Renovation Nation: Solar Panels

[iLOVENATURE2011]

is it wise to install solar panels in places where theres winter??

[MrTitus93]

I hope the whole world will have this solar panels all around.

[magictree21]

That's great,

Well done..

[toddsgarage]

Leave it to a lib to destroy a perfectly good PV and/or install it in Seattle. Disgusting.

[RooftopWind]

Hello, Liked the video. On Earth Day I won a green design contest for my home energy system the RoofMill. Have a look at my home wind turbine videos of installing and running Hybrid Energy Systems. Friends and Subscribers Wanted.  Later ,

Peace, Sam

[loziobello69]

Does anyone know whether solar panels' performances degarde in time? Any spec on this? Thanks

[RCvolunteer1978]

yes I do know this after Hurricane Andrew 1992 /93 Homestead the closest town to the Nuclear Power Plant did not get full power until three months after the strom but Miami 35 miles away was on the A1 most have on the old FLORIDA Power and Light pumping stations to the Miami rich was "ON" FIRST so they can fill trucks and their golf courses with water to deliver to Homestead was from .... you can guess

[davettalashley]

I watch Renovation Nation on TV. Steve Thomas is a funny dude. :)

[heartlessvietboy]

It is time. We must stop deforestation and the clearing of land for generic things.

[MoJoRod30]

Check out Steve's carpenter hands. OMG, I find them as a turn-on and it's hot.

[mtllcafxr]

steve thomas is soooooo annoying, not spefically this vid....... but jesus, i cant watch anything hes on anymore

[davehutchinson67]

@mtllcafxr Hold up...Steve is cool...he's been around on TV for years...friendly...knows how to make people feel at ease on TV...can't ask for more in a host can you? and then he picks up his toolbelt and goes to work...

[mtllcafxr]

@davehutchinson67 , well actually i totally disagree, it looks like he makes guests on the show very uncomfortable with the way he interacts with them. its just his personality, the things he says and does is very annoying to me, just opinion i guess.

[murcielago06gt]

@mtllcafxr I worked on Steve's house a couple times, I disagree with your statement completely. Very nice guy, not annoying at all. He is downright cool. Asks a lot of questions and really listens to and understands the answers. It wasn't for TV though, maybe it's different then.

[MrEnergyCzar]

excellent video...net-zero is rare. I converted my regular home to net-zero and made a video showing the changes I made. It's called, "Preparing for peak oil"...

[builtSOLARPANEL]

Now it's very easy to build own solar panels...

[Investor5000]

Very impressive and seems like the persons know what they are doing with this home.

[GThomason]

Get rid of the GEICO commercial! Enough already!

[kostea13]

SOLAR POWER + ELECTRIC CARS = FREEDOM !

[Anothercoilgun]

Great video.

[DIYSOLARPANELS]

learn how to build cheap solar panels from my channel

[TheAkb10]

Be smart - don't pay any more electricity bills. more info: solar.xfollow.me (Copy to your browser's address bar)

[cybercrypt]

The test on the panel.. Not very scientific.. As a matter of fact VERY MISLEADING..Voltage is not POWER..

Just measuring the Voltage output means nothing.. Place an electrical load on the panel.. then measure the POWER not just the voltage..

You have sceptics watching.. and little slips like this is not helping

[jjacks81]

i think the point was to prove that even a with a damaged panel the array can still produce and transmit power... if its producing volts then it can transmit energy from other panels in the array depending on if the are parallel or series...

[cybercrypt]

I know what the point was that was being demonstrated..  But basic electrical laws state P=EI (Power = Volts x Amps) all that was shown was Voltage NOT POWER.. It could have show 1000V BUT with no current then POWER out would be ZERO.. A volt meter measures VOLTS not Watts.. And working with the gear.. you can get a dead panel and will show you 25 to 30 V but is not capable of delivering 1 single milliAmp.

[webbj123]

The question begs, why build two power systems to produce energy while instead at less than half the cost you can make one power technology that produces all the power. Nuclear and unfortunately coal can do this, solar, wind and biofuels combined can not.

[steve89z]

why did you spell cannot can not? i'm seeing this trend in recent years and wondering why.

[webbj123]

In the right context both form cannot and can not are correct usage

[steve89z]

in your case its cannot not can not

[surfer063]

exactly

im in an enviromental class and one of our projects is to create our own sustainable community

and after research

redoing a whole grid with sustainable energy instead of having every house "off the grid"

my friends dad is in the army corp of enegeneers and works on developing nuculear energey and it is 100% safe

and the biproducts can now be mixed with cement with out leaking radiation and be used to build houses

ive seen a house made out of it

[webbj123]

I have suspicions that the time of day in which you can cook and take showers as well as the length of the showers is affected by this. However it did generate more power than I would have thought. But I wont back away from the claim that only people willing to make major power sacrifices would be willing to live in it.

[ginodelia]

BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO

[Chick6517]

Haha AWESOME Video!!

I absoulutely loved it!

Thanks for posting it!

[SwollenCranium]

Jeez.

