There's another kind of photovoltaic solar setup aside from the usual. The usual solar power system uses batteries which store the excess power produced at night or on cloudy days.
This traditional setup has problems.
* You immediately need to have enough solar cells + batteries to replace your daily power consumption, unless you want to manually switch between solar and grid power
* The batteries need maintenance and replacing from time to time
This new method has special electronics. As long as there is sunlight, the electronics pump the electricity produced into your house circuits. If the electricity produced exceeds your power consumption, your meter goes backwards (if the meter is compatible). If the power produced is say half your house's consumption the power meter moves half as fast.
When the sun sets, your house goes back to grid power. What if there is a power outage? Unfortunately, the system will shut down. You can then manually shift the solar panels to a bypass those special electronics and you could have limited power.
Advantages
* No batteries so less expense and less maintenance
* You can also use those special electronics with a windmill or other source of alternative power
* Its modular. You can buy those special electronics with say 1000 watts capacity and if you only have enough money left over for say 100 watts of solar cells, you can hook it up and start enjoying the savings. You can add more solar cells later
Disadvantages
* No idea where to get them.I'll post details later
* Semi useless in power failure conditions
* In the short run, the electronics may be more expensive
These "special electronics" are called microsine inverters. I dont know where to get them so you'll just have to google them.
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