Solar backup power might be the best gift you can get for your family. This blog has promoted other DIY solar systems that are less complete than this one. The Sunforce kit makes it easy to feed directly to the grid to reduce your electricity bill or to use a bank of batteries to store the power for when the lights go out.
Best of all, these things are becoming really cheap. At the time of this writing, it is basically half-price off just a few months ago. This little baby can pay for itself within a year or two in most parts of the United States. It is a snap to assemble -- the entire system can be set up in one afternoon.
Not only is it a great gift, it is one heck of an investment!
PS -- by the way, it is also possible to build your own backup solar power kit -- which, watt-for-watt, is an economical option.
