I know for certain that this post will raise a lot of flac. Everybody has their own idea about what a perfect system is, but my selection has come down to simply how easy it is to grow the system.
For most of us (myself included) it simply is financially possible for me to setup a full renewable energy system. The costs of an entire system is tens of thousands of dollars and you probably don’t have that kind of cash.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could figure out a way to build a system that you could upgrade as time and money permit? You can with solar power.
Starting Up For Under $1000
What? How can I accomplish that?
Before you can get off grid you’re going to need to go grid-tie first. The reason is simple… a grid-tie system helps offset the power you use. Here’s how you get started.
You’re going to need:
- An inverter
- A Solar panel
- Mounting system
- An electrician
- Other odds and ends
The idea here is to mount the solar panel, hook it up to the inverter and get your electrician to hook that into your fuse box.
First, let’s talk about the inverter. Remember, we’re all about expandability here so make sure it’s at least a 1000 watt inverter (meaning you can hook ~900 watts of solar panels up to it). This is going to be your biggest expense. Don’t get once from China and make sure they have a warranty! Make sure it’s a Grid-Tie inverter as well. Your budget should be around ~$600 for the inverter.
Now that you have your inverter, you’re going to need an electrician to hook it up for you. PLEASE don’t do it yourself for two reasons: it’s not safe and it’s required by law for an electrician to hook it up. This shouldn’t cost more than $200 – $250.
With the money that’s left over buy your solar panel and mounting brackets (you can install the panel yourself. I recommend trying to get at least a 110 watt panel. My favorite place to find them is on eBay.
What Have We Accomplished?
You’ve taken your first step into not relying on your electric company anymore! Your 110 watt solar panel is going to produce roughly ~600 watts per day on average (more or less depending on how sunny the area is that you live). That adds up to 18,000 watts per month of energy savings! The best part is you accomplished this all for under $1000!
Grants
It looks like governments are slowly fazing these out, but there are still some left. Lately the trend seems to be offering ‘green home grants’ so make sure to check to see if your modifications qualify.
Where To Go Now?
The next step is to keep adding solar panels to your array as time and money permits. You got all the expensive stuff out of the way in the beginning while still giving yourself room to install at least another 8 solar panels.
Once you’ve added enough solar panels to your array that the capacity in your current inverter is exhausted just upgrade to one that is double the output. This is much easier to do because your current inverter will cover about 40% of the cost of the new one.
If you want to plan out the entire phase of your transition it’s pretty easy to do as well. Just start with the initial $1000 expense and budget out upgrades.
If you think this is something that’s just a bunch of rubbish I’ll leave you with this thought.
If you buy one 110 watt solar panel per month for the next 3 years you’ll have 3960 watts of output power 713kw of power per month. Instead of costing you $30k upfront it cost you $200 – $300 per month.
The best part is that this method lets you take advantage of the falling price of solar power.
Dear Moderator,
At the moment, I just put up my 6.0KW solar Power it consist the following:
1. 16 panel solar panel 100 watt each
2. 6.0KW charger and Inverter
If the sun is bright I go off Grid and at night I use my battery.
That sounds great!
How much power do you generate daily?
Josh
It is still early to say but at the moment I am running 5.5KW of energy. I am using it from 0600 hours to 1800 hours, at night I go back to grid side because my system can not accommodate additional load of 2 unit of 2HP of air-conditioning unit for another 6 hours of usage.
in the state of iowa if you are grid tied, you will never see one penny from the energy company. the law states that the energy company only has to give you a credit. if you are grid tied you have 2 meters, one that measures the units that you produce and sell to the energy at a discount price. the other meter measures every unit that you use which is purchased at a profit from the energy company. if you manage to produce 1 billion KW, it is all sold to the energy company, and if you only used 500 kw, you only get the diffrence in credit with the energy company, you will never see a check!!! also alliant energy who supplies the electric and gas to my area of iowa wants to charge you more if you choose to recive energy from renueable source, threw them.
so i do not know why anyone in iowa would want a grid tie. i would much rather boil water in an open pot with my excess that to supply them even 1 watt of energy!! and by the way, i worked at a power plant in Arkansas in the late 1970′s and we used natural gas to fire the boilers to run the steam powered generators. with the very nature of ac electricity, if they can make a profit by heating with gas, why would anyone want to use their electricity to heat your water , cook your meals, or heat your house??? ill do that with gas myself and save $$$$ .
Wow, that is the worst news I’ve heard today. I say screw them if they want to charge you both ways and just go off grid.
Do you know the difference between how much you pay for electricity vs. what they pay you for electricity? I’m really curious to hear about how much they rip you off.
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