Greetings All,
I am considering installing some sort of RE system at my home. We live on a small farm that used to be an operating dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania where it is not really considered to be great for sun nor wind - but I guess we have to work with what we have. We burn firewood (excuse me - I mean we use biomass for heat) and I have been making and using biodiesel for over 3 years now. My motivation quite honestly is not to be "green" or eco-friendly but financial - I just want to save a few bucks and be ready in case some terrorist country wants to test their highly enriched uranium here in the USA. Our electric company's rate caps will expire at the end of this year and rates are expected to take a huge jump. In our area the Skystream 3.7 wind turbine has been popping up quite a bit but that option seems way overpriced (about $12-$15,000 installed).
I have been researching other grid-tied alternatives and I believe a better system than the Skystream can be built for less. I would like a system that could be expanded to include wind and solar as funds allowed. I would also like a system that would be able to work even when the grid is down (which rarely happens but I want to be prepared). We have a 240V well pump that I would like to include to run when the grid is down and I've calculated that about 5000-8000 watts should be plenty to run all the basics. Since the inverter is the heart of any system I am trying to pick that item first. Based on my criteria I think that I need a system that can be grid-tied and supports batteries. After digging around on the internet for a while I've found a couple that look like good possibilities. I've picked 48V for my battery voltage since that seems to be a good choice for working with either solar or wind. I'm looking at either the Outback GVFX3648 in a 7200 watt configuration (like here:
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/inverter-system/outback-power-flexware-solar-power-center-2564892.html
or a Xantrex XW6048 (like here:
http://www.xantrex.com/xw/
Am I going in the right direction or are there some things that I've left out in thinking through all this? I know there will be a lot of extra parts beyond just the inverter that will be needed. I have an engineering degree and am not afraid to put together a system myself - I just need a little guidance from those who have already gone down the same road.
Thanks!