity anyway and think I could get this all done for a couple hundred bucks......but curious if anyone else here has done it already and figured out a better way.

If I do do any construction I will most definitely insulate well. I'm a big fan of insulation and sealing well.

 

[ecclesand]

One of my previous homes had a hot water solar system. I had 3 large solar panels on my roof and 2 large water heaters in my basement. One water heater was hooked to the panels and then to the second water heater which was also hooked to the natural gas supply coming into the house. The system was sealed and contained glycol (anti-freeze). The panels would heat the glycol which would then heat the water in the first water heater. The heated water from the first water heater would then pass to the second water heater which was hooked to our regular plumbing. Since we get a lot of sun in Colorado, we could go days without the natural gas burner firing up. It saved us quite a bit of money. It was a fairly old system too. I would imagine some of the systems you can buy today would be even better.

I would do some research via the internet. There's a lot of info out there. You can also get tax breaks for investing in such systems.