Hobbyist Renewable Energy? (Score 1)

For the same reasons, I added a solar panel from Harbout Freight APX. $200.00, plus 4 battries APX. $200. DC to AC inverter APX. $50.00. I did take just one of my AC cirtuits from the main electric panel and fed it from the AC invertor. I have Kitchen, dining room and the back porch lights only on that circuit, and that seems to be working fine. However I did change all mu bulbs to low power 23 Watt bulbs. All togather I have 4 light switches with 15 bulbs. This seems to be woking fine. I did need to downsize my AC invertor, originally I installed a 1500 Watt invertor. I found that this invertor was using too much power just to run it, and I was wasting power just for the invertor, inother words the unit was oversized for the amount of power I needed. Now I have a 700 WATT DC to AC invertor and that seems to be working must better. BTW, this one circuit is totally fed from the SOLAR and rest of the circuits are still fed from the grid. I do plan to install some more solar panels and will cut over one circuit at a time. Bild my solar input little at a time. I have a cut over citcuit ready but have not installed it yet. This circuit, using inexpensive simple over the counter parts will allow me to switch back to the grid if my batteries run too low, for example no sun for long time. I have not run into this yet.