Thanks to Hurricane Ivan, my home is now without electricity (I was lucky: most people lost their roofs, if not their entire homes).
From the looks of things, I may not get electricity back for months, so I'm looking into alternatives.
I'm looking for a 5kW+ solution, 220V/50Hz - gotta run the washing machine every now and then .
A petroleum-driven generator is one possibility. But the running costs seem way to high - works out to approx US$560/month if I run it 8~10hrs/day.
Diesel is another possibility, with slightly lower running costs (~US$500/month). But the initial cost is more expensive than the petroleum-driven solution.
My average bill - before Ivan took the electricity away - was about US$170/month
So, I'm looking elsewhere. One thing we have a lot of here in the tropics is sunlight. Can solar power with battery backup fill my needs for a 5KW standby system, and if so, any useful links I can use to spec out a solution?