Solar Plus Backup

 In Northeast Ohio, which is one of the cloudiest places in the USA, a residential solar power system is on par with the cost of grid power (if you DIY the system). In maybe 10 years, it will be obviously cheaper if the components keep improving, especially the batteries.

The problem here is there's not enough power in the winter months because it's cloudy, snowy, and the sun is low on the horizon. A natural gas fired generator on site can provide backup power for maybe less than the cost, or roughly the same cost as grid power.

One problem with all this stuff is it's sort of a PITA. If you run a generator frequently, it's loud, plus it requires regular maintenance--at minimum oil, oil filter and air filter changes every 200 or so hours of operation. In the winter months that 200 hour number might happen every month. Eventually the generator will wear out too.

Combined hot water plus backup power makes a lot of sense, because the generator creates so much waste heat. Honda developed a system for that in Japan, but it's really wimpy for some reason. The generator only provides a couple of kWatts at most. A typical US house needs at least 10 kWatts.

It's really pretty weird that it's such a messy pain in the ass job to change oil and an oil filter on most machines, including cars. It would not be so hard to make that process painless and relatively tidy. If it could be done in a way that allows for continuous operation of the engine, that'd be great for a generator system.