banjar,I think we have come to much the same conclusions...

banjar,
I think we have come to much the same conclusions regarding solar panel power systems that are currently available.

I agree with the energy efficiency aspect you mentioned. It almost makes sense to spend a far smaller amount of money on a 24 hour logging system to monitor what uses power in your house and when and get the family involved in its output.

As far as I recall reading, many devices left constantly in standby mode (such as TV, cd players, etc) cost you approximately the purchse price in power used, just in standby each year or so depending on the device.

Also, many households have appliances made many years ago that are also not well or regularly maintained.
More recently manufactured appliances are generally more energy efficient, from being in better condition and from being designed with energy efficieny as one of the design objectives.

A selective and staged upgrade in line with power savings planned, and a monitoring system to ensure that you are getting the energy savings, might make more sense that the expensive installation of a solar panel system that could be obsolete in a short time.