If a person wants to go off the electrical grid in their own apartment, is it possible?

[Miss_Underestimated]

Are there solar panels for windows? How much voltage (or is it wattage?) would be required to run lights, fridge, laptop?

[Cool Logic]

1. It depends on what you are willing to give up.

If your lifestyle requires a hair dryer, clothes dryer, electric range, hot water heater, microwave, etc.:

The answer is no.

[Miss_Underestimated]

3. I'm hoping to find out what it would take voltage wise and then figure out

which appliances to dispense with. I can't seem to find any articles that explain all of this clearly...am looking for links to info...thanks for your response

[leveymg]

7. You'll need about 500-1000 kwatthr/mo for a typical US residence, depending on location

This is what comes up on google: "500 kilowatt/day usage typical US residence"

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Austin Solar Panel Installation Size And Cost
efficienthomeenergysaving.org/austin-solar-panel-installation-size-and-cost/Similar
May 29, 2010 – Most utility companies use the kilo watt hour (kWh) as the unit of ... For example the average US home uses about 935 kWh/ month or 30.74 kWh/day. ... home that my father built, it can generate 500 watts of electricity - ...
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How much does electricity cost? What is a kilowatt-hour? (kWh)
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The average U.S. household used 920 kWh a month in 2008. ... let's say you pay 9¢/kWh for the first 500 kWh, and then 15¢/kWh for use above that. ...
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USA solar map On average, and particularly in the Sunbelt regions of the ... (Europeans use the metric system.) It is easier for Americans to think in ... day it would receive about (5 x 100) 500 kilowatt-hours per day of solar energy. ...
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Use this information to help estimate how large your alternative energy system needs to be. ... That translates to an average of 71 Watt*Hours per day (500W / 7 Days). ... Call us. Need help selecting solar panels? Call Us Toll Free! ...
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What is the average consumption of killowatts by an american ...
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3 answers - Sep 27, 2007
on how stuff works they say its about 14000 per day but that would amount to 1400$ ... What I am trying to calculate is how much the average american household would ... First 500 kilowatts - 5.8¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh) ...
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Orders of magnitude (power) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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1 pW (−90 dBm) – biomed: average power consumption of a human cell ... 500 W – biomed: power output (useful work plus heat) of a person working hard ... of the Earth's surface on a clear day in March for northern temperate latitudes ... 11.4 kW – average power consumption per person in the United States as of 2009 ...
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Energy Savers: Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use
www.energysavers.gov/your_home/appliances/.../mytopic=10040 - CachedSimilar
Feb 9, 2011 – (Wattage × Hours Used Per Day ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption ... Most appliances in the United States use 120 volts. ... Typical Wattages of Various Appliances ... Aquarium = 50–1210 Watts; Clock radio = 10; Coffee maker = 900–1200; Clothes washer = 350–500; Clothes dryer = 1800–5000 ...
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This graph shows how energy is used in the average home. ... Bills are figured on your use of kilowatt hours, which are 1000 watt hours. ... Let's say the heater is run four hours a day. Four times 1500 gives us 6000 watts per day and 180000 watts in a .... 500. 20.0. 10.0 .78. Television (Color, Solid State) ...

[Miss_Underestimated]

8. This is the kind of info. I was looking for! Thanks leveymg!

[leveymg]

10. Anytime. Google is our friend. ;-)

[Miss_Underestimated]

12. Knowing what keywords to google is helpful too!! (you did, I didn't!!)

[wtmusic]

14. Half a megawatt/day typical usage?!

Someone's forgetting to turn off the lights... :)

From your own link "The average U.S. household used 920 kWh a month" = 29.7 kWh/day.

[Cool Logic]

13. Actually, it has more to do with current (Amps) and power (Watts), than Voltage.

Solar and wind produce DC (direct current) voltage with must be inverted into AC (alternating current), to make use of most household appliances. The process of changing from DC to AC, consumes energy; thus, AC appliances are not as efficient as DC appliances in this type of system

Recently, there has been increase in the number and type of DC appliances available, so if you are seriously considering this, you should probably consider replacing at least some of your AC appliances, with those that use DC voltage.

[Miss_Underestimated]

16. Good info. I will definitely research this suggestion further. Thanks, Cool!

[Cleita]

2. If you have your own meter and separate service, it

could be possible. You would have to get the landlord's permission to put panels up. A better way would be to convince the landlord to make the building solar with reverse meters.

[leveymg]

4. The roof would probably be a better place for panels. Landlord would have to agree.

[onehandle]

5. Even in the best climates for this, it would take a pretty big structure of panels.

So if you don't own your building, it seems unlikely.

[Speck Tater]

6. Sure, Unplug everything electrical.

The problem is that in an apartment it's kind of hard to cook over a campfire unless you have a patio or balcony where you can set up a grill. It is possible to live without refrigeration. People did it for thousands of years. If you have market in walking distance you can pick up fresh food daily, and buy no more than you consume so you don't need to refrigerate leftovers. Use powered milk so you can mix up as much as you need in one batch. etc.

I spend a couple months out of every year camping in the wilds with my camper van and I do quite well without electricity. It can be done. It will, however, require a radical change in lifestyle.

[wtmusic]

9. +1

A significant investment in time, as well.

