I'm not saying $100/mo is my total electrical bill, I'm suggesting that a $15K system might reduce my bill $100/mo. These are just hypothetical numbers to form the basis for a discussion of ROI, which seems to be the main counter-argument against adding solar to homes.

In the four hottest months, my bill doubled from roughly $100/mo to $200/mo (from using the A/C). I have a small house and I try to be frugal. I live near central Kansas. Power outages have not lasted long, since the system here is dialed-in to that issue. However, a power outage remains a concern for me.

Rebates and power-feed-back to the grid vary from region to region. This is one area where Germany is way ahead of the rest of the world. They are at the same latitude as Canada, but in spite of the low solar gain, they have structured the addition of solar systems to be almost zero cost to have installed by a professional.

This is an effort to avoid building more of the centralized power generation that has been the norm for over 100 years.