A gritty reality - backup generators

When the sun isn't shining and the battery bank is low, we must fall back on our generators to recharge the batteries. We don't like the pollution this produces but we have tried to minimize it by converting all the generators to propane.

This view looks through the door of the generator room at "old reliable", honorable Honda number one. Our reliance on backup generators has made us keen on energy conservation. Switching all of the monitors in our software shop from CRT to flat panel cut our energy consumption almost 50%.

All of the d.c. output from the solar panels and the batteries must be converted to a.c. before we can use it. For that we rely on ...

Inverters and power distribution

Omigawd! You mean we still have to run these??