A successful DIY solar PV system for your home will require some initial research to point you in the right direction. The 5 steps you don’t want to skip when planning to build a DIY solar system are the foundation for your success. Not doing these steps will cost you time and money and might just prevent you from ever having a PV system that will deliver what you hoped for.
1. What is your goal? Do you want to be totally off the grid and self-sufficient? That will require a fairly large system and a big battery bank. I don’t want to discourage you, just be aware of it. Do you want to install just enough solar PV capacity to reduce your electric bill by 40%, 50%, or more? To achieve the optimal combination between reducing your electric bill and having an affordable system is going to take a few iterations between size, cost, tax credits. Are you interested in a DIY solar kit to quickly and easily install at your remote cabin? Then you might not need to read this entire article, unless you are new to solar PV systems. Instead, do some research online, specifically searching for kits for cabins, maybe even RVs . Call the manufacturers and distributors and ask them lots of questions. Come back here if you get stuck.
2. Have you minimized the electric requirement of your home? PV panels and batteries are still pretty expensive. It doesn’t make sense to spend money on extra photovoltaic panels. Let’s look at some numbers: Photovoltaic panels produce between 6W to 19W per square foot. Estimated prices for just the panels range from $3.0 to $5.0 per sqft.. (Don’t hold me to it! This is a guesstimate) . Taking these numbers and looking at substituting one 60W incandescent light with a 12W LED light, can lower the panel cost for your DIY PV project by$7.50 to $40.0. By replacing five 60 W incandescent bulbs, you could potentially save $240, just for the panels. Replacing incandescent lights with LED lights isone of many ways to reduce your electric usage. Other things you can do are: turn of lights and unused stereos and TVs, install motion detectors or replace inefficient appliances with high-efficiency appliances.
3. Take out your calculator for step 3. Or you can use one of the many free online tools to determine how much sunlight, preferably direct sunlight, the PV panels will receive at the location where you intend to install them. You can also check with a photovoltaic panel manufacturer if they could do those calculations for you. Whatever option you choose, you will need to make allowances for trees and/or neighboring houses that might throw shadows on your PV panels.
4. To help you finance your system, you can still take advantage of federal tax credits for solar PV systems and maybe even use the state tax credits for solar systems. And to top it off, in many states you can find utility incentives for solar systems. It is also important to find out what you must do to be able to have your electric utility meter spin backwards so you can sell electric power back to the utility when you are not using it. Some utilities also require special equipment to be put between their meter and your solar system.
5. Finally, educate yourself. You probably have never before planned, designed and installed a solar photovoltaic system. Others have. Learn from their mistakes; don’t make the same. Many videos and books are available. And like with everything else, some are very good, some are not very useful. Spend some time at a bookstore or your local library and peruse what’s on the shelves. Attend a class at a local community college. Do some research online. The government’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site (www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/) has tons of very useful information. I also recommend investing in a set of videos that show you exactly all the different steps.
You have completed the up-front work. You should now have a very good idea about your goals, where to install the photovoltaic panels, what incentives and tax credits are available and you almost have a PhD in solar PV systems. You are ready to move on to the details of designing and building your own DIY PV system for your home. Should you decide in the end to forgo the do-it-yourself part and hire an installer, you will be an educated consumer who knows what s/he wants.
Before you start a DIY solar photovoltaic system for your home, do the 5 steps and learn the secrets of how to successfully build your own solar photovoltaic system.
