Photovoltaic is not cheap, loosely figure on $5 per Watt for your Solar Panels, $1 per Watt hour for Your Battery Bank, and $1 per Watt for Your Inverters.

http://www.infinitepower.org/pdf/FactSheet-24.pdf

Simply stated, a solar array to run one Ceiling fan could cost $700. Honestly without rebates from your local Electric company, it is not financially prudent at this time. My neighbor put an array up that took care of Half his electrical costs and it cost $55,000. He got a $40,000 Rebate from the Electric compnay (no longer available) and qualified for a $2000 State Tax credit. So at the end of the day his setup cost him $13,000 and estimated to take close to 10 years to break even on the cost. That was a few years back, and maybe costs have dropped a little. The Technology is getting better and cheaper, but the return on the investment is still kinda hard to swollow.

all i know about this is you have to own a house(may be property) for 10 years before you can build that

but i think it'd be a very good idea lol

i do have a crank flashlight but there is little to no resistance while cranking it. i mean i would figure with running/biking you could crank something with a lot more resistance and produce more power as well, no? or would it still be minor compared to regular consumption of appliances.

This post was edited by cialda on Feb 7 2012 12:33pm

do the math on it and you'll see it quickly adds up. those crank flashlights use led bulbs and still require quite a bit of effort to keep them going for an hour straight.

once you scale up the power consumption to that of a tv or a room of lights on for hours at a time you simply wouldn't even make a dent unless you did it everyday for hours.

ive got a creek running through my property. 24/7 water wheel power bitches.

this i was going to say if you have access to running water then use a hydro wheel

i live in the middle of nowhere and me and my boss use a pelton wheel for my cabin and his house, shits pretty sick, everyone else uses generators