not on the roof solar panels?

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jeffk

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Anyone know about solar panels for a backyard?

I live in a townhome where the hoa won't let people get solar panels for the roof. Is it possible to get solar panel(s) set up in a backyard and run certain things off the solar panel power?

I am wondering if I could a solar panel set up in the backyard and run portable air conditioners in the house in the summer and portable space heaters in the winter with the panel?
 
jeffk said:
Anyone know about solar panels for a backyard?

I live in a townhome where the hoa won't let people get solar panels for the roof. Is it possible to get solar panel(s) set up in a backyard and run certain things off the solar panel power?

I am wondering if I could a solar panel set up in the backyard and run portable air conditioners in the house in the summer and portable space heaters in the winter with the panel?
Click to expand...

The same regulations likely prevent you from having them in the yard too. If you live in California you can tell the homeowners association to kiss your ass and put up what you want. In other places you could use Tesla's solar roof. You will need a lot of panel surface area to run an air conditioner. The best setup is one that tracks the sun to get maximum exposure to the sunlight at all times of the day and year. Here is the website of a company that sells them. It has some videos that show the way they work.
http://dhsolar.net/
 
jeffk said:
Anyone know about solar panels for a backyard?

I live in a townhome where the hoa won't let people get solar panels for the roof. Is it possible to get solar panel(s) set up in a backyard and run certain things off the solar panel power?

I am wondering if I could a solar panel set up in the backyard and run portable air conditioners in the house in the summer and portable space heaters in the winter with the residential solar panel?
Click to expand...
Any thoughts about in-roof panels? IMO the result looks much better and I am aware that most systems will produce slightly less output. OTOH there is presumably much less stress on the roof.
 
I'd be afraid on roof would result in rain leaking thru the holes.

Any reason why you can't have the panels as carport roof? TV commercial here have aluminum and polycarbonate carport roofs.
 
Air conditioners and space heaters both draw a ton of power. You'd need massive solar panels. I have solar panels for my security lights. Little tiny guys attached to the wall facing south. They work great but those are little lights that only come on for like 30 seconds at a time and spend all day charging.
 
Yes, you can build an array in your back yard and it will do the exact same thing. We did this at a solar company I worked for all the time. Mostly on farms and such, but the concept is the same
 
jeffk said:
Anyone know about solar panels for a backyard?

I live in a townhome where the hoa won't let people get solar panels for the roof. Is it possible to get solar panel(s) set up in a backyard and run certain things off the solar panel power?

I am wondering if I could a solar panel set up in the backyard and run portable air conditioners in the house in the summer and portable space heaters in the winter with the panel?
Click to expand...
Stopped reading at HOA.

No answer you will receive here will satisfy your HOA.
 
ObsoleteSoul said:
Yes, you can build an array in your back yard and it will do the exact same thing. We did this at a solar company I worked for all the time. Mostly on farms and such, but the concept is the same
Click to expand...
There's a push to rent out grazing land for solar panels. Lots of open air sunlight, plus the cattle love the shade they provide.
 
Fluffernutter said:
There's a push to rent out grazing land for solar panels. Lots of open air sunlight, plus the cattle love the shade they provide.
Click to expand...
I can see that. The arrays we built were not high enough for a cow to get under though, especially because we built them at an angle depending on the land they were going on. I see those huge commercial projects though around where I live. Must be thousands of panels
 
ObsoleteSoul said:
I can see that. The arrays we built were not high enough for a cow to get under though, especially because we built them at an angle depending on the land they were going on. I see those huge commercial projects though around where I live. Must be thousands of panels
Click to expand...

Sheep, in the netherlands, anyway. It's a cool image of futuristic symbiosis to see a little park-like greenspace carved out in an otherwise pretty urbanized city, filled with neat rows of solar panels with sheep laying down in the shade they make.
 
Green agenda killed by your HOA lol

Why not the wind turbine? Seem more effective since it can work even at night.
 
Ground mounts are a lot more expensive and depending where you live there are going to be a lot of restrictions on where you can put them … u will also need a pretty big open space with no shade.

If the HOA won’t let you do the roof I doubt they will let you put in a ground mount
 
I don't believe HOAs can stop someone from placing solar panels into roofs anymore. I've at least read that before. It used to be a state issue. Years ago I asked my state rep in Illinois about this and she e-mailed information showing HOAs couldn't stop solar panel installation. I think that is the case nationally now, but not entirely sure.

of course there is the case of being a good neighbor and not upsetting others you live near. Solar panels are not always the best look for a home some feel. There is also the issue of fires from solar panels. I guess rare but it has happened. My parents used to have solar panels on their roof in Florida. A few years ago a hurricane passed over their place and the solar panels caused over $100,000 worth of damage to their roof. The panels vibrated from the strong winds, and that resulted in a lot of roof damage, and lots of water pouring into the house.

I looked into having solar panels placed onto the ground, in my yard, instead of the roof recently. It can be done I was told. They said locally regulations state the panels had to be 10 feet from the house for safety reasons. I thought that odd. My back yard is not that big.
 
humperdoo said:
Green agenda killed by your HOA lol

Why not the wind turbine? Seem more effective since it can work even at night.
Click to expand...

Don't wind turbines need to be at a certain height to be effective? And you will hear an audible hum. If his HOA hates solar panels they sure as hell will hate wind turbines
 
I just don't see how people are getting a return on their investment unless they have an EV or a bunch of people living in their house.
 
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