Mindzle

If you were to fit solar panels on your home, could you just go “off grid” and cut out the power company completely?  Not having to rely on the power company for your power is an attractive proposition. No more triple digit electric bills. No more frustration with the power companies for any reason. Can you make this happen for your family? Should you? The answer will depend upon the typical weather in your area and how much money you’re able to invest maintaining your own power system.

Using Net Metering Makes Going Off-Grid Easier

First First of all|Firstly], think about your location.  Is the dominant weather in your area bright and sunny or dark and rainy you install 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 have to purchase and maintain a sufficient amount of large DC (direct current) batteries to secure sufficient energy to last through one to three days of cloudy weather.  You’ll need sufficient storage space for all of those batteries, and you’ll have to plan for the cost of replacing them periodically.

The Off Grid Benefits for the Homeowner

It’s also a good idea to have a backup generator just in case you have a long stretch of overcast weather that lasts beyond your battery storage capacity.  A generator requires fuel and you’ll have to store that also. Generators usually use either gas or diesel fuel.  But that seems to defeat the purpose of a solar panel system, so you’ll probably want to use biodiesel. So, yes, you can go “off grid”, but it’s not a simple or cheap project.

A more practical solution may be “net metering.”  You can check to determine if your local utility company provides this program. With net metering you can significantly reduce your electric costs, and have all the power you need at night and during extended overcast periods.  Net metering allows you to receive credits back from the electric company for excess electricity that your solar panels generate during the day. Then you simply use the electricity from your local utility company at night and on days when there is not enough direct sunlight. And you wouldn’t have to find a place to store stacks of batteries. You won’t be totally “off grid”, but you can save a significant amount of money on your monthly electric bills.  Some months you may owe nothing!

The Off-Grid Solution To The Power Crises

So if you live in a very sunny area, with lots of extra room to store batteries, living “off grid” might be possible for you. But if you live in a small place, have no large storage space, and you’re already parking your car on the street because the garage is too full, “net metering” will probably be your best bet.