Solar Powered Glass Studio

[colonel4bin]

Hi All, it's been a while since I've cruised the forums and thought, since it might interest some, I'd share a little on what we have been up to....

Last summer I bought a small farm that is "off-grid". No telephone poles, no electric lines, no public utilities......Our property is an hour outside Lake Tahoe, within the El Dorado National Forest, in northern California. We are literally surrounded on 3 sides by National Forest boundary! While this made the property a gem to me, we were faced with the challenge of running our home and business on alternative energy sources.

In the beginning, I was told solar power would not be an option to power kilns and the like. Now me not being one to be told something can't be done, I decided to take on the challenge and see if we could pull it off. After an exhausting amount of research and with the help of the engineers at Iron Edison, a solar power/battery company in Denver, we came up with a solution.

In September of last year our solar array and battery went on-line and has been smoothly powering our glass studio for the past 10 months! 100% Green energy! Now the caveat with solar is obvious, the sun needs to shine for it to work. We live in an ideal location where the sun shines 300+ days a year, for a good 5-7 hours per day, this was key and very much lucky on my part.

Our system consists of 21 solar panels, capable of producing 300 watts each. A 500 aH Nickel/Iron - Edison Battery bank, a 6,500 watt AC/DC power inverter and 2 solar charge controllers. We built a "solar barn" to support the solar array and house the battery bank, which stores our excess energy for when the sun is not shining. We do have a small diesel back-up generator but so far, it has seen very little use, only in winter when sunlight can become scarce for periods of time.

Overall I have been extremely pleased with the result and wanted to pass along our journey for those who might be interested in a similar option. During the process I became very educated on solar energy systems and I still meet those who say you can't blow glass on solar power. I tell them, "stop on by and see for yourself!"

If anyone has any questions or would like to visit and blow glass on 100% solar energy, feel free to get in touch. http://www.LostDogStudios.com

A few photos are attached below.....

Garrett Keisling
Lost Dog Studios

[LowTideGlass]

That is so so awesome!

Congrats, all your hard work seems to be paying off.

Love the Westy you have there too, she fits right in

[Greymatter Glass]

Nice Garrett!

My shop is, at least in the summer, >100% solar offset. We're grid tied, net metered, no battery system, but it's 66 panels @ 327w per panel, 21,582w total output. I just checked we're pushing just a hair under 21000 right now at 1:00pm on a sunny day.

So during the day we put in close to double what we use, and at night we draw off the grid, but the meter never moves forward. Our last full bill was $665 and now it's running a credit balance every month. Should pay for itself in 7 years.

It's a 3 phase system with 2 meters...


This is one roof, there's a smaller roof behind me... it's all the same tho

[colonel4bin]

Nice Doug, thanks for sharing, I geek out on solar since I joined the revolution! That's quite a system you have, very impressive, good to see others taking advantage of the sun where possible.

We have a split phase 120/240 system. My panels are checking in with about 5,000 watts today at 1:40pm. More than enough to run my small operation.

Low Tide, my guess is solar would be an option to off-set your energy costs in Maine, and usually well worth that alone, but probably not a full time reality.
If you have any consistent wind or running water, both wind and water turbines have also come down in price and are very efficient compared to just a few years ago. We are thinking of putting up a turbine for the winter months when the sunlight is poor and we have storms coming through.

Garrett

[dplaza]

Wow this is great I have always felt a little guilty about what my torch spews into the atmosphere. Going solar would be a good way to offset the pollution aside from the obvious economic benefits. Gotta keep setting the bar higher. Thanks for sharing.

[Shattered Dreams]

any estimate on the cost to set that system up?

[colonel4bin]

Cost $30,000, minus 30% tax rebate = $21,000

Cost is half that if you are grid-tied and do not require a battery for storage.

[Greymatter Glass]

Costs vary so much, but typically start around $2 per watt, and premium panels and equipment may run as high as $5/w or so.

[yinzer]

Awesome!

[Isthmus]

This is amazing, thank you for sharing!

[taylorm]

Looks like a dream setup you got there! Nice work. I have thought about going off grid before and building a combination gas/electric annealer, gas for base heating and then electric for fine tuning. Full solar looks a lot better though.

[BlairArtGlass]

Nice work guys! I know its impossible to make what we do 100% green because of raw materials manufacturing, but its awesome seeing people trying to get closer!

[Swim]

Axel Umana Has a solar powered mobile studio. Just saw a picture of bob snodgrass checking it out and giving approval