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Sunfish plug 'n' play solar for less than $4,000
Cheap solar panels, micro-inverters, and plug-in technology make DIY solar a reality for the first time.
Mon, Aug 16 2010 at 7:26 PM
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DIY, Smart Grid, Passive Solar

 
A new company called Clarian has announced that it will have a plug ‘n’ play home solar kit ready by next spring. The “Sunfish” is essentially a sun visor that you can hang over a sunny, south-facing window.
 
The device uses the company's 250 W micro-inverter to feed energy directly into your home through any standard outlet. You plug it into the wall, and in another convenient location you plug in a circuit monitor that uses software to sync the inverter to the monitor, reducing the amount of electricity you pull from the grid.
 
With a set of five panels (which will cost $4,000 in spring of 2011, but will likely drop to $3,000 in 2012) you can produce as much as 1800 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year — about enough to run a major appliance like a refrigerator. It may not sound like a lot, but when you consider that it makes solar generation a reality for under $4 grand, it could be a game-changer in quickly bringing more renewables onto the grid.
 
Right now to get in the solar game you need $30,000 to $40,000, an expense especially high in tough economic times and one that few households are able or willing to make. But Clarian doesn't believe solar should be an "all or nothing" scenario.
 
The more homes that have solar, the more stable becomes the grid, and 1800 kWh is nothing to sneeze at. The average home uses about 11,000 kWh per year, so that's a full 16 percent of a typical home's electricity usage.
 
Because the price point is so low, there are millions of homes that could afford to go at least partially solar. Imagine if 10 million homes got five Sunfish panels. We would ostensibly cut 18 billion kWh from the total U.S. energy load — roughly the equivalent of five 500 megawatt coal power plants.
 
But the real reason I think this product will be a big success is it has many perks — for starters, cheaper bills! After the four-year payback period (assuming some typical government rebates), your home energy bill could be reduced by several hundred bucks per year.
 
Power outage? You've got power. And the Sunfish doubles as a sun-shading device which (by some rough estimating with LBL's Home Energy Saver assuming five typical south-facing windows) could cut your AC load by up to 20 percent, making your home more comfortable, while saving the grid another 400 kWhs per home (a typical 2-ton AC system uses about 2100 kWhs per year).
 
But the biggest savings may come in the form of personal conservation empowered through energy monitoring. Many studies have shown that when people are able to see their energy consumption real time, they get motivated to "beat the meter" — keeping lights turned off and devices powered down as much as possible, and postponing certain appliances cycles until off-peak hours when electricity is cheaper.
 
All of that means less peak demand for at-the-ready dirty coal power, and the beginning of a smarter, more secure and more efficient grid.

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

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Comments: 4
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anonymous
KD Munoz Aug 23 2010 at 11:44 PM
I think this has a better 'real life' application usage viability than current solar models due to the installation ease, which also eliminates many homeowner nightmares of hiring fly-by-night installers who barely know what the products are much less their actual function, practicality or other features. It's sort of like pulling into a car repair shop with a Prius, not EVERY mechanic knows what this is or how to use it, though all can make it run- it would be wonderful if such consumer goods were
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all so easy! Knowing this is out there & having done far too much research in trying to find a way to save on this- I think I'm going to be waiting until it hits here!
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anonymous
John S. Aug 18 2010 at 12:36 PM
The blogger claims you currently need $30,000 to $40,000 just to "get in the solar game." This is misleading because it sounds like that is a threshold amount of money you need. The cost of an installed PV system will vary with the size of the system. I had a 2.8 kW system installed in Jan 2010 for $11,000. How does this compare with Sunfish's 1.8kW system that will sell for $4,000 in spring of 2011? Hard to say, since you'd be comparing a past price with a future price of a product that is
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getting cheaper every year. Plus, an installed solar PV system generally adds to the resale value of the house, whereas a plug-in system may not. That being said, I still think the Sunfish system is a great idea. To me, the most obvious advantage of the Sunfish system is that you can easily take this system from house to house when you move. This will especially benefit renters.
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anonymous
KenB Aug 18 2010 at 7:31 AM
Contrary to what is stated above, Sunfish can not work as a backup power source in the event of a power outage. Per Clarian's FAQ: "The Sunfish is not intended to provide backup power when there’s a power outage but can provide backup power in conjunction with a certified back-up power system since the safety features built into the Sunfish prevents it from generating power during a complete power outage." In other words, this system can only supplement another power source, whether it be main
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line power or a backup generator. It can not provide primary power.
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anonymous
Bill Seavey Aug 16 2010 at 10:43 PM
I am the author of People's Guide to Basic Solar Power, first published in 2002 and sold at PowerFromSun.com. I may have been the first to develop a small technical guidebook to ways you could supplement grid power with solar pv, on a small scale, using off the shelf components you could find at hardware stores--and even sometimes FREE solar panels that were "rems," It has been a VERY popular manual, I've sold thousands. But this Clarian approach really seems to be true plug-and-play if it works
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as advertised, and although my approach is cheaper, $3000-$4000 is not an insurmountable price. I am at this time considering updating my guide, to be available by early next year (currently it is at a discounted price). If the Sunfish pans out, it will, of course, be detailed. Note to manufacturer: get me a test version for a reasonable discount and I am sure I can bring you a lot of business!!!
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