14 AstroPower 120-watt modules		 Northern Vermont is one of the cloudiest areas of the U.S. in winter, averaging only 2 peak sun hours per day from November through January. This means that PV arrays must be sized approximately 60% larger than the desert Southwest, for instance, to produce the same amount of power. 

 This system was designed to produce a year-round average of 3 Kwh per day, which is a large load for an independent home.  It doesn't sound like a lot of power, but most remote homes only consume 10-15% of the power that a house on the grid does. Budgets almost always mandate that energy efficient appliances and lighting be employed, for the more power required, the higher the system cost. The array consists of 14 120-watt peak AstroPower modules, wired at 24-vdc for a total of 1680W output.
The homeowner chose a Xantrex SW4024 inverter to provide clean AC power to standard household loads. Other controls include a Heliotrope CC60E solar charge regulator and a Bogart Tri-metric voltage, current, and amp-hour meter (to monitor the batteries state of charge). Inverter / battery overcurrent protection is provided by a 250-amp Xantrex DC250 breaker and enclosure.  The battery bank consists of 16 Trojan J185 12-volt, 185-ahr batteries (the 12-volt equivalent of the 6v, 350-ahr L16).  An Oman 6.3 NHE propane generator provides backup battery charging (the inverter automatically starts & stops the generator as necessary) when the sun can't keep up with demand.

Xantrex SW4024 inverter and control panel
Onan 6.3k propane generator