Buick and Deere has an excellent point. You can buy 100W solar panels for $75 each, and a "grid tie" inverter for $100. The "grid tie" inverters are "plug and play" and automatically disconnect when line voltage is lost so you don't shock the utility workers when the power goes out. That obviously doesn't help in the event of a power outage, but you can have a backup generator for that. So for $400 you can be up and running with a 400W system. In my snowy, cloudy zip code, at my local 11.7 cents/Kw-hr, that system will pay for itself in about 7 years. A typical house will need a 3600W system, but you can build the system incrementally with the money saved after the first investment.
"Saving" money through solar or wind energy is much easier than "making" money. This is because if you grid-tie, you're essentially selling your own power to yourself at retail rates. However, any excess is sold to the utility, typically at wholesale rates. The utility is legally not allowed to pay more for power it is buying. So if you size your system to provide maybe 80% to 100% of your daytime need, and buy your power at night, you'll *save* money. But if you want to invest in batteries, storage, and over-sized solar arrays to provide *all* your energy needs to go off-grid or stay on-grid and sell some back, then you're in for some big money. Unless you live in prime solar territory like Arizona, it will be very difficult to make this system pay. You might be energy independent, but it will be very expensive.
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Today's Featured Article - Timing Your Magneto Ignition Tractor - by Chris Pratt. If you have done major engine work or restored your tractor, chances are you removed the magneto and spark plug wires and eventually reached the point where you had to put it all back together and make it run. On our first cosmetic restoration, not having a manual, we carefully marked the wires, taped the magneto in the position it came off, and were careful not to turn the engine over while we had these components off. We thought we could get by with this since the engine ran perfectly and would not need any internal work. After the cleanup and painting was done, we began reassembly and finally came to t
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