Dear Solar Guy,
        I have an opportunity to buy about 2 square meters of solar panels
which the owner says will provide me with enough electricity to operate my
house.  Should I buy them ?  The price seems really good for what I will
get.  Please give me some adice. 

 "Waiting" in Waxahachie.

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Dear Waiting:
        Currently the best performance one can get with high quality PV
panels is about 15 % efficiency, which means about 150 Watts (max.) per
square meter under the best sun conditions of about 1000 Watts per square
meter.  And on the best of days one could get this for about 8 hours (1/3
of day) or so.  This means a maximum for your panels of about 300 Watts
for only a portion of the day, about 2.4 kWh per day.  For average days you
will get about half of this.  A typical home may use anywhere from 20 to
50 kWh per day, so these panels will fall far short.  In addition, if your
home uses a/c elecity you would need some other power conditioning
equipment to convert from d/c to a/c and also batteries to provide storage
for night operation.
        However, there are some applications for which these panels would
prove useful.  For example, if you are in a remote location (away from an
electric line) and have a small demand that is d/c, then they could be
used.  An example would be water pumping for livestock or a garden.  For
this application one could use a d/c pump and no (battery) storage is
needed, since water demand need not be continuous and the greatest demand
is on hot  sunny days.    Good luck.   

 The Solar Guy.