Originally Posted By: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor
Have you looked at solar installations? A 15KW generator seems like overkill and a $15,000 solution to cover the occasional emergency power outages I suspect could be spent more prudently.

A 4KW solar kit, which feeds back into the electrical grid can be had for around £3,300 in the UK. Nothing like getting paid for the excess electrical power generation. With energy efficient appliances an average base load less than 0.5-1.0 KW (excluding heating and cooling) is easily achievable. LED lighting has steadily improved in the last couple of years for example. The Solar PV could then be switched to a back up battery system for electrical lighting, entertainment, comms etc during emergencies.

http://www.buypvdirect.co.uk/PV_Packs/3.4kW_Perlight_Solar_PV_Kit

Typically if a Solar PV kit like this if installed by yourself the pay back break even time to cover the initial investment would be less than 7-8 years.

If having a buried LPG tank is possible then the installation of a condensing high efficiency boiler and hot water central heating installation combined with a preheating solar tank system would further improve efficiency to point that your LPG deliveries might even be more cost effective than heating supplied via the it would seem unreliable electrical grid tie connection.



I don't know how it works in the UK but here it is not as simple as hooking it up. The meter has to be changed out to a different meter so it accounts for whatever power might get fed back on the line. And there are limits to what is allowed by utilities.

In any case, it really does not make as much sense as you might think as you have serious limitations as to when and how much power you will get, and what you get is more or less random. The only way around that involves insanely expensive banks of batteries.

residences (at least in the US) use more power in the evening when PV is not the answer.

here in the US grid tie invertors shut off when the grid goes down so you would have no power at all if the grid shutoff.
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Warning - I am not an expert on anything having to do with this forum, but that won't stop me from saying what I think. smile

Bob