Cash Rebates And Other Financial Incentives Are
Available In Many states For Solar Powered, Grid
Interactive Emergency Power Systems.
In Addition,
A 30% Federal Tax Credit Is For The Purchase Of A
Solar Powered, Grid Interactive Emergency Power
Systems.
We Offer A
Larger Rebate Than The Other Dealers.
Not only will you be going green, but you'll
be seeing a lot more green. When you purchase
a grid tie solar power system from us, you'll
automatically receive our exclusive $400.00
per AC kilowatt supplemental rebate offer.
The other dealers only offer Edison's $250.00 per AC kilowatt cash rebate. And we
did it without raising our already low, low
discount prices.
Hurry This Limited Time Offer Expires Soon.
Power Failures Due To
Wild Fires
Power Failures Due To Earthquakes
Power Failures Due To
Ice And Snow Storms
Power Failures Due To
Tornadoes And High Winds
Power Failures Due To
Lightning Storms
Power Failures Due To
Hurricanes
Power Failures Due To
Floods
And No, We're Not Kidding,
Power Failures Due To
Solar Flares.
On March 13th 1989 A Solar Flair Is Exactly What
Knocked Out Power To 6 Million People In Quebec,
Canada For Over 9 Hours And Caused Equipment
Damage And Tripping Of Equipment In Parts Of The
U.S.
And With The Sun's Next Peak Solar Cycle Occurring In 2012/2013, It's
Something To Think About.
In Any Event Your SolSurvive Solar Powered
Emergency Power System Will Be There To
Protect You.
There's A Thousand Reasons To Prepare For
The Next Power Failure And With All Of The
Financial Incentives Available, There's Not
One Good Reason Not To.
Emergency Backup Power System Questions And
Answers
Q. I would like to
purchase a solar system without adding
batteries, but would like to have emergency
backup power in the event of a power
failure. Is this possible ?
A. No, as required by
the National Electrical Code. All grid tie
only inverters are required to disconnect
from the utility grid and stop producing
power during a power failure. This is done
for safety reasons so that you are prevented
from feeding electricity to the grid while a
utility lineman is working on the grid which
would pose the risk for electrocution.
Q. I would like to purchase a standard grid
tie solar system with solar panels and an
inverter. Can't I just add batteries to this
inverter, so I can have backup power ?
A. No, a standard grid
tie inverter is not designed to use
batteries. You must use an inverter that has
been specially designed to use a battery
bank, in order to have emergency power
during a power failure.
Q. Can I power my entire home during a power
failure with a battery backup grid tie solar
system ?
A. With a large enough solar array, battery
bank and inverter, it is electrically
possible to power every load in your home
during a power failure but this is not
recommended due to economic reasons.
In a typical battery backup grid tie
installation, the homeowner will be asked to
choose essential loads that he or she wishes
to continue to operate during a power
failure. Loads such as a refrigerator,
radio, TV, lights are typically selected.
Keep in mind that the larger the number of
loads and the longer they run, the larger
the system that will be required to power
these loads.
Q. A battery back up grid tie solar system
sounds like a great idea. So why isn't
everyone installing this type of system
instead of a grid tie only system ?
A. There are tradeoffs. For one, a battery
backup, grid tie system requires additional
components which increase system and
installation costs. Components such as
batteries, cables, DC disconnects, a
separate emergency load subpanel etc. all
add to the cost of installing a battery
backup solar system.
In addition battery
backup grid tie solar systems tend to be
less efficient than their grid tie only
cousins, so in many cases you can expect a
slightly smaller rebate in many states and
slightly less electrical energy being fed
back to the grid. The choice of whether or
not to install a battery back up grid tie
solar system versus a grid tie solar system
is a personal one.
If you have frequent blackouts or are
concerned about the possibility of
blackouts, then a backup system may be the
right choice for you. On the other hand if
you are most concerned with feeding as much
power as possible back to the grid to
maximize the reduction of your electric
bill, then a grid tie only solar system is
what you want.
Q. Do I need to
use solar modules when installing an
emergency backup power system ?
