Solar Panels Query

[Lightspeed]

RS You will be getting free daylight mains electric off the pannels in the here and now.

Use this to charge a bank of 12v deep cycle batteries using a conventional 240v smart charger. Now you will have immediately available 12v power to fall back on as soon as you have power cuts. You can start pulling together lighting and other devices that you want to power from these.

As prep, get a high ampage solar charge controller ( actually get several ) plus cable connectors that match those used by the installers of the original system, plus wires to connect to the charge controller, and from the charge controller to the batteries.

Learn how to disconnect single cells from the installed system. Know which wires to cut and which to leave in place, and where to plug your charge conytroller in. With this knowledge and with the materials listed above you will ready in case of permanent grid down, and will be able to keep your battery bank charged.

It will be a good idea to take lots of pics of the installation and in particular the connectors being used ( try to lose a connector or two while the installation is in progress maybe??) Post some pics here and I bet Skves ot Nix will be able to tell you what you need to do to get a functional grid down solution.