"alves" writes:
Would it be possible to get solar panels to produce enough energy for
the house?

How much power solar panels on your roof will be able to produce
depends on how sunny it is in your area, whether your roof has the
right exposure and is free from shadows, and whether there's sufficient
surface area on the roof to install enough panels.

If your location and roof exposure are a good candidate for solar
panels, then your panels will at times be able to produce a goodly
amount of energy, but not enough to provide for all of your energy
needs. You'll have to get the difference from the electric company.
There may actually be specific times at which your panels are producing
more energy than your house needs, in which case the extra gets fed
back into the grid, and they pay you for it. It doesn't make sense for
solar electricity systems to include batteries to store power for
later, since the batteries would make the systems much more expensive
and it thus makes more sense to treat the electrical grid as a big
battery.

if so, are these things stupidly expensive or it is worth
the cost? (I have sun most of the year, including winter)

The last time I checked, they were not terribly cost-effective, and
they probably still aren't, although the time when they will be is
coming closer. They will probably eventually pay for themselves, but
it will take many years. Some relevant articles:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...244917959.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...6/b3970108.htm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/b...1b13solar.html

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