by Jose Unterholz
What you must know and do before building a DIY solar PV system for your home, as is outlined in this article, will be the foundation for a successful installation. You can avoid some common pitfalls when building a PV solar system for your home by diligently doing the research at the beginning and getting fully prepared.
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 photovoltaic 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. The number and sizes of PV panels you need for the solar system depends on your total electric demand. And the more panels you require, the costlier the system. It makes sense, therefore, to minimize your home’s electric requirements. The cost for a PV system currently is in the range of $6 per W to $10 per W, installed. If you reduce your electric requirement by say 300W, by substituting incandescent light bulbs with LED lights for example, you will be able to reduce the cost of your PV system by $1,800 to $3,000.
3. Confirm that your home’s roof will receive sufficient sunlight to make a photovoltaic system feasible, meaning your system will produce sufficient electricity at a reasonable price. You can check for the ideal orientation, slope and location for your photovoltaic panels with the Solar Pathfinder (TM), which can tell you a year’s solar potential for any location and orientation at your home. This tool, that you have to purchase, might be a bit of an overkill for one installation. You can also use one of several free programs available online to calculate how much sunlight your site gets. Don’t forget to make allowances for shading trees and the house next door. Check with panel suppliers as well to have them help you determine the solar incidence for your site.
4. Check what the local requirements are for connecting to the grid. You might need to install a special piece of equipment between your system and the utility meter. Check with your local utility about incentives for photovoltaic systems and, very important, if they will buy back your electricity when you are producing more than you are using. Unless of course your goal is to be totally off the grid. At which point the utility will probably not give you any incentive. Also check the following federal tax credits for PV solar systems and state tax credits for solar systems.
5. Last but not least, educate yourself. Watch videos, read books, talk to installers, attend classes. The more you know about how everything needs to be put together and why, the easier it will be for you design and install the DIY photovoltaic system for your home. Investing time and money to get educated will save you lots of money and some headaches during the installation and afterwards. A good 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 what you now know, you can have a productive 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.
Avoid costly mistakes and watch the experts on these educational videos.
