I was also leaning towards one of these grid tie inverters to send back any excess to the grid to lessen the pain..... I am not sure about these "power jack" type inverters, seems a little like majic smoke to me, anyone have an opinion?
I have an opinion on that "type", based on a bazzillion emails.
They do not last long enough to pay for themselves, even when hooked up as the designers intended (plenty of smoked/smoking examples on youtube from people who thought they were great a week earlier).
The design (internally) changes faster than they can make new stickers for the enclosure, though the operational parameters remain roughly the same.
The resellers do NOT understand how they were intended to be operated, and the reseller's instructions vs. the real life operation prove this every time (so far).
The basic designs seem
almost good enough to be nearly decent, but there is always a weak link.
I wish they would get the design looked at by someone who knows what is what, and where the weak links are, then maybe they could make a few changes and get it UL'd.
Then maybe they could get someone who speaks English and Chinese and Electric to make a reasonable owners manual, instead of how some ebay reseller THINKS about how it is supposed to work.
Keep in mind, send me a pile of money, and I can get a bunch for you with custom boxes, instructions, and they will say "getvertcl" on them.
It just means you spent some money. It does not mean you know anything about them.
As far as I can tell, it is not illegal to have it, own it, or sell it. It is illegal on several levels to actually use it as they imply it is intended to be used.
G-