[kscherer]

Yeah, just to live life as we currently do, we would need something like 15,000 watts worth of solar, and that would only get us through the daytime part of the daytime (when the sun is directly overhead). And that on a good, sunny day. To get closer we would either need to replace so many electrical things with their high-efficiency counterparts that just the appliances would cost us over $20,000, or downgrade our living standards to dirt floors and living without hot showers, A/C, or heat. Since our home was built with no access to natural gas, switching over for heating and water heater purposes would be cost-prohibitory (minimum $500 for a decent stove, $500 for a decent water heater, $7500 for a new furnace, and likely over $5000 just to get gas to the house).

Swamp coolers are recommended for "off-grid" solar living, but they suck, and A/C is hard to power with solar. Basically, anything that uses 220V service (30 amps+) is going to crush your hopes and dreams.

Again, we're only talking daytime needs, here. The night is a different animal. If — and this is a big if — you want A/C at night, you're gonna need an awful lot of battery backup. I did some basic maths, and found that we would need four Tesla Powerwalls ($7500 each!) to get us through the night on a hot summer day, or a cold winter night. That, then, places double duty on the panels, since they now have to power the house through the day and charge the batteries, which doubles the necessary panels needed for said system.

Some people keep Powerwalls around and charge them during the night so they can take advantage of cheaper electrical prices durning non-peak times, and then solar panels to take advantage of that "free" power during the day, but the expense takes ages to recover. And that whole "paid for itself in 7 years" is a hoax. Panels and backup batteries have shelf lives, the systems only work during the day (without batteries) and I've only seen enough cost savings in super-sunny areas where there is sun 300+ days per year and where there are also government tax credits.

It's all very much like electric cars. The bits are right there, tantalizing us with the possibilities, but it's just not there yet. Not quite, at least for us minions. If you've got lots and lots of money, or dare to finance the effort, then you can make it work, just not without some sacrifices in your "off-grid" interpretations.

I think you guys know me well enough by now to know that I absolutely abhor the thought of more gubmint regulatin', but this is an area that I am passionate about: Every new home built in this country should be built with solar panels to cover at least 50% of that home's needs, but only that home's needs — batteries optional — and the cost should simply be built into the cost of the home.