Is Living Off-Grid Right for Me?
When people say they want to be living off-grid, sometimes they mean they want solar to cover 100 percent of their electricity needs. Often, solar installers pair a battery storage unit like a Tesla Powerwall to store power from your system to use at night. Having all of your electrical needs provided by solar energy means that you are net-zero.
In other cases, people have cabins or RV setups that aren’t connected to an electrical utility. This is really what off-grid means. A&R Solar doesn’t work on off-grid systems.
Unless your home is in a remote area not served by an electrical utility, we highly recommend staying connected to the grid. As freeing as it sounds to completely cut the cord, here’s why we would remain grid-tied:
- Homes and businesses that aren’t connected to the grid aren’t eligible for financial incentives, including net metering, which allows you to build up credits with your utility during the long days of summer and use them during the dark winters. You don’t need a separate battery storage system to be net-zero.
- If something goes wrong with your system or if you aren’t producing enough electricity with your solar panels to cover your energy needs, you will be in the dark until the sun rises. On dark, cold, stormy days, that could feel like a long time.
- Even with a battery storage system, you might not be able to produce enough electricity every single day to cover all of your needs. This is especially true during the winter months.
- Having solar power feed back into the grid stabilizes it and helps the community.
We know that this can be confusing, and we are here to help. Contact us, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.