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Even if they had zero carbon footprint, they could still be a waste. If making them uses more energy than they'll ever produce, you might be better off just us

Even if they had zero carbon footprint, they could still be a waste. If making them uses more energy than they'll ever produce, you might be better off just using that enery to charge some batteries and then use the batteries in place of the solar cell.

geggam 8y ago
Except batteries waste energy as well. You never get 100% of what you put in. I am sure someone here knows the exact percentage but my personal experience with lead acid and solar panels leads me to the opinion storing then converting solar energy from DC to AC wastes 80% or so of the total produced My workshop I am building will run on DC 12 volts and have 3k to 4k or so of solar panels and another 2kw of baby wind turbines because of what I learned dabbling with solar power.
- mac01021 8y ago
  That sounds really neat. Did you DIY all the solar and wind installation? Any pointers to resources about that stuff that I'm not likely to find easily by googling?
  - geggam 8y ago
    All DIY Lead Acid batteries are ok Keep the charge high on the batteries, the higher you keep it the better. Down to 10 volts is hard on them. Used forklift batteries are a good large battery for wind which creates a high surge you want a battery regulator setup instead of the standard solar controller http://hydrogenappliances.com/batteryregulator.html http://hydrogenappliances.com/batteryregulator.html I really think generating hydrogen under pressure with electrolysis would be a viable storage of non used electricity but I have yet to build that system
xbmcuser 8y ago
Ah no you are taking physics principle of energy can not be gained only transformed but discounting sun energy in your calculations which is another input. Solar panels were a waste in energy terms 10 years ago. Today that is no longer the case. https://phys.org/news/2016-12-solar-panels-repay-energy-debt.html https://phys.org/news/2016-12-solar-panels-repay-energy-debt...

geggam 8y ago

Except batteries waste energy as well. You never get 100% of what you put in. I am sure someone here knows the exact percentage but my personal experience with lead acid and solar panels leads me to the opinion storing then converting solar energy from DC to AC wastes 80% or so of the total produced My workshop I am building will run on DC 12 volts and have 3k to 4k or so of solar panels and another 2kw of baby wind turbines because of what I learned dabbling with solar power.

mac01021 8y ago
That sounds really neat. Did you DIY all the solar and wind installation? Any pointers to resources about that stuff that I'm not likely to find easily by googling?
- geggam 8y ago
  All DIY Lead Acid batteries are ok Keep the charge high on the batteries, the higher you keep it the better. Down to 10 volts is hard on them. Used forklift batteries are a good large battery for wind which creates a high surge you want a battery regulator setup instead of the standard solar controller http://hydrogenappliances.com/batteryregulator.html http://hydrogenappliances.com/batteryregulator.html I really think generating hydrogen under pressure with electrolysis would be a viable storage of non used electricity but I have yet to build that system

xbmcuser 8y ago

Ah no you are taking physics principle of energy can not be gained only transformed but discounting sun energy in your calculations which is another input. Solar panels were a waste in energy terms 10 years ago. Today that is no longer the case. https://phys.org/news/2016-12-solar-panels-repay-energy-debt.html https://phys.org/news/2016-12-solar-panels-repay-energy-debt...