Solar power (for tortoise)

[Nibs]

Hello all,

Has anyone had any success harnessing solar power for use with their tortoise's enclosures?

I was considering looking into panels to charge a battery I could run my heat lamps off of or the CHE heater etc, even just for a little while, to help with the long term costs of housing these lovely beasts of ours and in an attempt to be more green.

Has anyone had any success with this/found any pitfalls I need to watch out for?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

For a while I used solar powered water fountain pumps and solar powered aerators. They both worked in a very underwhelming fashion.
I'm sure it can be done with enough panels and a storage battery, etc.
The thing is that both heat lamps and most heaters are basically a controlled short circuit and eat up a LOT of electricity.

 

[Tom]

My whole house is solar. Works great. No electric bill.

 

[JoesMum]

My whole house is solar. Works great. No electric bill.

You can tell you live in SoCal... some of us just have the wrong meteorology to achieve even close to 100%

 

[Markw84]

I also have solar on my home. Not enough to eliminate the bill, but designed to keep me well out of the top tier. In California with our electric prices, can't imagine not going solar. Before I moved to Sacramento area, I had PG&E and the top tier was 36 cents/KWH. With those rates - If you do the math - a 100 watt basking bulb on 14 hours a day costs over $15 a month!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

We have some of the cheapest electric in the nation.
maybe I'm spoiled.
11.6 cents per KWH CURRENTLY.

 

[Tom]

I also have solar on my home. Not enough to eliminate the bill, but designed to keep me well out of the top tier. In California with our electric prices, can't imagine not going solar. Before I moved to Sacramento area, I had PG&E and the top tier was 36 cents/KWH. With those rates - If you do the math - a 100 watt basking bulb on 14 hours a day costs over $15 a month!

I decided to go big! I even had to argue with the solar contractor because he wanted to only do a 95% "offset". Two things about that: 1. It never produces as much as you think it will. 2. Once electricity is "free" every man woman and child in the household will start using at least 50% more than normal. The thermostat gets set way lower in summer, lights and TVs get left on, etc… I wanted to make enough power to cover all of these things and still not have a bill. I succeeded. I've got 42 big panels up there. We just replaced our 18 year old AC system too. Its a better unit that is much more efficient. Instead of pulling 40 amps, I will now only pull 12, and it will do a better job of cooling too. SCE will be paying me big time this year. Now I will be making money with my solar array.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I decided to go big! I even had to argue with the solar contractor because he wanted to only do a 95% "offset". Two things about that: 1. It never produces as much as you think it will. 2. Once electricity is "free" every man woman and child in the household will start using at least 50% more than normal. The thermostat gets set way lower in summer, lights and TVs get left on, etc… I wanted to make enough power to cover all of these things and still not have a bill. I succeeded. I've got 42 big panels up there. We just replaced our 18 year old AC system too. Its a better unit that is much more efficient. Instead of pulling 40 amps, I will now only pull 12, and it will do a better job of cooling too. SCE will be paying me big time this year. Now I will be making money with my solar array.

+1 on the new A/C.
My new 16 seer is much cheaper to run than my old, antique was.

 

[Tom]

+1 on the new A/C.
My new 16 seer is much cheaper to run than my old, antique was.

A year ago my AC contractor bid this job with a 15 seer unit. Since all that time had gone by, he had to re-bid it. The one he put in is a dual stage 17 seer. I'm pretty stoked. I won't have to fight with the wife about the thermostat setting every day in summer.

 

[Markw84]

I decided to go big! I even had to argue with the solar contractor because he wanted to only do a 95% "offset". Two things about that: 1. It never produces as much as you think it will. 2. Once electricity is "free" every man woman and child in the household will start using at least 50% more than normal. The thermostat gets set way lower in summer, lights and TVs get left on, etc… I wanted to make enough power to cover all of these things and still not have a bill. I succeeded.

Agree with you completely! We bought this house with the solar already there. I would have gone for more if it were up to me. When they talk about how much it will generate it gets lost that when the sun gets lower in the winter, and clouds / fog, etc the production drops to maybe 10% of what its rated. And with us heating the tortoises, turtles, as more are inside, yet the pond still runs 24/7, that's the time of year we use more elect!

 

[Dizisdalife]

We put in solar about 18 years ago. It is a bit undersized for all the electrical needs that we have today. Still, an average of $20 a month for all the electricity that we use is a bargain.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I'm in the dark on solar energy.
It sounds fantastic.

 

[Nibs]

Great, thanks all - sounds like it is definitely something to look into. Not that we get an awful lot of sun in the UK, but it would be a shame to waste what we do have!

 

[lighthiker2]

You could supplement with a solar furnace on a thermostat during many daytimes at least, but it would cost more to set up a radiating heater on a PC system than the electricity to run it in many places, I would imagine.

 

[MichaelaW]

What is the average cost to install a solar power system like that?

 

[Speedy-1]

What is the average cost to install a solar power system like that?

I just did a little "googleing" and came up with this ; between $7-$9 per watt: A 5 kW system would cost around $25,000-$35,000. I wouldn't think it would do well in Peoria with the snow and short winter days , but that's just my opinion I am no expert . We have a lot of solar power out here , and sunshine but I probably wouldn't live long enough to break even on an investment like that !

 

[Tom]

I just did a little "googleing" and came up with this ; between $7-$9 per watt: A 5 kW system would cost around $25,000-$35,000. I wouldn't think it would do well in Peoria with the snow and short winter days , but that's just my opinion I am no expert . We have a lot of solar power out here , and sunshine but I probably wouldn't live long enough to break even on an investment like that !

Keep in mind there there are all sorts of government and power company incentives. Those end up paying for about half the cost of the system.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You could supplement with a solar furnace on a thermostat during many daytimes at least, but it would cost more to set up a radiating heater on a PC system than the electricity to run it in many places, I would imagine.

I've only turned on the heat once in 11 years and it was for 12 hours. The big bill is for cooling in this part of the world.
The new HVAC system I had installed was about $4,400 and a little more than half of that was for a new furnace............That I'll never need.
It seems like solar would make a lot of sense in a sunny state such as this, but I've seen very few folks use it except to heat water.

 

[Yvonne G]

Please guys! The OP is wanting to know about solar for his tortoise, not whole house solar. This is all well and good, but not really on topic, right?

 

[BrianWI]

Hello all,

Has anyone had any success harnessing solar power for use with their tortoise's enclosures?

I was considering looking into panels to charge a battery I could run my heat lamps off of or the CHE heater etc, even just for a little while, to help with the long term costs of housing these lovely beasts of ours and in an attempt to be more green.

Has anyone had any success with this/found any pitfalls I need to watch out for?

Where are you located?