Our Off-Grid Electrical System

Craig Edwards and Kirk Ruhn of Evergreen Systems installed our Photovoltaic panels, batteries and inverter to give us power for our lights, refrigerator, washing machine and computers. They finished in mid-April, right before the refrigerator arrived. They also installed our solar hot water system a year ago and did a superb job with both installations.
We have six panels mounted in front of the south deck next to the hot water panel, for a total of 1.2 Kilowatts of PV. They generate up to 4.5 KWH per day, going to an Outback inverter and four six-volt Rolls Surette batteries. This appears to be more than enough for our needs. We do time clothes washing and ironing to match up with sunny days. This is far less than most typical American homes seem to require, but we are frugal power users. It is working well, and even though we got no credit from the State, we are satisfied.
The final image shows are house two weeks ago, just before the soybean harvest. PV on pole provides the power for the well pump. Tiny panel to the right of the hot water panel provides power for the pump that moves the glycol through the solar panel. The other six panels are our PV for everything else.