[Towmaster]

Apparently..... according to an electrician mate of mine that may or may not work for an electricity supplier up here.... You can get your panels to produce power to your house during a blackout.
The dodgy way is to turn off your main power switch so that no power gets sent down the line to potential linesmen working upstream. Then you get a battery jump pack ($100 from local parts store) with a built in inverter. Make up a 'dead mans plug' with two 240v male ends on it. Plug one end into a power point in the circuit you want to use and the other end into the inverter. Turn it on.
Apparently the solar system needs to 'see' a 240v signal to activate the system. Then you plug your charging cable into the jump pack so it keeps it's charge and continues to feed 240v into the system and the solar panels do the rest.

You can also have a better master switch installed into your meter box so that it detects the power coming back down the line and switches it over automatically.

We tried it....... yep it works.....