Residential Solar

No regrets at all. The system has worked very well and I'm happy that I advocated for use of the west roof (none of the companies wanted to use that side - just the east and south).

Probably would have been nice if I had thought to have them put up a separate, small array (maybe 4 panels) that was not grid tied for use during power outages. But since I'd never had a power outage longer than 4 hours before the system was installed, it just wasn't a thought at the time. Would have been fairly cheap to have the permitting and work done at the same time. Not worth doing now as the cost of the crew would be enormous for the small amount of time, materials and work it would take.

 

The way I understand it, you need a power source in order for the panels to move elec. A battery would do the trick along with a different inverter and bus transfer so that the elec you'd be generating does not enter the grid...wouldn't want to surprise any line workers, no?

 

Couldn't you do that with any system?

 

And that would be why I called that small array "not grid tied", those panels would have gone straight to batteries (but not like a whole home battery back up). I have battery packs now and a couple of panels I move around out in the yard that I got for emergency use, but it would be much more convenient if those panels were on the roof.

 

The way you describe it, sounds like nothing more than a solar charger for a battery?

How is your back up system isolated from the grid?

 

I don't have a back up system per se (they wanted more for a back up system than I paid for my entire array). In the last year, I've bought a couple of portable batteries (Ecoflow and Bluetti) that use solar panels to charge. Plus I have the Ryobi battery pack that got me thru the 3-day power outage March 2023 - which is not solar charged but I could charge it thru on of the others.