Looks like the fairies have got out of the garden again!

Have any of you people ever lived long term with, & payed the costs of, home generated power systems?

If you'd like some gear to do it, just slip out to the islands, where they have no alternative. You'll find sheds full of almost useless junk, that cost so much time & effort, to keep working, it was more practical to buy diesel, & generators, despite the supply problems with fuel in remote locations.

Most of the owners are embarrassed every time they look at, as it shows what fools they were to fall for the con. Unfortunately they are also too frugal to throw out near new "stuff" even if it is basically useless.

Strange you ask that Hasbeen- I have both Solar energy AND solar hot water built into my house- after only a few months I've made exceptionally great progress on both devices paying themselves off in saved power bill costs (Solar rebates have drastically reduced my power bill (though my output has exceeded my usage had I have used them as a feed-in)- and the solar Hot water system has completely terminated my heating bill entirely- and even improved the performance of my shower).

So you're not using an isolated remote-area power system, but a grid-connected unit.

I hope you have a good quality inverter.

*Solar rebates have drastically reduced my power bill*

Well that is the problem Hazza. You are being subsidised by other
power users. Politics dominates economics here. It started as a
quaint little scheme to encourage people to install PV cells.
Pay them 40 to 60c a unit, they said. The value to the power
company might be 5c, for a big cost of the 20c which they charge
you, is to pay for the poles, wires and maintenance of the line.

Now the scheme has blown out. Its having a significant effect
on the power charges for other users, for somebody has to pay for
the losses. What seemed like a good idea at the time, is proving
unsustainable. So in some States they have closed down any new
entrants, the public are already complaining about rising power
charges and the refund which they pay you, is only making it worse.

Indeed- if the government does end up cutting the rebate and going back on its promise, I will cut myself from the grid and rely on my cells directly.
But as I said- I use much less power than my panels are sending to the company- so it won't be a problem for me at all.

King Hazza said other than these do not need 24/7 power,
meaning every building that is not a hospital, pumping station, factory or airport

How many buildings with lifts do you think there in Australia ?
How do you electrically separate the different types of buildings ?

You either have a constant supply or you evacuate any building over
three floors.

Backup batteries sufficient for every house and other building would
I suspect be impractical from both supply and maintenance availability.
Anything other than batteries would likely have large maintenance
requirements and would be impractical on such a huge scale.

Many schemes are suggested but almost no one even thinks about the
number of technically capable people needed to install and maintain.
Already there seems to be skill deficiencies in the solar panel field.