Quote
Originally posted by mangla:
I think I use around 8kwh now. (does that sound right?)
8000 watts used per hour might be a good average usage number. The average for my home is 6000 watts average usage.

To maintain that amount of power usage, you and me, would take more than wind and/or solar to provide it. At times you will pull much less than 8000 watts per hour and other times much more. Like the power companies you too must build your system based on peak usage. This will get expensive.

Let's say you have the dryer running, about 25 amps when the heating element is on, the water heater is on, 4500 watt element = about 18/19 amps, electric stove going will use another 15 to 50 amps depending on number of elements on and settings, and your base load of lights, tv's, fan's, clocks, computers, etc. will add another 5 to 10 amps. So your peak usage would be in the range of 63 to 104 amps of peak usage. If you use say 75 amps as your peak usage, your system would have to handle an 18Kwh load. That is a lot of power from wind and solar!

So, without changing how you use energy for any moment in time, solar and wind, in most cases will only supplement your power usage.