Coming soon: Sub-$1,000 plug and play PV solar

[RWebb]

Coming soon: Sub-$1,000 plug and play solar | ZDNet

nice if true

[pete3799]

Neat idea.
At 15% savings, wouldn't take long to pay for itself.

[Aurel]

It is cheap because it is only one solar panel. Nothing new with the technology, just a new marketing concept.

[RWebb]

new installation concept; new distribution concept

[MotoSook]

“This is not about powering your home, it is about slowing down the meter,” Maglaque says.

Good start...

[ben parrish]

That's not a deal at all. I put a solar panels on my sail boat years ago for far less. A 200 watt panel and inverter were around $400.

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by ben parrish

That's not a deal at all. I put a solar panels on my sail boat years ago for far less. A 200 watt panel and inverter were around $400.

And panels are cheaper now...someone plans on gullible consumers to take a huge profit. Can't blame him though, there are so many Prius owners who want to save the world one panel at a time .

[island911]

Originally Posted by Soukus

Good start...

Here's another good one..

“This is not about slowing down the power meter, it is about speeding up the consumerism under the guise of energy savings” island911 says.

[Bill Douglas]

It would work out well for me in New Zealand. We are allowed to feed back into the national grid. Spins your meter backwards, or something like that. It may take an electrican to sort that aspect of it but it does happen around here. So I could feed in during the day and then it could heat the hot water cylinder as required.

[island911]

yeah, we get to do that here too. The problem is, those PV panels cost more than the electricity that you will ever get out of them. ...unless you are somewhere off-grid, of course.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yep. Improvement but nowhere nearly cost-effective enough yet.

Go ahead and get 'em though. More oil and gas for me.

[MotoSook]

I wasn't making any claims about the product, but rather highlighting the quote. As for the price, I'm certain I can put together a system that is less expensive and run my shop with the power at night when I'm not drawing much energy.

[RWebb]

"I'm certain I can..."

ah, yes but can Joe Everybody? The Plug & Play concept is a big deal here, as are the HD, Lowes, etc. outlets.

[island911]

you mount the unit, plug the thing in and activate it over the Internet.

because a simple switch would be too insulting to Rube Goldberg?


Seriously, that's some marketing effort right there.

[Aurel]

Do you have to download itunes to activate it?

[island911]

LOL too funny....

[RWebb]

my hope is that you activate it over the Internet to be able to feed into your utility or get credits from them

but.. ya never know

[stealthn]

Sorry I don't get it, how does adding electricity into your loop alow down your use?

[red-beard]

There is a site which sells stacks of solar cells and shows you how to homebrew solar panels. Seems like a lot of work, but it is possible to get a 200 Watt panel down to around $100.

[Hugh R]

Plugs into the wall, so in the event of a power outage it could potentially backfeed a circuit unless it has a sensor to detect no electricity coming from the other direction. A real danger for utility line men doing repairs.

Let's say 5 hours per day max at 200 watts =1 Kilowatt-Hour at $0.20/Kw-H, you'd need 5,000 days to break even. What's that like 15 years assuming no clouds, rain, whatever.