Photovoltaic systems for the home can be simple of complicated. A solar powered UPS for our computers and home theater turned out to be too complicated with today's systems. Grid tie systems, however, have gotten about as simple as they can be. Xantrex Corporation has a simple grid tie system. The GT Series is a single box. Connect a photovoltaic array to one side and connect the other side to a pair of breakers in your circuit panel and that is it. You have a system that will augment your utility power. If your utility has a favorable net metering arrangement, you might make some money.
My system would be about 1kW, just enough to run our computers and home theater. With 5 hours of sunshine a day that would save us about 50 cents a day. Right, not much. It would be cool and it would be green. The cost would be about $10,000 to install. Tax credit incentives might return about 50% of that. It was fun to learn about and one day, who knows, maybe it would be affordable. Looks like these guys at Wholesale Solar have some good prices on photovoltaic solar panels, batteries, inverters and charge controllers. They also have integrated systems with nice cabinets.
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