I have used all this equipment in the ways I describe, but I am not a licensed electrician. I am professionally trained in off-grid solar electric systems and have installed, consulted on, or maintained hundreds of systems, the most remote of which were in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. I do not advise setting up your own PV system without consulting an experienced and knowledgeable source.

After perusing the survivalblog archives for new ideas and methods in off-grid solar, and finding very little at all in the way of solar power explanations, I decided to add a little to the survivalist community by writing my own article. I figured "it cant be that hard… after all, I have written 1000's of emails explaining these principles to individual clients." But what I found is that it IS very difficult to summarize all aspects of solar power in one article, especially with an audience whose background and experience is as varied as this one.