SolarMillUSA

http://imgur.com/WXm51e5 (NSFW)

It was a personal choice to be off grid. I see this as a research company and the mission of this company is to SOLVE the exact problems you are raising. This hasn't been easy. It's not for everyone. I actually recommend being grid-tied to most people so they don't have to deal with most of the issues we deal with. I wouldn't force this on anyone, but it's been such a great experience I wouldn't do it any other way. I grew up in a farming community, so I see this method as being much closer to nature than typical manufacturing.

Both. Typical shop tools (table saw, miter saw, planers) are still using their stock 120v AC motors, so I have to run those through a power inverter. However, I custom built my CNC machine to run off mostly 48v DC. My battery bank is a standard 48v golf cart battery pack, 8x 6v Trojan T-105's. I have been using them for nearly 3 years and they have been fantastic! They store about 10,000 Wh, of which 8,000 Wh is available for use. You never want to discharge lead acid batteries more than 80% (20% SOC). I have a 2,300 watt solar array. On most days I have more power than I can use. Occasionally, (in December) several days of bad weather will bring me to a halt.

American Beauty is a great movie

Also, the fact we have to occasionally "stop production" is a result of our choice for our production line to be completely "off grid." If you're grid tied, you keep going as usual and make up for it later. Not everyone has to be off grid like us, but even being off-grid the total amount of times we've had to stop is maybe a total of 8 days out of 3 years. That's not bad at all. I've had bigger hangups with broken machinery and not being able to get materials from our supplies than I have with solar.