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.

 

And this is why I stayed grid tied - LOL

All of February 2025 - my lowest production month ever. We had snow storms every couple of days so the panels never had a fighting chance. Even on the days the roof did clear a good amount, those days were dark and gloomy with heavy overcast. The best producing day, 2/28/25, was at ~22kwh, and that was still with many panels with snow cover. That 5 days in a row that show no production, I had close to 20" covering the roof and even the bare metal parts weren't dumping, much less the panels





Even November 2022, when the system was installed but I didn't get to flip the switch until 11/16/2 was better. Historically, January is the worst performing month, with December as the 2nd worst. But this year, February was down 25% from the previous low.



I still haven't had a full day of sun AND the panels clear of snow since the beginning of this month (the last two panels cleared yesterday but is was overcast most of the day). BUT, in those 1st 4 days in March, I am just a couple of kwhs shy of the total February production

 

Jumping in after a long time- just seeing this now. I think I understand what is being described. In a similar situation when power goes down at my house, despite having a full array of solar panels, the technology of the time in 2015 was such that my panels would be backfeeding into the grid during the day making it dangerous for the linesmen working on the wires somewhere down the road.
So in instances when we lose power we flip the transfer switch and run a gas generator.
Newer technology allows the solar arrays to have a built in automatic "transfer switch" that they call a "microgrid" and can serve 2 basic functions;
1) run directly uninterrupted off of the panels when the sun is generating enough electricity to carry the load,
2) be fed into a backup battery bank that can take charge of excess solar generation and discharge based on what the home is calling for.

Like everything else there are trade offs but the technology is improving and I'm interested in seeing what's available when I go to replace my dinosaur inverter.