Houston area homeowners who have solar panels, please share some information with the rest of us:

Houston has a LOT of intense sunlight, plus the occasional power failure caused by tropical storms and other events, so I think this is a good place & time to discuss solar energy and other back-up options.

My brief experience & research leaves me with the impression that solar panels can greatly reduce the need for power from the grid, but very few solar systems are engineered to serve as a backup for when the grid fails.

Obviously, as with a stand-by generator, you'd have to have your house's system completely disconnected from the grid during a power failure, or else you could kill a lineman and create other serious issues by back-feeding the system when power is out.

I'd guess that a solar system that also can be a backup during a power failure would require pretty substantial storage – ie: batteries.

So… I'd love to hear from people who have solar panels…

Does your system provide power when the grid shuts down? Do you have to manually throw breakers to isolate your system in such cases? If not, wasn't the switching equipment pretty expensive?

I bought a generator after the freeze, spent about $1,100 for it, and it'll power my 3 ton A/C system and the rest of the house just fine. I built a shed for it, while lumber was still sky-high, and bought propane tanks, etc., so I'm probably down about 3 grand. Still, the storm this past Monday afternoon resulted in a power failure for my neighborhood for about 2.5 hours and I was delighted to be able to keep my A/C running and the lights on.

Could I have done better buying solar for 3 or 4 grand?

How often is does your grid broker (electric company) issue YOU a check vs issuing you a bill?

Thanks for your input!

Edit: Spelling corrected.