Wonder if there are any solar homes in San Diego where the lights stayed on

[K8-EEE]

There's got to be one or two! Would be great incentive for solar energy.

[ChandlerJr]

1. The "outrage" happened at about 4 pm

so they would have had about an hour of power. (Hey, good name for a church broadcast)

[K8-EEE]

2. Well, no, solar panels STORE the energy

I saw about singer Jackson Brown's house in Santa Barbara, he's completely off the grid and runs on solar power 24/7!

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. TEchinically the batteries store the energy but you get the idea.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Vast majority of new systems are grid tie...no batteries

[Shagbark Hickory]

7. But then you rely on the grid. In this case the grid was.... let's say it together... it was down

Go off the grid or go home. Thats what I say.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Adds more than 35% of the cost and really does not have that much utility

[Shagbark Hickory]

9. Unless of course the grid is down then it's got a lot of utility.

:)

I'm not saying you need to store every last drop on batteries but one or two for outages would be helpful, wouldn't you agree?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. I disagree. It is better, cheaper, safer to have a small generator with a partial cutover panel

Much lower cost and far easier for most people to handle. Battery maintenance is a PITA, outside what many homeowners would do. Batteries are expensive, have limited lives and there are long term environmental issues.

I have a large and expanding solar field. I use a generator for those very rare occasions when the power goes out.

[Shagbark Hickory]

13. Oh Generators.... Speaking of maintenance.

Fair enough point, but by no means maintenance free.
AS for the cost and environmental impact, I guess it would depend on how much you're trying to power. If you're tying to power appliances like air conditioners and water heaters then the generator would be cheaeper. Some box fans and some lights then Im not so sure.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Key appliance is often the refrigerator/freezer

Expensive contents to replace. Very hard to run standard models off of batteries.

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. The fridge is way easy.

Assuming you don't have a 12v fridge or propane fridge - which is cheating- a dry ice maker, co2 tank and cooler will prepare you for that.
And if that's too much work then you can power the fridge off many inverters nowadays and a running car. You don't need to run it all night, just let it reach safe temperature and keep the doors closed.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Starting it requires more instanteous current than most battery/inverters can produce.

[Shagbark Hickory]

17. ...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202539671/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053#specs

[Brother Buzz]

4. The well-heeled boys in their palatial palaces have state-of-the-art backup generator systems

A great incentive for being wealthy.

I'm just saying.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. I was on a generator...state of the art in the early 80s best I can tell

came with the property. Cut over by hand...but electric start

[Hepburn]

10. Years ago in Riverside County...

...there was a massive power outage.

My then hubbie and I and our infant son went out in the motor home parked by the side of the house, fired up the generator turned on the two roof mount air conditioners and comfortably spent the evening and the night!

Not solar power, but that RV sure came in handy that day. Wondering if any one was doing that with this last outage.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. I had friends come by to enjoy the lights, AC, BBQ and beer

[Hepburn]

18. Looks weird, doesn't it, to have a totally black neighblorhood and...

...there is this one shining beacon sitting there with the TV on and the microwave going. We served coffee, cold drinks and microwave popcorn for starters.

:hi:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. I live out in the middle of nowhere, no neighbors except critters

But we had a rocking time...

[MindPilot]

20. Actually it was cooler to see all the flickering candlelight in the windows

I have a few solar decorative lights in my yard, and my illuminated house number is solar. My hybrid has a 110-volt outlet so we sat in it with the portable TV and watched spanish-language news; the Mexican stations were the only ones on the air. We were planning that if it ran into day two, we would haul the BBQ into the front yard, empty out the freezer and cook for the neighborhood.

About midnight I went outside and literally stood in the middle of the street--not a single light visible anywhere; and what is so stunning is the silence. Until it's gone you just don't realize how much background noise there is from all the electrical devices.

With the exception of the really nasty effect of all the traffic signals failing right in the middle of the afternoon commute, it was basically a huge block party.

[begin_within]

21. We had some light! My next door neighbor's house, with solar panels, was dark.

I brought in the solar garden lights from the front yard. They gave enough light to see and do things by, although not enough to read by. All 10 of them lasted at least 5 hours from the time I brought them in, while 3 lasted at least 7 hours and one was still going the next morning! 12 hours after I brought it in.

I think if I ever build my own house, I will have a skylight in every room. Half of it will be a regular dome skylight, the other half will be an array of LEDs on the bottom and an array of solar cells on the top - recharging it every day and giving light for night at least 5 hours.

We have 2 neighbors who have solar panels on their roofs. The reason their houses were dark is that they have no storage batteries. The excess electricity generated by the solar panels is bought back by the utility company and stored on their grid. So they still pay a bill every month but then get a big rebate at the end of the year. They estimated that they generate more electricity from the solar panels than they use. If they could afford to buy the storage batteries, then they could disconnect from the utility company completely.