Post #9404

Memory lane.... I can remember when I first looked into solar that off grid people were "quirky". They lived with composting toilets and had to deal with a great deal of "overhead" involving laundry on sunny days only. They had special 24v appliances. Fast forward 8 years.... I just commissioned a system 30 minutes from me on Dec 31. Two days ago I was sitting in the guy's kitchen and his wife casually heated something in the microwave oven. I had a cup of coffee with them... all after dark. I was sitting in their kitchen having an enjoyable conversation and it occured to me that the lights were running on batteries from a shipping container outside. Wow we've come a long way! I have 31kw of solar and 110 kwh of battery. Another neghbor has 80kwh of battery and 34kw of solar..... and he is shooting for 45kw. He is 100% off grid and a diesel generator AND has a tesla EV. We just discussed the logic for programming his EV charger to max out charging the car as a dump load. These are not your daddy's solar systems. They are quite affordable. Payback time is usually 5 years now. Heck, i can't even build the batteries for the price of retail. Such a far cry from the 24v specialized systems that were common 10 years ago.