LIVING Off THE GRID Getting the Most from Battery Banks

摘要

The heart and soul of my solar system, of any truly off-the-grid photo-voltaic solar system,are the battery bank and the storage capacity systems. Without solid and deep-cycling batteries and the capacity to store our Sun's tremendous input, we literally may be living in the dark. On the other hand, if you want to "go solar" while living within a city or rural grid of public power and utilities, then you will more than likely be using a "grid-tie" solar system, and will not need the battery bank storage capacity. Rather than storing the Sun's immense power in the form of electricity held in a battery bank which then gets used slowly over time by the home or business dwellers, the electricity created is being shot "into the grid," or into the overhead powerlines. The owners of the solar panels are actually selling sun-generated electricity back to the public utility company, thereby off-setting the cost of their own electrical use, and reducing their electric bills. In this scenario, it is the home or business owner who has actually started up their own mini-business of generating electricity. They are selling power to the public utility company, rather than buying it. Amazing! We have become, or at least we have the ability to become, entrepreneurs of the Sun!