A. No, many
people install battery backup emergency
power system without adding solar modules.
The only drawbacks of not adding solar
modules to your system are that you will
need to use some other source of energy to
recharge your battery back once it has been
depleted in the event of a prolonged power
failure such as an AC gasoline, diesel or
propane generator or you may use some other
DC charging source such as a wind generator
or micro hydro system etc.
A battery backup
emergency power system without solar modules
will typically have a built in battery
charger, so when the utility power is
restored, the system will automatically
recharge your batteries in preparation for
the next power failure.
A battery backup
emergency power system without solar modules
works just like a computer UPS. The
batteries are kept charged by the system
using grid power when the utility grid is up
and uses that stored energy to produce
electricity when the utility grid fails. No
solar modules needed.
Q. Why would I
want to use an AC generator with a battery
backup emergency power system ? Why not use
only a generator ?
A. During natural
disasters, basic supplies such as food,
water and fuel tend to be in short supply
especially when the public begins to panic.
The ability to purchase fuel is further
hampered due to the inability to pump fuel
during power outages. So needless to say,
gasoline and other fuel may become scarce.
The problem with relying
only on a generator is the fact that whether
you're making a small pot of coffee or
powering a large refrigerator, no matter how
much or how little Watts you're drawing from
your generator, you're continuously burning
fuel.
The beauty of a typical
battery backup emergency power system
without solar modules is its built in
battery charger and transfer switch that can
use AC power from the utility company or an
AC generator to quickly recharge your
battery pack. So by connecting your battery
backup emergency power system to a
generator, you can limit your generator's
run time by only running your generator to
recharge your battery pack.
Once your batteries are
brought back to a fully charged state, you
can turn your generator off and produce AC
power from your batteries for many hours
depending on your loads, until your
batteries are once again depleted,
conserving fuel, without all of the teeth
rattling noise and fumes or fuel.
Q. How big of a
battery pack will my system need to provide
power to my emergency loads ?
A. The Answer is
a little complex but for example, if you
installed a 48 volt 440 amp hour battery
pack, you would have a capacity of 21,120
watt hours or 21.12 kilowatt hours kWh. To
determine this, you would use Ohms law. The
formula for power is Volts times Amps equals
Watts. So 48 Volts X 440 Amp hours = 21,120
Watt hours.
If you connected, lets
say a 200 watt load such as a desktop
computer and monitor to a battery backup
system with a 21,120 watt hour battery pack,
you could run that desktop computer and
monitor for approximately 105.6 hours
continuously before needing to recharge. A
22 watt compact fluorescent light bulb would
run for 960 hours. A 120 watt TV would run
for 176 hours a 600 Watt refrigerator that
cycled its compressor on for 15 minutes each
hour could run for 140.8 hours.
If you were living
completely off grid and would be discharging
and recharging your battery pack every
single day, it would be recommended that you
only deplete your battery pack by 50% before
needing to recharge. This is recommended to
extend your battery's charge/discharge
lifecycle expectancy. In backup power
applications, it's ok to use 100% of your
battery pack's capacity.
So to calculate the size
battery pack you would need to power your
specific emergency loads, you would need to
determine the wattage of each item you want
to power and then multiply each item's
wattage by the amount of time that you
expected it to run. This will give you the
number of watt hours that your item will
consume. So for example a 120 watt TV that
runs for 6 hours would consume 720 Watt
hours. A 22 watt compact fluorescent
light bulb that ran for 16 hours would
consume 352 Watt hours. A 600 Watt
refrigerator that ran its compressor for 15
minutes each hour for 24 hours would consume
3,600 Watt hours.
Once you have determined
the Watt hour consumption, per day, for each
item that you wanted to power during a power
outage add all of the Watt hours up and that
would yield your daily kilowatt hour
consumption. With this information, it would
be an easy task to calculate the appropriate
size battery pack in kilowatt hours that you
would need to meet your daily energy
consumption needs.
Q. Can I power my
home's central air conditioning unit during
a power failure ?
