Alistair
AH fanatic
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Yeah, must admit I was thinking that too. One of my colleagues who lives in the sticks went that route and he seems pretty happy with it.
No ongoing maintenance, no need for fuel, no need to check oil each day, no ongoing cost, no concerns about how long the outage is, silent in operation, fully automated switching.
Plus you also have the advantage of free utilities on all the days when the world isn't ending, so there is actually an ROI, which just ain't so with the generator.
That said though, having dug into it a little bit, I think it's currently a tough sell economically in any state except Hawaii, California, and maybe Maine, Connecticut, Massachussetts, New York.
Unless you have an EV, anyway.
Some assumptions:
1. For 100% peace of mind you'd need a big battery that'd last at least a couple of days with no / minimal solar generation (significant blizzards, extended periods of very cloudy days, etc).
2. You'd also need a pretty substantial solar array to meet 100% of your power needs under the worst case scenario.
3. I'd guess the average household in the South requires around 40KWh/day.
So you're talking 15KW of panels, plus a 80KWh battery to serve that scenario with complete peace of mind. Assuming you want the system to enable totally normal operation under any scenario, running all the stuff you'd use on any other day at least. Same benefit as a generator provides... for as long as it has fuel.
That system is going to cost about $100K installed (maybe 70K after rebates if you buy before they expire). Plus you'd probably want an all electric set up with heat pump, induction stove, electric water tank to fill the entire self sufficiency requirement with just the panels, so another 20K there.
ROI on a back up generator = 0, so not that hard to beat.
However, for solar, I think you're looking at about 15-20yrs for payback at current TX market rates, assuming annual electricity savings of about $3000, and selling back about $2000 of electricity to the grid per annum.
Which is tough if the battery might reasonably only have a 10 year lifespan.
Much, much better ROI if you're running an EV, buy a much smaller house battery, more panels, and use the EV as the last ditch emergency power reserve. Also has the advantage of using your free solar to avoid any gasoline spend.
That's the route my colleague went with. His place had no gas hook up, so he just went with an all electric house instead of messing around with propane tanks. He has a 25KW solar array, a F150 Lightning, does his 60 mile round trip commute to work for free (saves about 3k/yr on that trip alone) and only has a 20KWh house battery. ROI much less than 5 years at WI rates and solar provides all the power he needs even here in the frozen north. Gets a negative energy bill each month out of it too.
But the EV thing is more of a lifestyle change, and I think most on this forum have a visceral hatred of EV's and will never go for it.
As mentioned though, the battery option is also a lot more compelling in states with high utility costs like CA.
Not to mention almost certainly more compelling next year than this year:
For most states, and assuming a household with no EV, I think we're about 3-5 years away from it being economically competitive, and about 7-10 away from being the only logical choice. Assuming the subsidies are gone forever, and the current price trends continue.
