What About Batteries?
Batteries in Solar Systems are pretty much a thing of the past. The DC Electric Energy used to be stored in Lead Acid Batteries and then powered DC loads or other AC power equipment through the use of an inverter. Since the 1990’s Grid Tied inverter convert DC power to AC power without the use of batteries and put power directly into your home Breaker Panel. All electrical devices in your home will run with grid tied solar power. At night your home will run on regular grid power. Eliminating the batteries from electric solar power systems has reduced the cost by over one third and without batteries these systems are maintenance free. It is all automatically controlled and requires NO MAINTENANCE. Concerns sometimes arise from power outages that the solar system cannot produce during a power outages, but rest assured with the money you save from NOT buying batteries you can buy a very nice generator for those few times a year that power outages occur. I have installed Solar power systems at the same time customers have put in Automatic Transfer Switches for Generators. This is a relatively easy procedure. Over 80% of All Electric Solar Power Systems are regular Grid-Tied Systems and that is what I recommend.
Remote Power Systems
Having said all this, there are still some customers that want stacks of batteries in their basement. These are called remote power systems. Once the batteries are charged the system begins to sell power back to the grid. These systems are more expensive and have yearly battery maintenance, but seamlessly provide power when the grid goes down.
