rid-tied" home solar systems have been around for about a decade, but they're becoming much more popular thanks to new laws in a majority of states that require utilities to pay homeowners for the power that their systems feed back to the grid. A solar system designed to meet most of a home's needs will produce more energy than its owners use during the daytime's peak solar hours. In homes that are off the grid, this excess is used to charge the system's backup batteries, but in grid-tied homes, it flows back to the main grid -- the local utility company. The owner earns credits (as the Maynards did last summer) that are applied to their utility account all year; this lowers the customer's annual utility bill and also helps offset the overall cost of a consumer's solar power.

That homeowners can now get paid for producing electricity isn't the only thing making solar power more suburb-friendly; the technology itself has improved, too. It may surprise those of us who think about electricity only when it's time to pay the Con Ed bill that, like gasoline, electricity can vary in quality. Ten years ago, the devices that turned solar power into ordinary household current (called inverters) produced electricity that was maddeningly substandard: It generated wiggly black lines across your TV screen, made motors run slower and weaker, fried some computer peripherals such as laser printers, and generally shortened the life of most things it powered. Today's inverters make waveforms that are comparable to, and sometimes even better than, what utilities produce, which doesn't degrade (and can even improve) the performance and longevity of home appliances.

But a complete home system doesn't come cheap. Most systems cost in the neighborhood of a decent new car, though the incentives to buy are often a lot better than the ones at your local dealership. At present, every state but South Carolina offers some combination of tax credits, rebates, and other financial enticements to encourage homeowners to go solar. The Maynards' home state of Oregon offers one of the best incentive packages around, but some other states offer programs that match or beat it. New Jersey currently rebates up to 70 percent of a system's total cost, and California pays back up to 50 percent, notes Richard Perez, co-publisher of Home Power magazine.

The Maynards' system cost $24,000, but after they received a $1,500 state tax credit and a $13,000 rebate from the Energy Trust of Oregon, a nonprofit organization funded by local utilities, they ended up paying only about $9,500 of that. (To find out if your state and utility have such programs, visit www.dsireusa.org or ask your local solar dealer.) When homeowners finance their out-of-pocket costs using a home equity loan or second mortgage, their payments may end up totaling about what their monthly utility bill was -- and the interest is tax-deductible.

To figure out how cost-effective a system would be for you, however, you'll have to consider several factors, such as how much you pay for electricity now, how much sun your house gets, and whether the design of your roof provides good light exposure for solar panels. When you take into account the rebates and other incentives, plus the cost of conventional electricity, most solar systems pay for themselves within 15 years (although in areas without good sunlight, it can take longer). But in certain parts of the country, solar power can work to your economic advantage much sooner. In parts of sunny California, electricity rates vary according to the time of day, with some utility customers paying a whopping 35 cents per kilowatt hour in the afternoon, when demand for power is greatest. That's also when photovoltaic productivity peaks, so most grid-tied systems feed power back to the grid at that time, with their owners earning credits (rather than paying for juice) at the 35-cent rate. Those ratepayers might actually break even -- or better -- with a grid-tied system. (Calculate your own solar economics at www.solarbuzz.com/Consumer/Payback.htm.)

If you want to follow in the Maynards' footsteps, you should start not with a visit to your local solar dealer, but by improving the energy efficiency of your home. The less power you need, the fewer photovoltaic panels you'll have to buy, which will cut the overall cost of your new system. The rule of thumb, says Home Power's Perez, is that "for every dollar you spend on efficiency, you'll save three to five dollars on solar panels."

Before they installed the system in their suburban digs, the Maynards bought an energy-efficient refrigerator, installed compact fluorescent lightbulbs in all their light fixtures, purchased LCD monitors (which use far less power than standard CRT screens) for their computers, and switched from an electric range to a gas one. These steps, Bob says, dropped their electric bills to about half of what their neighbors pay. You can find other energy saving tips, as well as lists of the energy-efficient appliances through the federal EnergyStar program (www.energystar.gov). Some energy efficiency measures may also qualify for rebates from states or local utilities: The Maynards got $150 back from Oregon for that new Amana fridge, and rebates on solar thermal systems are common.

Having a home solar system installed starts the way any other significant home improvement does, by locating a dependable dealer in your area. All the dealers listed in Home Power's online directory are trained, licensed, and bonded, according to Perez. Once you've found a reputable dealer nearby, ask for customer references and then check them. Installing the system takes a few days but shouldn't cause serious disruption to your life. Chances are, the power won't even go off.

And consider this: During the next blackout, you'll probably still be surfing the Web and watching Survivor while your neighbors stumble around in the dark.