No worries, I was already mostly inside when the window frame came loose. There was also no Manhattan sized crater to be found, they say.
Grid tied setups are still profitable, with about 5-10 years ROI when your supplier has decent feed-in tariffs. Given you live in sunny Australia, it’s bound to be closer to 5 years. Off-grid setups are not economical, unless you depend on a beefy generator + battery bank for your electricity - keep in mind batteries themselves also have an efficiency of 80-90%, people forget to factor that in… Given that solar panel prices continue to fall rapidly, slowly gain in efficiency and lithium battery cycle counts are rapidly increasing, the best economic decision seems to wait it out… but where’s the fun in that.
@CommanderKeith: I barely use any electricity either. Typical residential USA power consumption seems to be 908 kWh / month, according to that article. Note that that is roughly my annual electricity usage… Most of my power usage is from the fridge, then the perpetually busy USB chargers, then my PC / laptop, then lighting (all LED). I wouldn’t even know how to increase my power consumption ten-fold. Certainly an airco would get me a tad closer. Long story short: solar panels are not economical for me either, but I like to tinker
Soon all USB powered devices and lighting will be running off solar + lithium battery bank (no inverter, 12V throughout the house, with a few 12V/5V converters for the last meters – yes, thick cables).