Article - "Emergency Power Alternatives Made Simple"

[TWP]

How to build a photo-voltaic power system.  Three part article:

https://keepingupwiththepreppers.blogspot.com/2017/01/emergency-power-alternatives-made-simple.html

https://keepingupwiththepreppers.blogspot.com/2017/01/emergency-power-alternatives-made.html

https://keepingupwiththepreppers.blogspot.com/2017/01/emergency-power-alternatives-made_16.html

These three articles contain enough information to build your own solar cell/panel, charge controller, battery bank and inverter power system.

The exact system show may be more or less than what you want or need, and the price will vary greatly, depending on which components you buy and whether you do the work yourself or have a contractor install it for you.

The point is to become independent of the power grid.

DO NOTE:   This system, as described, is NOT EMP proofed and you would need to make changes in the design and installation to give some (not total) protection from EMP.   My recommendation is to have spares for EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT (double the cost), stored in an EMP proof container.  In the event of a actual EMP strike, some components of your running system, may survive, some may be repairable, but without backup, your entire system is toast...

[edit]  With respect to the TYPE of batteries used in your system, the author of the above articles only addresses Lead-Acid type cells.   While these are the most readily available, they are also the lowest lifetime system.   For longer life batteries, DO look at Nickle-Iron batteries, which may have a lifetime of over 30 years.  They are more expensive, but are generally available from more than a single manufacturer.

Nickle-Iron cells are more forgiving of overcharge and undercharge (they don't die if you drain them completely, like Lead-Acid cell will die).  They are also less efficient in terms of energy-in vs energy-out (they take more energy to charge than can be drawn from them).   The exchange is that they are less of a problem when charging/discharging and their lifetime is several times greater than Lead-Acid cells.