Power failures on the utility grid do not affect off grid solar systems.
Solar panels not connected to the grid.
Stop do not attempt to connect your solar panels to the grid yourself unless you are a trained professional.
However if you are switching entirely to the solar power you will have to.
If a grid connect system is producing more power than the home consumes the surplus is fed into the power grid.
This means that the home will get electricity both from its solar panels and the electric grid.
The grid connect inverter converts the dc electricity produced by the solar panels into 240v ac electricity which can then be used by the property household.
All grid tied solar systems are installed with an automatic shutoff switch which turns off your solar system in a power outage.
The downside of being connected to the grid is that if there is a blackout your solar system will not work.
While it is possible to have a solar pv system that is not connected to the national grid choosing not to connect means missing out on potentially lucrative incentive schemes like the government s feed in tariff fit here is a list of faqs on connecting to the national grid.
How to connect solar panels to the national grid.
When a homeowner decides to add solar panels to their home in most cases they will choose to be grid connected.
Stand alone solar power.
A stand alone solar system the solar panels are not connected to a grid but instead are used to charge a bank of batteries.
Home solar panels and the grid.
But if you re bothered by the idea of pulling power from fossil fuel plants at all another option is selecting to use only renewable energy sources from your utility company when your panels aren t producing.
You do not need batteries if you are using solar panels as backup energy only.
On the flip side batteries can only store a certain amount of energy and during cloudy times being connected to the grid is actually where the security is.
It stops working when the sun goes down.
These batteries store the power produced by the solar panels and then your electrical loads draw their electricity from these batteries.
Connecting your solar panels to the grid is actually very beneficial but best handled by a professional due to the high voltage associated with the system.
Using solar power alone without energy storage and just pulling from the grid will still significantly reduce your carbon footprint.