Going along with the theme that you really don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get started with renewable energy I wanted to do a post detailing how you could get into a grid-tied setup for under $1500 (or less if you build the panels yourself which I’ll outline).

As with anything DIY you’re going to be able to get your first panels up and running for less dollars per watt. To do that you’re going to need solar cells. The best price I’ve EVER seen was a deal for 500 cells for $399 on amazon. These are 1.8 watt cells which means you’re cost per watt on the cells is a measly 0.44 cents per watt! Add in the $60 in materials per 72 watts and you’re looking at $90 per 72 watt panel! Check out the deal here. As an aside, I highly recommend that you buy the biggest bundle of solar cells you can get. For example, 108 cells costs about $160 right now, so although 500 seems like a lot (900 watts total) the amount of money you’ll save long term is certainly going to be worth it.

For the DIYers make sure you check out the inverters later on in the post.

Getting Your Feet Wet Solar Panel Kits

If you’re not comfortable installing a larger system than there are smaller 60 watt kits that you can get your feet wet with. Personally, they are quite a bit more expensive per watt than a 130 or 26o watt system, but they are really a great place to start.

Larger Solar Panel Kits

Since we’re trying to keep this as low as possible I’m going to recommend that you start out with either a 130 watt or 260 watt system. I would personally go with the 260 watt kit as you’ll get a decent amount of power out of it and you’ll actually notice the savings.

The nice thing about kits is that you don’t have to worry about anything. All the parts that you need are included and if you’re not very DIY than this is a good solution for you. There are plenty of videos about solar panel installation.

The only thing I’m going to recommend is that if you’re wanting to use a solar panel kit grid-tied that you get a grid-tie inverter. If you’re just planning on using the kit to run a few small things than don’t worry about it.

The Off Grid Solar Panel Kit

An off grid solar panel kit is a little bit different simply because you need to add batteries into the mix.  Since the 130 watt and 260 watt kits both come with charge controllers it’s really just a matter of getting some deep cycle batteries.

In order to save a little money on the batteries go and visit your local golf course and ask them if they’ve switched out any of their golf cart batteries. They usually do this on a yearly basis so if you ask around you should be able to find some. You may need to desulfate them, but still you’ll save over $100 per battery.

Big Kits

If you want to get serious about power generation than a larger solar panel kit will be right up your alley. They were out of my price range when I first started, but if you want to see serious energy savings than a serious system is needed. A 1kw kit can generate upwards of 6kw per day which usually works out to 20% – 40% energy savings (depending how many kw you use per day).

Inverters

I’ve talked before about how to design an renewable energy system so it’s low cost startup, but it allows you to easily expand it. Inverters are a large part of it. You need to buy an inverter that allows you to expand the capacity of your system with just adding solar panels in (after you’ve got your initial setup done).

To that end I recommend that you start out with at least a 400 watt inverter, but preferably go with a 1000 watt inverter. If you’re strapped for cash and just want to get started than the 400 is just fine because it will allow you to at least double your system power (if using 260 watt kits) otherwise get one that’s at least 1000 watts (if you’re going grid-tie than make sure it’s a grid tie inverter).

I hope this gives you enough information to get started on your renewable energy journey today!

Zap! Crash! … and than all the power goes off in your house. Your inverter has been fried and it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars to replace everything. If only there was some little device that could protect your renewable energy system from things like power surges or lightning strikes.

Luckily, there is… and they’re called lightning arrestors. Lightning arrestors are like the fuze box in your home. If the amount of power coming down the line exceeds a certain threshold it stops the power from flowing thus protecting all of the expensive electronics in your house.

Before we move any further let’s take a look at what actually happens when a lightning strike occurs. For your wind generator the strike will hit the tower and although much more unlikely a strike to your solar panels is actually a strike to your house.

After the lightning has struck there is a huge amount of power… on the order of thousands of volts and tens of thousands of amps. A lightning arrestor works by limiting the voltage difference between any two wires and ground. When lightning strikes there is a huge voltage and amps on one side, but quite a bit lower on the other side that is connected to the inverter so the lightning arrestor basically restricts the flow of electricity so nothing gets damages.

As with any good renewable energy system though, it’s going to be important that you plan for multiple failure points in your system so that overall you’re better protected than just plugging a lightning arrestor in right before you inverter and hoping for the best.

Wind Generator Protection

Your wind generator tower is a perfect target for lightning to strike. A nice tall metal object that is taller than everything else around it. Plan to have at least 4 lightning arrestors if you have a wind generator so you can minimize the impact of a direct hit.

As a side note, make sure that any lightning arrestors that you get are rated for at least 50,000 amps. The first one is going to get installed at the top of the tower so you can dissipate most of the energy before it’s even reached the bottom of the tower. If you haven’t yet properly grounded your wind generator tower I strongly recommend you do it ASAP as without proper grounding there’s nowhere but to your house for the energy to go.

The second arrestor gets placed at the bottom of the tower which should get rid of pretty much the rest of the energy from the lightning strike. There is another one placed just before your inverter AND just before your fuse box. The reason is simple… should the lightning still get past the first two you really don’t want it to take out your inverter. Secondly, IF it gets past your inverter you have got to stop it before it gets into your your house and wreaks havoc on all the sensitive electronics in there.

In most cases the first two in the tower will do the job just fine, the ones before the inverter and the fuse box are there simply as an added precaution.

Is it worth it?

It really depends on what you think. Personally, I would rather fry $200 worth of electronics than thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of equipment.

Solar Panels Protection

Since the likelihood of your solar panels suffering a direct hit is much lower than a wind generator tower, you don’t need to go quite so crazy with the setup. An arrestor before the fuse box, before the inverter, and one at the junction box where all the feeds from the solar arrays meet up.

Should a strike occur the arrestor at the junction box will stop most of it and the one by the inverter will stop the rest (if the first one didn’t stop everything). Should it get past the inverter there’s still one before the fuse box to protect the circuits in your home.

So remember, spend a little money now to protect yourself from thousands of dollars of damage a lightning strike can have on an improperly setup system.