Has anyone installed solar panels? What has been your experience? DIY install extra appreciated.
Has anyone installed solar panels? What has been your experience? DIY install extra appreciated.
Thinking of self installing a 5kW solution onto a South facing garage. DIY solution appears to be 60% cheaper than hiring a local installer (Ohio)
I'm an electrician, I found my own solar panels incredibly easy to install. The job is 90% racking and I would recommend buying a racking package if possible which includes all mounts, rail and fasteners.
Take care as solar panels are ALWAYS LIVE. This is why they use the shielded connectors that they do. Do all the rest of your wiring first, then plug the panels in last.
Make sure you have appropriate disconnecting means. If this is going to be grid tied in any way, make sure you're familiar with the code as it will be inspected. If not grid tied you may be exempt, but this is no reason to just slap it up, still follow the code as it's there for your safety.
I recommend grid-interactive systems over grid-tied if you actually want to be power independent. Microinverters seem great until the power goes out and your panels are good for nothing. I would recommend a power blending transverter type system that allows 3-way power flow between panels, battery and grid. They have come way down in price and allow seamless integration of your loads compared to a charger/inverter system like I have.
Run a string voltage as close as possible to your battery voltage to avoid conversion losses. It's tempting to go for high string voltages but roof mount distances are usually really short and conversion will likely be most of your loss. I started with 140VDC strings and my charger ran hot, dropping to 70VDC made it run cool and boosted my output by over 10%.
Depending on your utility it may not be worth selling power and the hassle or extra fees and regulations that come with it. That's the case here - I just have automation set up to burn excess power for heat in winter and cooling in summer.
Best of luck with your install, for sure it is way cheaper to DIY and not hard at all.
Thanks for this extensive reply. Not the OP, but I've been slowly doing my research on this, and this gave me a good base of things to look into. Cheers!
An example of of "grid-interactive" system is the echoflow smart home panel. It's the front runner I'm looking at right now gor my own system. It will dynamically balance where power is coming from based on your settings and grid state.
What kind of charger are you using that needs to voltage match the batteries? I'm running 500V strings on a Luxpower 18K and it's not an issue with the chargers in that.
Schneider MPPT 150. We sell a lot of Schneider at work and I got a good price on it. However it's totally a piece of crap. It's the only "150v" device I've ever seen where 150v is the do not exceed voltage rather than the operating voltage, and it will trip offline at 140v which causes a huge issue here in Canada where OCV can rise greatly below -20C.
Wouldn't recommend Schneider in general as they require their own proprietary CANBus mod to get telemetry out of any of their equipment.
Whether you're doing DIY or not, please check for available guidelines or regulations wrt safety in case of a fire. The fire fighters need to be able to spray your house with water without getting electrocuted. This is becoming an increasing problem where I live.
Completely agree, recent NEC requires rapid disconnects on each panel that go down to a safe voltage per panel if the heartbeat isn't received (ie disconnect is thrown). This drops the strong voltage to safe levels.
Yes.
https://static.xtremeownage.com/pages/Projects/Solar-Project/
So. my recommendation, take the amount of panels you think you need, and double it.
With the exception my capacity being a bit less then what I actually need. Happy with my solution. Power outages are a thing of the past now. Had a disaster knock out power for the entire area for around a week earlier this year. I was able to run completely off-grid during the entire ordeal, and that includes running the central HVAC.
But- a few notes....
- Ohio doesn't get the best solar radiance. Install more panels.
- For DIY, look here: https://signaturesolar.com/ Those guys have the best pricing you are going to find. I use their EG4 batteries. I hear good things about the inverters too.
I'm an electrical engineer who designs commercial and Utility Scale PV systems (i.e. Multi acre solar power plants), though I've done a couple dozen residential systems as well.
@[email protected] chimed in with some really good advice, but I wanted to add a few things.
If I were to do my own system I'd go with micro inverters, enphase IQ8 most likely, as they can be setup to operate during a grid outage, either with a battery backup, or with a load balancing panel.
Careful of the downfalls of going the DIY route, not sure how it is in your state, but in some states I've worked in you will forfeit incentives if you don't use a qualified installer.
Get familiar with your utilities net metering policies, if they don't net meter power at or near retail rates then you'll end up giving them your power for free/cheap whenever you overgenerate. Some utilities will also make it difficult if you're not going through a qualified installer.
Lastly, and this is coming from someone who understands the industry intimately, really take a look at the numbers and decide if this makes sense for you. Most residential solar will take 5-10 years to pay for itself (after incentives) and start to generate a profit. Compare that with the same sum invested in a general s&p500 index fund which would likely have doubled in value during that time.
Ultimately I decided not to install solar on my home, despite the ability to 100% DIY the whole thing and get parts at steep discounts, and instead installed a backup generator and signed up with a local community solar array (which is not something that all states/utilities allow).
Happy to answer any questions you may have!
Thanks for this reply! I put off the professional install of panels as the ROI was just too far out. Self install did come up as I'm fairly competent but your points still highlight the problems. Sometimes the numbers just don't work, even if you can do it cheap
You pretty much covered that accurately. I also install commercially occasionally and even with the best prices on materials and my cost to install, I can not come close to a decent ROI in Canada. Is far worse if I install batteries to make it a non grid tie system and still work in the event of a power failure. Also the specifications and published returns most companies will give you are out to lunch in real environment. You will never achieve the full output of the panels and you will on average only produce power around half the time they predict.
The only place I could justify a system was in Mexico where my power was around 40c US a KWh, we have sun 300 days of the year and grid feed pays us the full 40c rate. I am still looking at a 7 year return and that is at their cheap labor to install on a 5kw system grid tied. (BTW grid tied in my city in Mexico is causing havec on the grid for complex reasons I won't go into here.)
I look at it this way. Batteries and their respective systems are a no go from the start. Just too expensive and limited lifespan. This a grid tie system if you really want to tie in. But that will disconnect in the event of power failure. If dependable is the ultimate requirement, just install a power failure generator. For the few times a year it operates, will be far cheaper, can actually power the entire house typically and it can power indefinitely. An expensive battery system might get you half a day if you spent a great deal on batteries while being power wise at the same time.
I'm not an electrician, but an electrical engineer, and I bought a complete DIY package with everything. Electrical code here in Denmark then only needs a certified electrician to do the connection to the the grid, which includes submitting the system to the grid operator, also so we can be paid for the surplus production.
If you know how to read the instructions, and plan your work, it's quite fun, and I'm pretty sure my panels are better secured (likely overkill) and more straight than 80% of the professional installs here, just because we took the time to do it thoroughly.
If you feel have the ability and you have the time, I would highly recommend it. But as another pointed out, try to find a kit with the mounting hardware!
Has anyone installed solar panels? What has been your experience?
Sounds like you are talking about grid-tied systems, but folks who live in vehicles often DIY and make most of their power from solar.
In my case, I have 750w mounted on the campervan. Depending on how I am camping solar makes 90-95% of the power with the alternator contributing the rest during reprovision/relocation runs. Over the past ~5 years I've averaged 1.76kWh/day. In the last six months I've been doing more electric cooking and so production numbers have been 2.16kWh/day
Saving this post, thinking about doing this for years
Very informative replies. Go lemmy.