Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Solar electricity; off the grid?

I look forward to an interesting discussion on this. I have been researching solar systems and there is so darn much to learn. From what I have learned so far, which I admit ain't much, is that first you have to determine what your realistic energy usage is. Like Nick said if you are going to run a/c or any other significant power consuming devices you better determine how power you will need. You also have to decide are you going completely off grid or be grid tied. If you are completely off grid you have to decide whether or not to supplement the solar system with some form of backup like for instance a propane generator. And can you supplement the solar with wind generators or like Bender said Hydro.

In building our home my wife and I are seriously considering an off grid solar system backed up via a liquid cooled propane generator. But you can't go into this thinking it will be a cost savings project. The payback period on these systems is long. Up front costs are huge. For us, being tied to the grid is significantly cheaper up front even though I have about 1,000 feet to tie to the grid and would only want to do it using underground wiring (I currently live in a telephone/utility pole jungle and am sick of looking at the unsitely poles and wires) I don't want to clutter up the skyline at my rural property.

From what I've been able to determine so far is that a complete system (solar panels, inverters, switching systems, batteries, and a "California approved" liquid cooled propane generator) that would provide essentially the same power level as being tied to the grid can easily reach $50,000. Of course about $10K of that is the generator. Perhaps it's typical California gouging so I am very interested in hearing what others have to say.

Even with that I'm considering an off grid system. In my area of El Dorado county power outages are not that uncommon. Happens quite a bit in winter/spring with power lines being downed by trees etc and there was about a week long outage during the extreme heat last summer (we had a week of 105 to 110 degree weather). Because of this being off grid has it's appeal to me. DIED if you are reading this how is power in your area of EDC?