Do you own a solar panel for backup energy?

[Anonymous]

Is it worth getting one? We do not have a backup generator. I was thinking of getting one for the house to at least energize our refrigerator and iPhones.
I understand some people get one just for camping. Any recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Don't you have to have a solar battery to actually use your solar panels as back up energy? Or some other kind of "off the grid" situation.

We have solar panels, but they essentially feed energy in to the electrical grid. When the power goes out, we still do not have power. To have power from our solar panels alone, we would have to install a separate battery.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what you’re asking. You can get small portable panels that will power cell phones and such at the camping store. They are not going to run your fridge though.

For rooftop panels to work as a backup power source, you need a good battery. When we looked at this about 2 years ago, Tesla was really the only option for that. Whether you can get enough to power enough stuff depends on your location and roof position and also keep in mind that if there are storms you won’t get much sun. We got panels from another company last year and opted to pass on the battery for now as the salesman told us that they are anticipating some tech advancements in battery capacity shortly. I don’t know if he was right about that or not.

[Anonymous]

No, I have a generator.

[Anonymous]

We have solar panels and last I checked our locality does not yet allow off grid use. We can only sell back into the grid and get SRECS.

[Anonymous]

we have a gasoline generator, which is a lot more powerful than a solar panel, and it works at night, too.

[Anonymous]

OP, your solar panels have to be either tied to the grid, or completely off grid.

If tied to the grid, then for safety reasons they will shut off in a power outage. If you have a battery, the energy previously stored in your battery can run your home until it's used up. But you cannot run your home from your solar panels directly.

If off grid, you always run your home from your solar panels, or a battery, or both. But, you have no grid connection. That kind of system is expensive and not very reliable for every day use.

We are getting solar panels installed this fall. They will not cover our whole energy bill, only offset a portion. So although we could get a battery for power outages, that did not seem worth the very high cost of the battery plus the reduction in cost savings through offsetting our power bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your solar panels have to be either tied to the grid, or completely off grid.

If tied to the grid, then for safety reasons they will shut off in a power outage. If you have a battery, the energy previously stored in your battery can run your home until it's used up. But you cannot run your home from your solar panels directly.

If off grid, you always run your home from your solar panels, or a battery, or both. But, you have no grid connection. That kind of system is expensive and not very reliable for every day use.

We are getting solar panels installed this fall. They will not cover our whole energy bill, only offset a portion. So although we could get a battery for power outages, that did not seem worth the very high cost of the battery plus the reduction in cost savings through offsetting our power bill.

This.
We have a gas generator.

[Anonymous]

OP, your solar panels have to be either tied to the grid, or completely off grid.

If tied to the grid, then for safety reasons they will shut off in a power outage. If you have a battery, the energy previously stored in your battery can run your home until it's used up. But you cannot run your home from your solar panels directly.

If off grid, you always run your home from your solar panels, or a battery, or both. But, you have no grid connection. That kind of system is expensive and not very reliable for every day use.

We are getting solar panels installed this fall. They will not cover our whole energy bill, only offset a portion. So although we could get a battery for power outages, that did not seem worth the very high cost of the battery plus the reduction in cost savings through offsetting our power bill.

This.

We are scheduled to get solar panels and a Powerwall for back up energy in about a month. Our solar panels will provide 112% of our current electrical needs. The powerwall (Tesla) battery will store about 3 days of electricity. We will be tied to the grid and have net metering so the powerwall is necessary if we want actual back up. We have never been without power for more than 2 days (even during hurricane Isabel) so we feel this is about right. We have been in this house for 22 years. I suppose we could go off grid if we see that the system is providing everything we need, but we have to see.

Yes, this is expensive (35K), but we will get a 10K tax credit this year so effectively it is 25K. We see it more as insurance than as actual money savings. We plan to be in this house at least 10 more years. We are getting older so the insurance value is higher (no worries about AC going out during a heat event, etc.).

Right now we have small storage batteries to keep our internet working during a power outage. We have had two short outages this summer and the battery backup worked well both times. So that might be another option. Generators make a lot of noise.

[Anonymous]

Solar panels are NOT back-up power. They produce power when the sun shines and that's it. That power is fed back to the grid. A generator is back-up power as are batteries.

[Anonymous]

A panel might charge an iPhone.

If you buy 25k in panels plus 3k battery, then you can use solar for back up power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP, your solar panels have to be either tied to the grid, or completely off grid.

If tied to the grid, then for safety reasons they will shut off in a power outage. If you have a battery, the energy previously stored in your battery can run your home until it's used up. But you cannot run your home from your solar panels directly.

If off grid, you always run your home from your solar panels, or a battery, or both. But, you have no grid connection. That kind of system is expensive and not very reliable for every day use.

We are getting solar panels installed this fall. They will not cover our whole energy bill, only offset a portion. So although we could get a battery for power outages, that did not seem worth the very high cost of the battery plus the reduction in cost savings through offsetting our power bill.

This.

We are scheduled to get solar panels and a Powerwall for back up energy in about a month. Our solar panels will provide 112% of our current electrical needs. The powerwall (Tesla) battery will store about 3 days of electricity. We will be tied to the grid and have net metering so the powerwall is necessary if we want actual back up. We have never been without power for more than 2 days (even during hurricane Isabel) so we feel this is about right. We have been in this house for 22 years. I suppose we could go off grid if we see that the system is providing everything we need, but we have to see.

Yes, this is expensive (35K), but we will get a 10K tax credit this year so effectively it is 25K. We see it more as insurance than as actual money savings. We plan to be in this house at least 10 more years. We are getting older so the insurance value is higher (no worries about AC going out during a heat event, etc.).

Right now we have small storage batteries to keep our internet working during a power outage. We have had two short outages this summer and the battery backup worked well both times. So that might be another option. Generators make a lot of noise.

We have solar panels but not a powerwall for back up energy. I wonder if we can retrofit it? We also plan to be in our house for as long as possible. We are in our mid-50s.

[Anonymous]

If you just want back up power for a few things, just get the batteries/cells and don’t get the solar. It isn’t like we have extended power outages of more than a few days. (Yes I know there are a few people who have longer outages).

[Anonymous]

The gas generators are noisy and kind of gross.

If you want the solar panels to be your backup, you have to invest in the batteries. As someone else said, the batteries are the backup. Tesla is a good option as the PP mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you just want back up power for a few things, just get the batteries/cells and don’t get the solar. It isn’t like we have extended power outages of more than a few days. (Yes I know there are a few people who have longer outages).

Wow! This made a lot of sense. Do the batteries lose their "charge" and have to be recharged again and again?