Solar Power: Can You Take the Option To Go Off Grid?

If you fix solar panels on your home, can you go “off grid” and say goodbye to the electric company forever?  Not having to rely on an outside company for your electricity is an attractive notion. No more electric bills coming to your mailbox. No more frustration with the utility companies for any reason. Can you make this happen for your family? Should you? The answer will very much rely upon the typical weather in your location and how much money you can commit to maintaining your own power system.

You’ll Wish You Had Looked at Going Off-Grid Sooner

First First of all|Firstly], think about your location.  Does your region get a lot of sunshine, or is it cloudy a lot of the time?  Even [when you fit solar panels on your home, they only produce electricity when the sun is hitting them.  So you will need batteries for storing electricity to use at night and on cloudy days.

That’s where added expenses come in.  You’ll need to buy and maintain a sufficient amount of large DC (direct current) batteries to secure enough energy to last through one to three days of cloudy weather.  You’ll need plenty of storage space for all of those batteries, and you’ll have to plan for the expense of getting new ones periodically.

The Homeowners’ Off-Grid Solution to Power

In addition, having a backup generator is a good idea in case of stretches of cloudy weather that use up the power stored in your batteries.  A generator will need fuel and you’ll need to store that also. Generators normally use either gas or diesel fuel.  But that seems inconsistent with the “green” purpose of solar panels, so you’ll probably want to use biodiesel. So, yes, you can go “off grid”, but it’s not a simple or inexpensive project.

A more feasible solution may be “net metering.”  You can check to determine if your local utility company offers this program. With net metering you can significantly reduce your electric bill, and have all the power you need at night and during extended overcast periods.  Net metering allows you to get credits back from the power company for excess electricity that your solar panels generate during the day. Then you just use the electricity from your local power company at night and on days when there is not enough direct sunlight. You won’t need to store stacks of DC batteries in your basement or garage. Although you won’t be living “off grid”, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your monthly bill.  Some months you may owe nothing!

Rocketing Energy Bills Taking Houseowners Off-Grid

So if you live in a very sunny region, with lots of extra room to store batteries, living “off grid” might be possible for you. But if you’re part of the world gets little sun and you have no large storage space, “net metering” would be more feasible.

Welcome back!