Should you go off grid

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an off-grid solar system to power your house in the Caribbean?

The Good Stuff

Reduced electricity bills

The solar system will pay for itself over time

Protection from power outages

If you live somewhere the power is out occasionally or often, the solar system will provide a backup system

Guaranteed power during hurricane outages

After Gonzalo, we had no power for seven days. Generators, while wonderful, are not a practical source of 24 hour for a number of days. The fuel cost mounts rapidly and it is not good for a generator to run continually. Most generators are rated for short use only.
Now, after a hurricane or even during, we will never be without power. If you factor in the cost of generator fuel, the solar system pays for itself quickly after a storm.

Protection for your equipment

The solar system is a big UPS. The utility can deliver low or high voltages to your home due to faults on the line. An off-grid solar system protects your house from this danger.

The Bad Stuff

Cost

An off-grid solar system large enough to power a modern home is not cheap. While the system will pay for itself over time, it requires a large initial investment. A grid tied system costs a lot less and pays back a lot faster, but does not provide power backup. It all depends on how much you value power backup.

Space

The equipment takes up space in your home. If you are lucky enough to have suitable space available, then this is not an issue but for a lot of people the space is a problem.

Lifestyle

Living with a finite power source means changing your routine. You probably will not be able to dry clothes at night, run your convection oven in the evening, or have air conditioning. If that's a problem for you, don't choose to go off the grid.

Batteries

Batteries, at least the ones we use now, have to be replaced. The lifespan depends a lot on the quality of battery and the way you treat it. If you discharge it heavily, forget to equalize, and you bought cheap car batteries, you will not get much life out of the battery. Heavy duty solar batteries will last a lot longer, but someday all batteries need to be replaced.

Da Mutter...a note from Solar Witch

Before you make the decision to go off grid make sure everyone in the household is pro-solar and ready to make some life style changes. In a family situation where parents are creating a new and exciting life and learning experience by all means, this way of living is great but if you have an older family member who has become set in their ways getting them to make even minor concessions can be difficult to impossible. Explaining that conserving power and making better choices on when you do things falls on deaf ears and usually leads to an angry episode.

We decided against better judgement to just go ahead and do it all and see how things went and we take a lot of heat for it. But we are trying it out with all the warts because we want to know if people will be able to do this and live with it. It's interesting to be sure.

Article of interest

and here's an interesting article about the future of battery backup for off grid solar.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/29/new-tesla-battery-could-end-electricity-bills