Reply to Do you own a solar panel for backup energy?

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Reply to "Do you own a solar panel for backup energy?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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