I’d go solar with battery backup. Even if some panels got damaged during a hurricane, you’d most likely be getting a partial charge from the remaining panels. And during the day, if you weren’t using much power, you’d be recharging the batteries.
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I googled and saw that many solar battery systems can be charged with a generator. I searched some more and it says that my 25kw PTO generator could charge the battery system in 2.5 to 3 hours. So, between the solar panels and my PTO generator and tractor, I can charge the batteries fairly quickly if needed.
If I have a battery system and an EV, I should have plenty of power.
When we had solar installed we were told you could drop a bowling ball on the panels without hurting them. As to what happens to the frame securing them in 100kts sustained, it might not be pretty.
You are right. I have worked hail storms with tennis ball sized hail. The roofs were trashed but most of the time the panels were fine. In fact, it was unusual to see one with damage.
I like the thought of lowering the power bill. Especially since we’ll probably have to use FPL (Florida Power and Light) since I’ve heard a number of people complaining about them.
I’m not wild about the thought of having a bunch of 1/4 inch holes in my roof for the mounting hardware. I’m probably going with a metal roof, so wear and tear from installing the panels isn’t as bad as you get with shingles, but I’m still not wild about the thought of having them on my roof.
There will be absolutely zero chance of flooding where I build the house.
Probably not what you want but Sika PVC has a system to weld the supports onto the membrane without penetrations.
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Mother Nature, “Hold my beer…”
As I said above, it would take a biblical type flood to flood where we’re going to build. It is on a high point of land that slopes down 50-60 feet.
Living in Wyoming I know that you laugh at the thought of the high point of a property being only 50-60 feet higher than the low point. That’s like a mountain in Florida. We have to bring water and oxygen to walk from the creek up to the top of the hill.
havent read all the replies, here but Base Power is a newish startup where they have a whole house backup battery solution. It of course would not have the coverage length of a generator, but might want to look into it and see if available in your area. It is Michal Dell son’s startup. Being in Austin, I get it pitched to me a lot, but just doesn’t make sense for me based on the limited times I lost power.
I ran the numbers for me and think the break-even was 7-8 years for me.
** edit to add ** Looks like BasePower is only available in Texas and Illinois currently. So never mind.
Our property has two parcels. The fields you see on the right are part of the University of Florida agricultural research property and will likely never be developed. We’re probably going to put the house near the red shape. We would have almost unlimited sun if we put the panels where the blue rectangle is, but it would cost a lot to run wiring from that area to the house, and there could be some voltage drop.
We’ll probably clear out an acre or so around the house just to prevent trees from falling on it. We would probably put the panels on the north side of the clearing to maximize exposure to the sun.
I’m with you on that. From what I could tell, that is one of the best systems available. I hate to support him in any way, but practicality has to come before politics.
I looked into this and was pretty shocked.
First, I asked how many kWh a typical 2000 sf house uses.
A typical 2,000-square-foot home consumes between 900 and 1,300 kWh per month, averaging roughly 30 to 43 kWh per day.
Second, I asked how many kWh is stored in EV batteries.
Electric vehicle (EV) batteries typically range from 40 kWh to over 200 kWh. The exact size depends on the vehicle’s type and intended range. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Common vehicle categories generally fall into these brackets:
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Compact & City EVs: 40 kWh – 60 kWh (e.g., standard Nissan Leaf or smaller crossovers)
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Mainstream Sedans & SUVs: 70 kWh – 90 kWh (e.g., standard Tesla Model 3 or Model Y)
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Large SUVs & Electric Trucks: 100 kWh – 200+ kWh (e.g., Ford F-150 Lightning or Lucid Air) [1, 2, 3, 4]
So a typical mid-sized EV could power a typical 2000sf house for two days, longer if you turned off systems you don’t need.
I’m impressed. I like the idea of getting a battery system AND an EV. The solar system could charge the EV saving money over an ICE car, and the EV could power the house if there were multiple days with insufficient solar to charge the batteries.
Hooking up an EV to a house isn’t straightforward. Other countries it is a common feature, but most of the vehicles sold in the US aren’t equipped for it. Then you also have to prep the house for it. But there are ways of tapping into that battery power without designed for V2H capabilities. Take a Ford Lightning: you can either have a formal V2H where you can pull 7 kW of power directly off the battery or you can plug into one of their 120V 1500W outlets they have to to power hand tools. The later can often be plugged into a home battery to keep it topped off, but it isn’t designed to operate 24/7.
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No, hooking an EV or HV or PHEV to your entire house is not straightforward if your house is not set up for it. (But … if your house is set up for it, then hooking up a car to your house is indeed quite easy.)
But doing a vehicle-to-load (V2L) set-up is extremely easy and straightforward for most any house. I know this because l have done this myself numerous times with our PHEV. Works great.
Solar is fairly popular here in my wet and windy corner of the PNW. I have three neighbors with metal roofs and solar - zero issues.
I don’t see how it’s much different from metal roofing or siding with exposed fasteners, which are quite common.
Yes, this csn work quite well. We have some V2L set ups with PHEVs. An advantage of those cars is that after the car’s not enormous traction battery is somewhat depleted, if you have gas in the tank, the car becomes a super efficient load sensing generator that runs only when needed.
During a warm weather power failure, the thing that really sucks big power is air conditioning. If you can temporarily manage without that for a short time until power is restored, then the size of your house doesn’t matter much. If you look at the truly essential things to run in a power failure (for us: fridge, a few house fans, a few lights, maybe 1 lcd TV, and internet/wifi for communication) and add up the total watts drawn, then you determine that car(s) (HV, PHEV, or EV) can usually supply your power needs for weeks. Also, we have gas for cooking, but if we had an electric stove (as these draw a bit of power), we could easily cook outside on a barbecue or wood stove to preserve electricity.
We can even do the same with our house during a cold weather power failure since our furnace is fed by natural gas (but the controller, thermostat, and blower motor are all of course electric) since l can feed the small amount of AC electricity that the furnace needs from an external source. Same with our tankless gas water heater.
I didnt read all the replies, but I will just say that I live in a relatively standard NJ suburb, but for bunch of reasons we lose power ALLLL the time. Many friends have gas powered generators and while its not the end of the world, it IS a major hassle to drag them out, fire them out, maybe go get more gas etc (ESPECIALLY during something like Superstorm Sandy). We have a full house generator run by propane. Among many bad ones I have made, THIS was one of the best investments ever. It kicks on within about 2 seconds of power going out, it powers our whole house if needed, and the propane and service are not too pricey. Where I live it is SOOOO worth it.