Replies

Ours is a 13 KWh photovoltaic system that is tied into the electrical grid through our meter/main power box. The system was designed at 115% of our average monthly electric consumption, so that we should run a credit with our power company.

I can't claim to be real knowledgeable on all of the workings, but basically any unconsumed power that our system generates feeds into the electrical grid. We do not have any storage (battery) capacity, so when the sun goes down we get our electricity from the grid as we always have. Right now, battery storage of the current we generate is prohibitively expensive -- a battery bank would have cost twice what the system costs.

Our solar panels are manufactured by Mage. Mage is a german company that is recognized as producing the highest quality modules, and in 2011 they opened a plant in Dublin, Georgia, so we were able to purchase a product that was made in the good ol' USA.

Since we are tied into the grid, Entergy requires that our system have a breaker that stops our system from feeding power into the grid in the event of a power outage. That wasn't really attractive to us. Why be able to generate power you can't use in the event of power outages??? Anyway, to get around this, we had a generator added to the system. Our system has to 'sense' a grid before it will produce power, and when we start the generator it fools the solar system into thinking that the grid is up. I apologize at that tortured explanation, but I don't have enough understanding to explain it in technical terms.

I'd be glad to try to provide any other details that would interest you. :)