I really want solar just to power my AC in the summer – any extra production would be bonus. However, the payback period is still too long for me to justify it.
Refrigerator is an almost ideal use case because newer ones are inverter-drive and run around the clock. And inverter drive means it runs off DC at some level.
A fridge is the one thing I really want to have work at some degree in a grid outage. Everything else I can work around pretty well.
I’ve seen quotes of $50k for 10KW 24 panel array without batteries.
The batteries in particular are gotten much cheaper. < 2500 EUR for 8 kwh
https://geizhals.de/byd-battery-box-premium-lvs-8-0-a2948979...
Panels have reached incredible low prices. < 2000 EUR for 36 panels (16 kwp)
https://geizhals.de/trina-solar-vertex-s-tsm-440neg9r-28-a31...
Biden’s IRA helped but Trump is likely to repeal it. That would put US even back further.
No battery at this stage. I produce enough excess energy during the day to largely offset what I use at night via feed-in tariffs. My power bill for last quarter was $15.