LED Lights in the house - Solar on the roof.

[panhead_pete 27]

Anyone running a full LED system for lighting in their house?

 

Anyone got a serious solar system on the roof generating electricity?

[RobBright 35]

No as costs a fortune. 3k per light at the moment.

 

We have 12 light sockets, no, 15 sockets. A hefty outlay.

[panhead_pete 27]

They appear to be heaps cheaper here in China and I'd love to use these and solar panels to kill the power bill in my place when its done.

 

PS Edited my OP after you posted Rob, didn't want to start up a second thread.

[Schneebored 0]

Yeah...wish I had some photovoltaic panels on the place I am renting, I would have no bills.

 

But it is definately an economic option, the parents have recently installed some panels on their house in the UK. 8 - 10 year pay back apparently.

[NoFakie 45]

Massive payback in Japan now for solar with the feed-in tariffs. Basically everyone without solar panels is subsidizing those who have them. Germany used to have the biggest subsidies, but they've abandoned them.

 

We've got some LED garden lights but I don't like the colour of the light. Its too blue. I guess most of the interior lights folks are buying are the "lightbulb" colour though.

 

How much do LED bulbs cost in China?

[JA2340 16]

Pete,

 

We have a 4Kwh PV system installed, generating whenever the sun shines. back to the power grid whenever we are not home (We both work in town, so during the week, we are selling power to the grid.)

 

Almost all our internal lights are LED downlights on 12 volt transformers. They run a heap cooler than the traditional halogen lights. The only problem with the LEDs is that the halogen transformers do not always work OK with LEDs. But, I run 4 LED units off a single transformer, compared with one transformer for each halogen.

 

PM for more info if you want.

[RobBright 35]

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete

PS Edited my OP after you posted Rob, didn't want to start up a second thread.

WHAT?! How dare you!

[panhead_pete 27]

Mr Wiggles: Been tracking down prices for work which is a large project but look at about $5US a bulb.

 

JA Thanks - will be in touch. Will be setting it up from scratch and selling power back is the goal rather then trying to store it. Was it hard to wire up what you have?

 

 

 

Sorry Rob, please forgive me

[NoFakie 45]

Thanks Pete

 

Cheapest they go for in Japan is about 1600 yen for a 60W equivalent. So closer to $20. The Japanese branded ones (Toshiba etc) go for a fair bit more. $5 is what you pay for a CFL.

[Mantas 3]

My 1.5 kW solar grid feed system is up and running now. I'm selling power back to the grid for 66c a kW/hour. The power I buy would average about 20c kW/hour. The 66c deal has dried up now (and a large chunk of the solar industry with it). I wish I had a gone for a larger system. My brother has a 10kW system. He will generate about $10 000 worth of power a year for the next 6 years.

It been a while since I've seen an LED light but the last one that I saw didn't throw much light out, even though they are very bright to look at.

[Chriselle 158]

Originally Posted By: Mr Wiggles

Massive payback in Japan now for solar with the feed-in tariffs. Basically everyone without solar panels is subsidizing those who have them. Germany used to have the biggest subsidies, but they've abandoned them.

We've got some LED garden lights but I don't like the colour of the light. Its too blue. I guess most of the interior lights folks are buying are the "lightbulb" colour though.

How much do LED bulbs cost in China?

We looked into Solar 4 or 5 years ago and the incentives aside from environmental weren't quite good enough. Maybe we should check it out again.

[panhead_pete 27]

Hey Mantas any ideas how much it cost your brother for the 10kx system and who supplied it?

[seemore 66]

Pete

 

We do a 1.5 KW for about $1500 including goverment rebates.

An upgrade to a 2 KW is an additional $3000 once you go above 3KW the meter box and cabling need to change.

 

I would think 10 KW would be expensive and you would most probably need 60 panels ie: a big roof.

 

Seemore

[JA2340 16]

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete

JA Thanks - will be in touch. Will be setting it up from scratch and selling power back is the goal rather then trying to store it. Was it hard to wire up what you have?

We don't store, sell the excess back to the grid.

The wiring up was required (by legislation, here) to be done by a licenced sparky, and the Utility company supplied the meter which records our usage from the grid as well as the amount we return to them. These two amounts are kept separate, the inflow is costed at the normal Kwh rate (currently 22.225 cents per Kwh) and the outflow is priced to them at 60 cents per. (NB, Aus Cents!!) This is in NSW (one state, and the other states have different rates, processes etc! fully confusing!)

PM if you want more details, but the translation to the Japanese system might be difficult.

[Mantas 3]

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete

Hey Mantas any ideas how much it cost your brother for the 10kx system and who supplied it?

It cost him 44k Aus. So it's roughly a 4-5 year pay back. There are 58 panels!
Competition was fierce here whilst the feed in tariff was up at 60c so just about every operator was offing similar deals.

So are other states still offering a high feed in tariff?

[panhead_pete 27]

Thanks JA am about to build/reno on the sunny coast so that's where it would go although hoping to direct source parts from China to save on the initial capital required. Appreciate the info too Mantas. Will look into what the pricing schedules in Qld.