Avoid Common Pitfalls When Building A PV Solar System For Your Home

Are you considering a DIY PV system for your home? Fabulous and absolutely doable. It is important though, that you take the 5 essential steps to success a for DIY PV system for your home. You might already have answers for some of them. Be as diligent in your research and in your data collection as possible and write it all down. You will need that information when it gets the details of the design and building of the solar PV system.

1. First you must be clear about what you want to achieve. 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 very 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 most likely not have any batteries at all. And the middle of the road option is the photovoltaic system that covers about 30-70% of your electric needs. Which one is it?

2. The size and number of PV panels you need for your solar system depends on your total electric demand. The more panels you need, the costlier your system. It makes sense, I would think, to minimize your home’s electric requirements. The cost for a photovoltaic 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 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 enough sunlight to make a photovoltaic system feasible, meaning your system will produce enough electricity at an affordable price. You can check for the best location, slope and orientation for your photovoltaic panels with the Solar Pathfinder (TM), which can tell you an entire 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 receives. Don’t forget to make allowances for shading trees and the house next door. Check with panel manufacturers as well 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 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. Last step: educate yourself. You probably have never before planned, designed and installed a solar PV system. Others have. Learn from their mistakes; don’t repeat them. Many books and videos are can be bought. And like with everything else, some are very good, some are not very useful. Spend some time at your local library or the bookstore and peruse what’s on the shelves. Attend a class or two at a local community college. Research solar PV systems online. The government’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site (www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/) has a huge online library about solar PV systems. I do recommend investing in a set of how-to videos about DIY solar system installations.

Get ready for the fun part. 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. What you have learned will help you to work with a PV panel manufacturer or supplier to select the perfect DIY solar PV system for your home.

Before you start a DIY solar photovoltaic system for your home, do the 5 steps and learn all about the jpj pjpjpjpjp[kjj pijpj secrets of how to successfully build your own solar photovoltaic system.