*below is what I am doing, and a detail description of my work. All work was and is being done by me and my school partner. Teacher was there for information but it was all up to us. planning, equipment, meeting with principle and director of both schools to get approval etc.

I am going to school for renewable energy. My teacher gave me and another student a great opportunity to provide the high school next to us a off the grid solar powered green house. Part of their "green" contribution to the city.

So to start off this is what we needed to do:
-power a constant 340w load for 8hrs a day
Colorado gets average 5.6 hours of sun light so we needed 2.4 more hours to reach the required 8 hours.
-power an emergency 120w outlet
-have the system off the grid

After days and days of planning we came up with a perfect setup. Due to the roof limitations we could only use 2 panels. so we needed a battery. which required a charge controller. we used an inverter to convert DC to AC. The grow lights will be controlled with a programmable timer that turns them on and off. there is also a bypass switch to power the lights longer then what was programmed if needed. Room lighting will be controlled with a motion detector to keep energy used down.

Energy will be drawn directly from the PV panels during day light hours, after that energy will be drawn from the battery. The battery will be recharged everyday from the PV panels. The battery is capable of powering the entire load for 5 Days, so it will only drain very little in those 2.4 hours used.

Ok so enough talking and on to the pictures.
this is our green house. We recently got started but don't have much class time to get a lot of work done so progress will be slow. But oh yes, there will be lots of pics












here is a 3D model to show how the PV panels will be mounted. I tried countless scenarios and this setup gets no shadowing on panels and is doable.











This was the 4 best options. but pay attention to the shadow on the lower right building. shadow equals less energy.


and we finally mounted the rails. we still need to secure the section that is hanging over the edge. as soon as the weather lets us we will continue this awesome project.

btw it will take about 10 yrs for the system to pay for its self. After that energy will actually be free, for those 10yrs the school would have paid $2,000 for the installation. Solar power is the way to go for home use. unless you want a windmill or water plant in your back yard

Here is a video that I love everything they did. They worked fast and didn't take any short cuts. Being Mexican my self I'm glad they didn't use duct tape you can see how home use has a very practical use.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHCrdtIvD3I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHCrdtIvD3I[/ame]

interesting. what's the output of the panels your planning to use?

225w each and since they will be in parallel they will be 450w. The inverter will amplify the wattage to 800w or 900w.

I would love to have solar panels at my house but I'm not planning to live here long enough to make my money back...

there is some companies that lease solar panel systems. But leasing is only worth it if you are a hippie and just care more about the environment then saving money lol

since we are getting snow this next couple of days I might not make anymore progress. School safety thing.

That is awesome. When I went to school at Boulder, we worked on something very similar called the Solar Decathlon. Maybe you'll find it interesting: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/solar_decathlon_3.php

How many occupants is the project house meant for? Interesting indeed.

we just need the military to use solar panels for all their buildings in teh united states and this country would be golden

10 Year payback period is still a bitter pill to swallow, especially when you factor in the time value of money. If a project does not pay for itself in 5 years or less, then you won't get too many people buying in. Except for those that have alternative motives, i.e. rebates, subsidies, the environment or public perception.

There is a reason most businesses have not converted to solar power. For the most part the money just doesn't make sense yet. I have read about some promising advances in solar panels comming down the pipeline, but those are still a few years off.

Number2 wrote:That is awesome. When I went to school at Boulder, we worked on something very similar called the Solar Decathlon. Maybe you'll find it interesting

That is pretty cool, I would love to do a bigger project like this. I love being creative and I'm sure I could go nuts designing a house like this

Hschlick84 wrote:How many occupants is the project house meant for? Interesting indeed.

Just plants. Maybe marijuana plants lol

reconbygod12 wrote:we just need the military to use solar panels for all their buildings in teh united states and this country would be golden

It's funny you say that, the air force base is our backyard, I had this crazy idea when I was looking at there jets do laps. An electric jet plane ran of solar panels. In theory it would be able to fly non stop during daylight.

bobopud wrote:10 Year payback period is still a bitter pill to swallow, especially when you factor in the time value of money. If a project does not pay for itself in 5 years or less, then you won't get too many people buying in. Except for those that have alternative motives, i.e. rebates, subsidies, the environment or public perception.

Well think about it, if you have kids lets say 10yrs old, by the time they are 20yrs old they won't ever have to worry about paying electricity bills. Excel could crash and while everyone is freaking out, your kids will be relaxed playing PS7. This is more about the future, then now kinda thing.

bobopud wrote:
There is a reason most businesses have not converted to solar power. For the most part the money just doesn't make sense yet. I have read about some promising advances in solar panels comming down the pipeline, but those are still a few years off.

I can't argue there. As of right now the price of a kilowatt is about $0.30 using solar power and $0.12 by using excel service. But in 1976 the price of solar power was costing $50.00.

In 1960 the price per kilowatt using solar panels was $1,000

The price of solar energy is going down with technology advances. As a result of little natural resources excel has increased its price on kilowatts by 20%. Eventually one day it will be more expensive to pay excel for energy than it is to have solar energy in your home.

Update:

for those still interested in this. We have been busy with this project we are close to finishing just waiting for some equipment. things we have done are; installed support brackets for the overhanging rails, installed both panels, junction box to combine the panels. intalled equipment panel to protect from miss use. installed about 30ft of conduct 1/2 piping. (many bends) and area lights, also ran wire through the piping. ground rod (10ft down the ground) and ran a bond wire to protect from lighting strikes.

things to do; install inverter, relay, charge controller,manual and program-able timer, battery, and grow lights. (i think that's all)

Pictures in next post*

pictures of the panels.

more pictures of the custom brackets made by yours truly and the junction box, i know it looks uneven but that's because the roofs have different slopes but the box is level.