The Pros

1) A cheap power solution if you are living in a remote area.

If you choose to live in the woods or up in a mountain, it will cost a bomb if you were to have power cables pulled all the way to your home. The combined manpower, poles, cables etc might cost more than $100,000.

2) No more power utility bill.

Since you are not drawing power from the grid, no more utility bill at the end of the month.

You also severed your dependency on fossil and coal energy. Any energy price hike in the future will not affect your family lifestyle.

3) Reduce your carbon footprint substantially.

An off-grid home will not remove your carbon footprint complete. Carbon will still be produced when making the solar cells.

Nonetheless, the amount of carbon your home generates is much lower than the national average.

4) Improve personal relationship with your family.

You and your family will tend to spend more time together because you have to share limited power supply. For example, sharing a heated room together during winter time or an air conditioned room during summer.

5) Doing your part to clean up the environment.

When you are using renewable energy such as solar, you are taking proactive action to become friendlier to Mother Nature.

6) Changing your habits to consume power more efficiently.

You and your family will start to acquire energy efficient habits. For example, you will use a clothesline instead of a dryer to dry your clothes, using a solar room for heating in the winter or using exhaust vents to cool a room in the summer.

The Cons

1) The investment in a totally off grid system with solar power can be very expensive.

Be prepared to invest upward of $40,000 or more for a complete solar system with professional consultation.

2) High maintenance cost.

The running cost to maintain the system is also very high. If the system fails, it can be a major problem because you do not have an alternative power source.

3) Limited power supply.

You and your family will have to forego certain comforts of life. No more large plasma TV, home theater system, Playstation or Wii.

4) Cost per kilowatt-hour for an off grid system is twice compared to an intertie system.

This is due to the additional cost to setup and maintain the battery bank.

5) It is difficult and expensive to dispose off used or dead batteries.

After a certain time frame, the weak or dead batteries have to be replaced. Due to its toxic material, special care has to be taken to disposed of them. Again this will incur large expenses.

6) A bank will not finance an off-grid house.

For some reasons, banks do not like to give out mortgages for an off-grid houses. Forget about trying to refinance it also.

7) It is very hard to find a buyer for an off-grid house if you decide to move.

It is very much harder to find a buyer for your off-grid solar powered home. Unless you are very lucky to find an environmental enthusiast, you have to drop your selling price substantially (usually with heavy losses) to attract any buyer.

DIY Home Solar Power Guide

Do you want to know how to use solar modules to reduce your home energy consumption? If you do, check out Michael Harvery’s Earth 4 Energy guide.

The manual comes with step by step instruction on how to make a solar panel with minimal cost. For more information on Michael’s e-book, read the Earth4Energy review on this blog.

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Related web pages:

1) Earth 4 Energy Review – A quick review on the top selling renewable energy guide from Clickbank.

2) Green DIY Energy Reviews – Is Green DIY Energy Another Scam?