I appreciate Dave Hardin's Aug. 8 letter expressing the frustrations preventing him from having a renewable energy home. I would like to present some possible ideas or at least questions that he and other area people might think about as they try to have at least some of their electricity come from a renewable/solar source. Hardin ran into the unwanted answer he got about feeding power back into the grid because the people who gave him that answer always think inside the box. That whole problem – too complicated to talk about here – will take many years to fix.
First, I do not know the electrical code stipulations, but I infer from existing practices that there should (I think) be no code noncompliance objection to setting up a rooftop solar array if the wiring is to one or more specific loads in the house (e.g. hot water heater, Tesla powerwall) as a separate circuit and absolutely not connected to the house wiring in any way. For example, anything connected by extension cords should not fall under the jurisdiction of the electrical code. Besides the powerwall, you may need an inverter, and that will require some additional specifications and questions. You should ask more than one solar installer, and more than one electrician, about the possibility for these workarounds. I have found that sometimes asking the same question will get different answers. Internet search is free and otherwise a priceless resource.
Second, your project will need some review that will include: (a) first contacting your power company, not solar installers, for answers; (b) implications for your homeowner's insurance; (c) any financing arrangements that would interfere with selling the house in the future; and (d) a deep search for ratings and comments from other customers about quality of service and follow-up of particular solar installer companies.
Third is what I would call "deep do-it-yourself.” There are lots of DIY books in which you can learn a lot. DDIY means you get into the nitty-gritty and learn about volts, amps, watts, ohms, polarity and certain critical factors, especially about inverters (inverters convert DC from the solar panels to AC that some appliances need) and controllers. In short, you learn the stuff by hands on, and you make sure your solar panels put out enough power for selected appliances, and you know that panel voltage and power will drop significantly on cloudy days. Also, Tesla is not the only company making powerwalls.
Be careful about generators. For several reasons, you need to keep generators from feeding or attempting to feed electricity back into the grid.
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