Could they have possible found two guys more boring and monotone ?

Fucking lame .. and not at all practical for the common poor bastard.

The oil companies lobbied Congress to LOWER the tax credit for solar arrays years ago. Your average solar user on a system that size and complexity will not see a return on investment in less than ten years.

MONEY drives the economy, MONEY will decide between Green or not. As long as it's cost prohibitive Solar will continue to suck hind tit to oil.

[RealDiaz]

Well said Mr Cranium finally someone as smart as myself! These guys are flaming douchebags and the house is ugly.

[cinndave]

given the climate, this house might be doing more harm than good.

Germany's solar subsidies for example are actually hurting green power, by drawing the world's supply of solar panels to sun-free Germany where they generate less than they would otherwise. And it shot up the price of silicon ninefold making panels more expensive for the rest of the world. A free market allocates capital goods to where they can be used most efficiently.

[RealDiaz]

No wonder that the price is so high for cheap silicon panels. Thanks for the insight cinndave.

[MrAnnonumous]

it looks like a bloody lego house but cool aswell

[coronet67]

In five years all those solar panels will look rediculous.

[darkchoas321]

FUCK YOU ALL.

DRILL FOR OIL!

[edsch21988]

what hapens when it snows?

[marncastillo]

first look in our pockets, thats only for the rich, at least for this time

[keiser95]

dude that would suck if u would have to wait for it to be sunny to use shit

[thorungal]

This hardly shows net zero. nothing was done. Was there heating going on in the house. what about cooking, cleaning, evening lighting, etc.

All this showed was that the house could generate power under virtually no load. Also I feel using wood heating here is just artifitially shifting the bar, Even if it does manage to be energy neutral it won't be carbon neutral.

I would have integrated a wind turbine here rather than rely on solar.

[HansTheAtheist]

Concerning the test with the solar panel, shouldn't they place a load on the panel? It might drop more then. And the voltage is quadratic to the power, my physics education tells me (P=V^2/R).

[webbj123]

Agreed and even wind power has peak generation times of the day and season. For now I would rather rely on nuclear and unfortunately coal, that exists when I need it not when the sun tells me I can have it.

[thorungal]

Ah here's where you're missing it. He's bidirectional on the grid, reliability isn't the issue. as long as he generates more than he absorbs in the long run it's good. Battery banks in the system could be used to smooth out the bumps. You'll may still need nuclear (or geothermal if you can find it) to make up the difference for some in the grid. A distributive system of "zero" emissions homes should in principle work plenty reliable. I just think this particular design is inappropriate here.

[webbj123]

Your probably right but although the ecology makes sense, the economics of it don't or at least I should say I don't believe they do. Nuclear, coal and hydroelectric are the only power sources now that can generate power whenever you need it. However they are to expensive to only supply power in the down times, no one could afford to pay the power if it is produced on that scale. However it is probably better to make nuc. the base power and solar fills in the gaps. But the question is (next)

[thorungal]

not entirely true. I worked for a utility company who had to make just these kinds of moves. We use gas fired plants here (Australia) specifically to cope with the peak demand (used only 2or3 day a year, but without we get rolling blackouts). As for Renewable Energy overall. there's a chart on Wikipedia (Renewable Energy, click on costs) that suggests on the lower end renewable has the potential to be cheaper. I myself use 100% renewable energy at a cost of about 10% extra on my power bill.

[webbj123]

Yeah, but were comparing apples and oranges. Even with an increase in transmission efficiency and a drastic efficiency of home appliances, peak power demand here in the U.S. blows away peak power demand in Australia. I work in the power industry here, albeit with a bias to nuclear. However with no question we can not meet peak demand in this country unless we dedicate a large portion of our entire GNP over decades to building green power where nuc could do it now without a portion of our GNP.

[mikeb172sp]

He looked like he was going to pass out when the panel broke.

[OmniBridge]

fun video, entertaining and informative

[mwolovi]

This is a good concept but it is just too expensive. Any ideas for powering a house in the third world country?

[UrinationNation]

Get a bicycle and attach a generator to it and start pedaling. Or you can run around with fans attached to long wires and hope there is enough wind to push them and create energy before you collapse, or you can just burn coal and suffocate, or NOT GET AN IPOD i mean heat.

[vob1967]

Why is "an error occured" only? Unpossible to watch something!

[RCvolunteer1978]

Florida could produce enough electrical power to sale to other states but NO they want Gambling and have the tourist pollute our state because we have pretty sunnsets

[MrEnergyCzar]

@RCvolunteer1978 Florida's electricity production uses the highest percentage of oil of all 50 states..... that is disturbing

[RCvolunteer1978]

then WHY it is so strongly not wanted in the sunshine state of Florida ?

[XenoAlex2222]

I Love this

RCvolunteer1978!

Also see my YouTube site & receive FREE Gift Cards!

[dmoney0015]

wish i had this... my electricity bill is 300$ a month :o

[jamezheart]

Smart buggers ... Cool !!!

[undergaurd]

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