A. Yes you can
but the ability to power your central air
conditioning system would depend on the size
of your solar array, the size of your
inverter and for night time air conditioner
use, the size of your battery bank and the
power consumption of your air conditioning
unit. Central air conditioning units are big
power users and would typically consume most
of the power that a typical solar system
would produce, leaving little power for
essential loads. It would make far more
sense to power a small window AC unit or a
fan during a power failure, and save your
solar system's energy for true emergency
loads.
Q. Should I use
sealed maintenance free batteries or wet
cell batteries with my battery
back up emergency power system ?
A. That depends
on where your batteries will be stored and
how diligent you are at providing battery
maintenance. Non sealed batteries will
produce hydrogen gas and an acid mist while
under charge or under a heavy discharge.
Hydrogen gas can be explosive when used near
an ignition source and the acidic mist is
corrosive. Definitely something that you
wouldn't want in a living space. Wet cell,
non sealed batteries also require periodic
watering and other maintenance, otherwise it
is very easy to ruin an expensive set of
batteries. If you decide to use wet cell
batteries, they should be stored in a
battery box that is sealed and positively
vented via a pipe or hose to the outside air
or in a well ventilated are away from sparks
or flame.
Sealed, maintenance free
batteries o the other hand, require very
little maintenance and produce very little
if any hydrogen or acid mist. The only
drawback with maintenance free gel or AGM
batteries is their cost. They can cost up to
30 to 50% more than a wet cell battery but
can save you a tremendous amount of time
when it comes to maintenance.
BUYING TIP !
Beware of
any dealer that offers to sell you a battery
back up power system that is designed for
indoor use that utilizes wet cell batteries
enclosed in the same cabinet as the inverter
and other electronics. The combination of
hydrogen venting batteries and the presence
of electrical switchgear such as transfer
switches and other devises that has a
potential to generate a spark is a recipe
for disaster.
Q. Can I buy a
small battery bank now and add on later,
should I decide to increase my battery banks
capacity ?
A. Yes, but
should should not add on after your original
batteries have been in service for over a
year. As batteries age, especially if they
have undergone numerous charge discharge
cycles, their capacity may become
diminished. Connecting older diminished
capacity batteries to fresh batteries can
place a strain on the new batteries and
cause them to also have a reduced capacity.
If you decide to upgrade
your existing battery pack, its best to do
this within the first 6 months and never
after one year of use.
Q. I see a lot of
self contained small to medium sized, self
contained, emergency power kits hitting the
market. Are these products any good ?
That depends. Always
make sure that you're buying a name brand
self contained system or a self contained
system that utilizes off the shelf name
brand components. Pure sine wave inverters
may cost a bit more but pure sine waves are
or utility grade inverters are better for
your sensitive electronics than modified
sine wave inverters. Here's a comparison of
what these two inverter waveforms look like:
Actual oscilloscope
tracing from a pure sine wave utility grade inverter with less 5%
total harmonic distortion. Notice the smooth rounded transitions from
positive to negative, just like your utility company. To your equipment and appliances
this is like a glass of some smooth easy to swallow energizing drink.
Actual
oscilloscope tracing from a typical modified sine wave inverter with
35 to 40% total harmonic distortion. Notice the
sharp sudden transitions from positive to negative. This is what causes the
high harmonic distortion level. Definitely not like your utility
company. To your equipment and appliances this like swallowing a glass of nails. Not
as
healthy.
All AC appliances and equipment are designed to run off
of pure sine waves. Pure sine wave energy is the type of power that is produced
by your utility company.
Benefits of running your equipment and appliances on
pure sine waves:
Generates less electrical noise in your
equipment. Means no lines on your TV set and no hum in your sound system.
Microwave ovens cook faster.
Equipment and appliances last longer.
Equipment and appliances run cooler and
more efficiently.
Equipment and appliances that can be damaged when running
on modified sine waves such as laser printers, rechargeable battery
powered devices and pellet stoves run perfectly when operated from a pure
sine wave inverter.
Telecommunications equipment run with less
noise and hum.
Digital equipment such as computers operate with less
errors and crashes.
Bringing
You The Power Of The Sun At Down To Earth Prices !
