Though the cost may be more up front, and I believe the incentive/rebate you can get is still valid, a back up solar power system is something to consider.
Automatic back up, switches over without interruption, battery bank will last a good long while depending on size and electrical load, and they are easily wired for a back up generator in case the solar panels are not producing full power, load is discharging batteries down to the limit, you can bulk charge them back up in a short while, say before you turn in, then just run on battery power at night, repeat in the morning if its cloudy etc.
In this house, the system works great, so far the power went off for 6 hours, the 48V system battery bank reads 54 volts when power is on, full charge, after that 6 hours it went down to 52 volts, installer says it can go into the low 40's, before you should have to bulk or trickle charge. Only concern is discharging batteries beyond a certain limit, there is some kind of specification on the cycles of that and apparently it can shorten the life of them. The good thing is a system like this buys you a lot of time, you can manage loads from the breakers or switches. When power is on, the panels produce 690 watts per a bank of 3, (only have 3 myself, but plan to add more in groups of 3, I face south and am on a hill, full sun) This is producing power and lowering power costs, I am not sure how to read the display, but it seems with the load shown and what is produced, I'm still making some excess during peak sun, another benefit.
For back up to this, I have a Miller NT251 welder, 8000 watt continuous power, may not ever need to use it, unless extended power outage in summer, high temps. I can run a 8000 btu window A/C off the battery bank, the central A/C would likely deplete the bank rapidly at night or cloudy, but with that generator wired into the inverter, you could switch other loads off, cool the house down, then go back to the usual back up power mode, which common sense tells you to conserve power, don't use the stove, A/C, washer/dryer. I think with more panels and or larger battery bank, I could, but really not necessary, there are enough options to manage all needs, I really like this set up. Welder serves 2 functions, does all my welding needs and generates plenty of power, darned thing only cost me $1000 at a sale, had 1400 hours on it. I still have to add the extra hardware to have it wired in, but the system is designed for it to have another source besides the grid, installed is only a few hundred.
I have 1 chest freezer 2 full size refrigerators and 1 small refrigerator, nice to know you have plenty of time before you even have to think about spoilage, system runs the oil/hotwater furnance, and 220 well pump, all the above at the same time, but its rare to have all those on at the exact same time.
In summary, its a luxury to have this solar back up power, not sure what the service life will be on the panels and batteries, but was told that if the discharge cycle does not breach a certain, threshold, you balance them as needed, more so if straight solar because you use them a lot more, the system should last almost indefinitely, I'm skeptical of that, we shall see LOL !!
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Today's Featured Article - Ford Part Number Trivia - by Forum Participants. "Replaced by" means the part was superseded. All of my part books date back to 1964 and New Holland have changed some part numbers. They usually put the old Ford part number on the package. I was suppressed when I looked up the part number of the auxiliary drive shaft because for some reason the part number went through a radical change and it lost its "Basic Part Number". Ford part numbers follow the following rules. Most part numbers are in three parts. The middle part is called the
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