:thumbsup:

[Vanje]

11. I've been off the grid several times

Its as easy as falling down. Just go a couple of months without paying your electric bill .

[Miss_Underestimated]

15. good one!

:spray:

[kestrel91316]

18. In my case it happens almost monthly - some transformer explodes somewhere,

some wire sags in the heat and contacts a tree branch - you know, the usual. Last week it was an underground transformer down the block.

[cbayer]

17. I'm off the grid, but on a boat.

We have 2-130 watt and 2-135 watt panels. They run everything during the day and charge the batteries for night use. However, we must use the generator to heat water and have to run the generator during the winter any day that has not been very sunny. We are extremely frugal, however, and our appliances/machines that use the most energy are 12 volt and get their juice directly from the batteries. You need an inverter to convert the solar panel energy to your regular 110 (normal household plugs) and inverters are energy hogs.

So, bottom line is you could do it, but it isn't all that simple.

[wtmusic]

21. Do you know offhand what the efficiency of the inverter is? nt

[cbayer]

22. Not sure, but could probably look it up. Not very efficient, imo.

[Sailing]

19. Take a good look at your utility pricing

Where I live, the electric usage has a tiered pricing scheme, in which usage up to 500 kW-hrs per month is charged at a modest rate and usage past 500 kW-hrs is charged at about twice that rate. Therefore, power I use past 500 kW-hrs/month adds up pretty quick. This only happens during 1 or 2 months in the hottest part of the summer and 1 or 2 coldest months during winter for me. So I manage to keep the electric bill low by staying below the 500 kW-hrs/month threshold as much as possible.

If you find you have the same type of tiered pricing, focus on reducing usage during the peak use month. It will go a long way further.

[TheWraith]

20. No. Not unless you're willing to give up electricity completely.

Putting solar panels in your windows would generate maybe enough wattage to run your laptop for a couple hours a day. Fridge, lights, anything else, forget about it.

[XemaSab]

23. Why do you want to do this?

:shrug:

[Miss_Underestimated]

24. I'd like to wean myself off of depending on nonrenewable energy

[kristopher]

26. Then your OP asks the wrong question.

The answer to your OP is "Almost impossible in a practical sense."

The answer to your goal of weaning yourself off of depending on nonrenewable energy, however, is much easier to accomplish. Just call your utility and tell them you want 100% green energy. The portion of your bill that pays for generation will not go to fossil fuel providers but will be channeled to providers of electricity generated from renewable sources.

It is one of the very best ways to support deployment of renewable sources of electricity, bar none.

[caraher]

27. That's right

Even if you can put together all the hardware needed to get "off the grid" in your apartment you'll find it cost you a pretty penny. It's probably both more cost-efficient and more likely to have an impact if you do have the option to ask for renewable energy.

[XemaSab]

28. How long are you planning to be in that apartment?

Are you really willing to put down $10,000 then possibly move next year?

[caraher]

25. It's unlikely unless you're incredibly power-frugal

First, it helps to understand the units:

Power: Energy used per unit time (measured in watts)
Energy: Electrical energy is measured by utilities in kilowatt hours (kWh).

LOTS of sources, including news articles, confuse power and energy because both include "watt" in some form in their commonly-used units. One kilowatt hour of *energy* would be drawn by a device that draws 1000 watts of *power* over a 1 hour period. (Same for a 500 W device running 2 hours, 2 kW device running for a half hour, etc.)

Power is related to current AND voltage. To oversimplify very slightly, you can multiply the voltage (in volts) and current (in amps or amperes) to get the power in watts.

Second, it helps to have a sense of the magnitude of power available. Full sunlight provides an energy per unit area of roughly 1000 watts per square meter (or square yard), and photovoltaic cells are maybe 15% efficient. So if you had a panel 3 feet on a side you might expect 150 watts *if* it directly faces the sun. That would be more than enough to run most laptops, and a few CFL or LED bulbs as well (they draw a fraction of the power that equivalent incandescent bulbs do; the latter are, of course, explicitly rated by their power consumption). This figure would be a peak value; sun tracking and a clear field of view would optimize your energy harvest during the daytime, but add quite a bit to cost and complexity, and are not likely options in an apartment. Obviously, shorter winter days, bad weather, etc. all make things worse.

Finally, household electricity is AC, which means a voltage that is not constant but rapidly varies. If you were to graph voltage vs. time it would look like a sine function, with the voltage going from over +100 V to under -100 V and back 60 times per second (in the US). PV cells give you a much smaller DC voltage. You'll need something called an inverter to convert the DC for use with standard appliances; however, if you really only want to power a laptop, fridge and lights you might just use DC electricity. There's no reason not to run lights off DC power and you should be able to easily figure out how to charge the laptop (since all laptop chargers have to convert AC to DC anyway). The fridge is the real trick; are there units designed for use on boats or campers that use DC electricity?

Of course, you also have to deal with nighttime and have some kind of storage. You will inevitably have conversion losses in charging and discharging batteries. I'm not sure many landlords would be thrilled to have a tenant with a big bank of batteries lying around (though I'm not sure whether they could prohibit them as some kind of safety hazard)!

Solar is simply not very power-dense; having a big collection area will always be important, even if you're using top-of-the-line PV cells of the kind NASA uses (which can exceed 40% efficiency).