| Avoid Common Pitfalls When Building A PV Solar System For Your Home |
| Written by Catherine Perlotti | |
| Friday, 23 July 2010 | |
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What you must know and do before building a DIY solar PV system for your home, as is described in this article, will be the basis for a a system that delivers what you hoped for. You can avoid some common pitfalls when building a PV solar system for your home by carefully doing the research at the beginning and getting fully prepared.
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 a system that delivers what you hoped for. You can avoid some common pitfalls when building a PV solar system for your home by diligently doing the research up front and getting yourself 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 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. The number and sizes of PV panels you need for the solar system depends on your total electric load. And the more panels you require, the costlier your system. It makes sense, I would think, to lower your home's electric needs. The price for a PV system currently is in the range of $6 per W to $10 per W, installed. If you lower your electric load by say 300W, by replacing 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 enough sunlight to make a photovoltaic system feasible, meaning your system will produce sufficient electricity at a reasonable cost. You can check for the best orientation, slope and location for your PV panels with the Solar Pathfinder (TM), which can tell you a year's solar potential for any location and orientation at your house. 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 trees and the house next door. Check with panel manufacturers also to have them help you determine the solar incidence for your site. 4. To help you finance your system, you can still take advantage of federal tax credits for solar photovoltaic 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. Just one more thing: education. Knowing about all the whys, hows, whats and wheres will drastically reduce, if not eliminate errors. If nothing else, you will be able to better notice whenit is time to ask for help. You will recognize when something just doesn't seem right.Sit in on a couple of classes about solar PV systems. Many ebooks and books are on the market. The government's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program published a huge amount of very useful and educational information on their site (www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/). It could also be very helpful to invest in a set of videos which give you detailed instructions on how to go about planning and installing a DIY solar PV system for your home. The fun part starts now. Making it real. Look at all the notes and books, and maybe videos that you have worked your way through. You can move forward with confidence. Use what you have learned to work with a photovoltaic panel manufacturer or supplier to select the perfect DIY solar PV system for your home. The Article Author: For additional information on DIY solar PV systems, visit us at www.solarforhouseandhome.com. Learn everything you can for a successful system installation with these how to DIY videos. |
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