what do I need to get started to do solar power for my home?
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At the Solar Works! Workshop, Attendees learned more about solar energy, heard from people with projects on their homes and businesses, and found resources to get started including a Home Energy Squad visit and a solar site assessment. Attendees also connected with experts serving Saint Paul that talked about their efforts to encourage solar energy including easing permitting for solar installations.
Question by : what do I need to get started to do solar power for my home?
I am going to build my panels, I do not how many I need nor do I know how many battery’s I need, also inverter. Can you give me the answers? I have a 2 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms. A shop with plenty power tools. 2 ref and 2 freezers,washer and dryer also. What am I going to need?
Thanks
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4 Responses to what do I need to get started to do solar power for my home?
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OK – some rules of thumb:
10 watts per square foot, unless you go to amorphous-crystal cells – then you may get up to 15 watts per square foot.
Storage should be three times (3 x) the average load in your house. The average load may be calculated from your appliances, frequency of use, lighting load and heating load.
Your solar panels must be able to deliver at least 2 x your average load in order to actually store power as well as meet your needs.
Commercial installations less subsidies are typically $ 10/watt, fully installed + storage but including the inverter. Subsidies will cover most of this in some locations. So check your area.
So: if you have an electric stove, electric dryer, general lighting and a shop with various 20A motors, television, freezers, refrigerators and so forth – 50A max on the stove. 25A on the dryer, 25A on the water heater – allow 40A for everything else. comes to 140A peak – average (rule-of thumb) is about half that. 70A. You are a heavy electric user as compared to most individuals.
At 220V, that comes to 15,400 watts. Times two, and rounding comes to 30,000 watts of capacity required to meet 100% of your needs or 30KW. Roughly 3,000 square feet (30 square meters) of panels.
Battery Storage at using 100AH batteries comes to (working backwards and allowing a 15% inverter loss and not wanting to kill your batteries) – will require forty (40) 12V storage batteries in parallel.
And why it is that most installations are to supplement power only – and not replace 100% of the requirements.
You are looking at an unsubsidized cost of around $ 100,000 +/- if you do 100% of the labor yourself. About $ 8,000 in the storage system alone. And if you do this yourself, you will not get any subsidies.
Peter W
August 18, 2012 at 8:29 am
Hit the Lottery,
because it will take a couple Thousand to get started,
you will need a bank of batteries, heavy duty wiring, switches, Inverters, A building just for the batteries, & acid to keep them filled, solar panels ! a 35 watt panel will run you around $ 375
to completely run a home you will need around 20,000 watts x [per 35 watt] = 600 panels
at $ 375 ea =$ 225,000 , now a 20,000 watt Inverter, [if they make one that big] will run you around $ 5,000. Oh yes you will need a area large enough to put the panels up, Wiring around $ 1,000, switches say another $ 1,000, Then batteries, at $ 80 ea, [heavy duty type] 12 volts ,
say 40 of them , that’s $ 3,200 more, so far were up to $ 343,200, and you haven,t even put the solar panels up yet, this is a conceivably estimate on the small side
Now if you really want to cut back, build a geodesic dome,
William B
August 18, 2012 at 9:17 am
We could go through the calculations, but if your goal is to save money, I think you’re going in the wrong direction.
The maximum saving, for any house that is already connected to the grid, is to stay connected to the grid. With that sort of setup, there are no batteries or battery maintenance, and the solar electric system is half the price.
Also, if you build your own panels, they will not be nearly as consistent or reliable as commercial panels, and it will also be illegal to connect homemade panels to the grid in most locations. But most of all, as panel prices have dropped, it would actually be cheaper to simply buy ready-made panels. A person used to be able to save money by building their own computer from individual parts too, but nowadays, it’s cheaper to just get something ready-made.
roderick_young
August 18, 2012 at 10:07 am
It is useless to write all technical jargon like Volts, amps and other irrelevant stuff in a forum post, leave that for the instructions books. No one is going to get helped with such things in a forum.
My dear friend, these are some of the things that you should know to get you started with building solar panels or photovoltaic cells for your home,
1. Step-by-step instructions to building a solar panel and you can be sure to produce a fully functioning solar panel.
2. Detailed plans complete with color diagrams and pictures.
3. You need to know how many panels you will need to power your home and what size battery bank you will need etc.
4. How to fix the solar panels to your roof just like the professionals do.
5. To safely wire up your solar panels you are going to need to know the detailed electric wiring plans.
6. Someone to guide you step by step on the most important parts of creating a solar panel.
But if you install it successfully, you made it.
1. You can reduce huge amount in your power bill.
2. And you can Save a big amount of money by making your own solar panels
Eugene
August 18, 2012 at 10:51 am