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Has anyone converted just a part of their home to off-grid electric generation?
There are at least three tiers of cost for electricity in Southern California. Tier three is about 28 cents per Kilowatt-hour. My thought is to knock off about 80 KWH per month off my electric bill, which will lower the bill about $270 per year. So if I install a solar generator for $2700 and run just a part of my house, the return on investment is 10%. I would have no problem with installing off-grid outlets in two rooms. Anyone? Anyone?
Additional discussion - Grid tied systems will not work because in order for a $27,000 grid tie system to be economically viable, I would have to save $2700 per year in electric bills, which is larger than my electric bills. I also do not want my property tied up with encumbrances on a so-called "free" grid-tied system. The only people who get rich with a grid-tie system are the utilities (don't have to build additional capacity) the installers, and the cities (absurd permit fees).
1 Answer
- 7 years ago
Unfortunately utilities are often stuck with the idea that you can connect to the grid or you can connect solar panels to a private network with battery storage but not both. The given reason is understandable, that they do not want utility workers expecting no voltage on lines in a power outage and getting a lethal shock. Eventually there will be a way around this as Utilities will want to encourage private battery storage that they can use on demand.
If you only wanted to save money on your utility bills you could connect to the grid and request net metering (you pay the difference between what you produce and what you use.) The more expensive route is to use a battery back up and off grid wiring. I know some who have done the second but they usually opt for 12 v DC wiring to remain consistent with their panels and battery back up. This saves some of the expense used for an inverter.
There are several ways to generate solar electricity. By far the most common and probably cheapest is to use Solar PV panels (produces DC power and usually needs an inverter) although the highest efficiency has been obtained using parabolic dish and a Stirling engine powered generator (produces AC power but there is a noise factor.)
EDIT: Often it is governmental and /or utility grants that make the pay back period for a grid tied system worth while. This is true no matter where you are located. If the subsidies don't exist your reasons to install a PV system are probably not economic. Much of the big subsidies have passed in California. Net metering is considered a form of subsidy and has recently been under attack in California... see below.
