A successful DIY solar PV system for your home needs some preliminary 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 will be the foundation for your success. Not doing these steps will cost you time and money and will possibly prevent you from ever having a PV system that will pay for itself in a reasonable time.
1. First you must be clear about what type of system you want. Planning for, designing and installing a PV solar system that gets you off the grid and delivers 100% of your electric needs, all year, is quite different from a small single-panel system for a cabin in the woods. These are two extreme examples. However, it takes more than panels to build a PV solar system if you want to be off the grid. That means having a considerable battery storage capacity to bridge overcast days. The cabin in the woods will probably not have any batteries at all. And the middle of the road option is the PV system that covers about 30-70% of your electric needs. Which one is it?
2. Have you minimized the electric requirement of your home? PV panels and batteries are not cheap. It doesn’t make sense to spend money on extra PV panels. Here’s what the numbers look like: 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.. This is based on reviewing available pricing today. It could be higher or lower . Taking these numbers and looking at replacing 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 is just one way to reduce your electric demand. Other things you can do are: shut of lights and unused equipment, install motion detectors or replace inefficient appliances with highly efficient appliances.
3. Get out the old calculator for step 3. Or use one of the many free online tools to determine how much sunlight, ideally direct sunlight, the PV panels will receive at the location where you intend to put them. You can also ask a photovoltaic panel manufacturer if they can do those calculations for you. Regardless which option you choose, you will have to make allowances for trees and/or neighboring buildings that might throw shadows on your PV panels.
4. Local codes and utility requirements for connecting your solar system to the grid must be checked and complied with. They might require you to install a very specific meter or other piece of equipment. While you talk to them, check what utility incentives for PV systems are currently offered. In addition to the federal tax credits for solar systems you might be able to take advantage of state tax credits for solar PV systems.
5. Last but not least, educate yourself. Read books, watch videos, talk to installers, attend a class or two. The more you know about how everything needs to be put together and why, the easier it will be to design and build the DIY photovoltaic system for your home. Investing money and time in your education will save you headaches and lots of money during the installation and afterwards. An excellent source is the government’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site (www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/), where you can find really excellent information for free. For those of you who are visual, a set of videos on how to design and build a DIY solar PV system can be very useful.
Roll up your sleeves and get designing and building! You have a lot of data and many resources at your fingertips. With the knowledge you have gained, you can have an intelligent conversation with a DIY PV solar kit provider and together you can decide what the best PV solar system for your home is. You can avoid the common pitfalls when building a PV solar system for your home.
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