My wife and I are building a 40X60 barn with living quarters in the top section and 12X24 office and 12X 24 shop on the ground floor. The Barn is a kit made by Barn Pro's (Denali 60) We will orient the building in whatever most Southern position receives the best daily sunlight for solar. I'm a bit overwhelmed with the number of solar kits available. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The panels will be mounted on standing seam tan metal roof. I have spoke with a couple solar companies (the ones that will call me back) and the consensus seems to be between 30 and 40 panels providing 150w-300w. I spoke with GA power about their sell back programs and we will be selling back at 4-6 cents during the day to cover what we use at night. No batteries. Our current family usage in a 4 bedroom home is peak in July at 2,500kW and 1,100 in April. I expect that we will be right in the same area considering the home we have now is quite efficient. Does anyone have any thoughts on products to use, stay from or technology to wait for? We expect to break ground in April. On a side note as this may be important we will be on well water, grid tied and plan on Geo thermal. (I havent even began to investigate geo thermal yet but this may be the place.) Thank you for any advice! here are some details the solar companies asked for: Zip: 30117 Acres: 136 Shade: can be cleared to suit Distance from nearest power pole: 1,200 ft On grid at night LP generator backup http://www.barnpros.com/products/apartment/denali_apt_60.html

"Does anyone have any thoughts on products to use, stay from or technology to wait for? We expect to break ground in April. On a side note as this may be important we will be on well water, grid tied and plan on Geo thermal. (I havent even began to investigate geo thermal yet but this may be the place.)"

The question is awfully vague. Try the "shopper's checklist" for a place to start.

I went through a similar checklist and have all the data. Really I just dont know if there is any difference in the companies, panel technology or are they all about the same just vary on wattage and price.

I was referring to your geo question. there is a solar forum if you wish to connect with solar pros.

Oh I see, thank you.

You might want to look into the relative merits of geothermal vs some type of air-source heat pump in that climate, particularly since you seem to have a mixed-use structure.

Not all PV panels are the same. Some are better built than others. Maybe you should follow Joe's suggestion and open a new post in the solar forum for that part of your question.

Your climate, outside Atlanta, isn't all that different from my area, Jax, FL.

Exercise caution in realizing your goal to maximize southern exposure for optimum solar electric production - you may inadvertently drive up cooling loads.

Chase "negaWatts" before megaWatts...in other words wring as much consumption out of your design before allocating $ to generation. I beg to differ with your contention that consuming 2500 kWh in July and 1100 kWh in April constitutes an "efficient" home. In new construction you should be able to halve those figures. We are in the midst of an extraordinarily mild winter, but my 3000 SF home with 4.5 occupants, 50 windows, 50" plasma TV, well and septic pumps, separate chest freezer, at least 5 loads laundry per week and kids who don't understand that light switches have an "off" position has not exceeded 700 kWh / month since September and averaged less than 800 / month for all of 2012.

We do have a water source geo heat pump, but minisplits and high end variable capacity air source split systems now offer comparable efficiency. We have a heat pump water heater, cutting edge when I installed it in 2009, but now available at Lowes.

Ensure your building envelope is reasonably well insulated, nothing crazy, but be especially careful to ensure it is fairly airtight - no point in heating, cooling, and dehumidifying the neighborhood. Configure windows for reasonable U values, but especially minimize solar gain via tint, film, and exterior shading. Choose lighting and appliances well - I could drop another 50-100 kWh per month by losing the plasma TV in favor of LED, weaning my wife from her insta-hot 24/7 tea water heater, and retrofitting an induction cooktop. Heat pump clothes dryers should become available in the next year or so, and they look to save another 25 kwh / month.

There is an unfortunate tendency to focus on one or two technologies, such as geothermal heat pumps or solar electric panels, to solve all a home's energy problems when the better approach is to step back and consider the whole home - thermal and pressure envelopes, fenestration, HVAC, water heating, laundry, cooking, refrigeration, lighting, media, pool pumping and others.

Thanks for the info. Im sure one of the things we need to do first is limit our outdoor usage. Currently we have a lot of power wasted at night on 12 X 50w outdoor halogens in the backyard and 6 X 50w halogens in the front that runs from dusk to dawn. I believe even more power is wasted on two large fountain pumps that run 2800 GPH 24/7. I dont know the wattage on them but they are 1/4 hp Craftsman submersible pumps and I know they are pulling some watts.

I just used our current house as an example because most of the electronics and appliances as well as the size will be considerably the same. Once we finish the barn we plan on building a home on the property and wanted the barn to be paid for and have a zero footprint as well as no continuing costs to us for power etc..

Yeah, I'm using 2 watt and 5 watt LED fixtures outside, and the truth is that the 5-watters are really too bright. I have a 10 watt LED wall pack that illuminates the driveway and last night in the freezing fog, it was making "9/11 monument" style beams of light spearing upwards more than 200 feet......

Wow, I bought a couple LED's off ebay and they were not bright enough for me. Where did you find your 10w led's?

Not all LEDs are created equil. I got some that I like from Lowe's $9 a bulb is a little steep but I like them much better than CFLs.

Where did you find your 10w led's?

At the electrical distributor. Cooper Lighting Crosstour LED wall pack is the one on the driveway. The 2 watt spot lights are on the ground, aimed at the house, and the 5 watt gimballed lights are in the roof soffits, shining down the walls.  Most people use too much light in the first place.

It sounds like you have a fair amount of land, have you considered putting the PV solar out away from the house? That way you could site the house to lower cooling load, yet maximize gain for the PV. As an example my house is shaded until late in the morning, I'm on a northwest facing slope, yet I have a field down next to the transformer where I can drop the solar which receives sun about 2 hours earlier in the day. I also oriented the house for views and to match the slope, which was not the right orientation for solar. On another note I also used large overhangs on the front to keep the late day gain down, and large windows on the back to maximize early day gain in the winter.

Obviously there is great potential to reduce lighting consumption. I wouldn't be suprised if the fountain pumps were 400-500 Watts each.