I ran numbers within the last couple years for an off-grid solar and the pay back time exceeded 20 years. This was for a 450kwh/month system. The solar panels themselves were relatively cheap at a little over a dollar a watt. The killer was the battery bank.
Since really you're building a battery powered house that happens to be recharged by solar/wind/generator the number of batteries determines how long you can go with cloudy days or no wind before you fire up the generator to recharge. Every winter we get periods of at least a week at a time when there is no sun. I've kept track. We have long periods of little to no wind and long periods of too much wind.
Part of the trick was figuring how much electricity you use and keeping the battery bank from getting more than 50% discharged (for maximum life). The batteries I looked at were the Rolls-Surette.
Our local utility does not do grid tie. We are on a Co-op and my electric bills have been basically flat for over 10 years. Very hard to justify the cost only to break even in 20 years and that's *assuming* battery cost do not go higher or the EPA flips out over lead-acid batteries.
Also we get hailstorms and apparently solar panels are not that hail resistant. Sure, your homeowner's insurance covers it but how long are you going to be without them while the ins co. is dilly dallying around?
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Today's Featured Article - Good As New - by Bill Goodwin. In the summer of 1995, my father, Russ Goodwin, and I acquired the 1945 Farmall B that my grandfather used as an overseer on a farm in Waynesboro, Georgia. After my grandfather’s death in 1955, J.P. Rollins, son of the landowner, used the tractor. In the winter 1985, while in his possession the engine block cracked and was unrepairable. He had told my father
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