I think the time may have finally come when these make sense. I know I was slow to come around but the government is throwing money at it and collector prices are coming down. I can virtually get my collectors for free now.
One of the problems is they only want to pay for government blessed systems, not home built systems and I think that is a mistake. We are not going to get much innovation if they only subsidize what is already out there but that is another rant.
Florida will pay $4 a watt for anything over 2 KW and I am looking at a DC system to run a pool pump That is a very simple system, no inverter, no storage. My problem is it is only 750-1000w so I need to come up with another KW or so to get my rebate and I am thinking about another traditional system, around 1-1.5kw, to run my well pumps, the pool bar fridge and the other loads out there. If there is enough left over, maybe feeding my PCs that run all the time. They are on UPS so if I did have to switch back to utility power it would be non-disruptive. The part I probably have to find is the smart controller for this that does the transfer function in a listed, compliant way.
Anyone ever done something like this?
There would also have to be some load management so the fridge and the well pumps were interlocked but that is not that big a deal.
