Your First Solar Panels

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!