New and still learning!

Hello, I am new to this site as well as to Solar Panels. I have wanted to install solar panels to my home but just could not find the right information until a few days ago when I found this site. There is so much to learn and read that is all I have been doing for the last past four days.

I have been watching youtube videos, to diy solar panels and anything else I am able to get my hands on so that I can learn. From what I have gathered I do believe I understand the system now but still learning what I would need for my home. This is where I hope you guys could help me out, things I would need to do as well as find out.

What I am trying to accomplish is to lower my electric bill just like everyone on this forum. I was looking into a Grid Tied Solar Panel system and also adding wind generators latter down the road. I was looking at getting a 200 watt system and expand as I go, but I am trying to get anywhere from 400-600 watts total power from solar panels this year with tax money.

Equipment that I need, if I missed something please inform me. I know I will need mounts for the solar panels, I am just looking to see what hardware I would be missing from the list below. I would be installing most of this on my own unless I can buy all the equipment and pay someone to install it but from what I have seen and read it does not seem to be that hard to do. Understanding how the components connect to each other and I would have someone come in and do the electrical work.

1. Solar Panel
2. Grid Tied Inverter (I was looking at a Soladin 600 what do you think?)
3. Cables
4. Deep Cycle Batteries
5. Kill A Watt
6. Controller for batteries

Comments

  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New and still learning!

    i'm a bit confused here, do you need battery backup for outages? if not then skip the batteries and controller and go with straight gt. the problem with most of those is that you need several hundred volts to operate most of them and means many pvs at once in a series string. you could go with the smaller micro-inverters and buil on that, but i don't recommend going bigtime on these. i won't rehash that, but you should elaborate on what your system is to be in the future so that we can advise what may be good to get now.
    at this point stay with solar until we are sure there's some real good turbines out there worthwhile.
  • hillbilly
    hillbilly Solar Expert Posts: 334 ✭✭
    Re: New and still learning!

    While it is not all that difficult to install a PV system if you understand the fundamentals, it is also not that difficult to make serious errors with potentially drastic consequences. Particularly as Niel pointed out, for GT systems most GT inverters operate at higher voltage, so you're dealing with a higher voltage installation (typically 200V-600V). I would also doubt that most utility contracts would allow an unlicensed installation. If you do wish to do as much of the work as possible, you would probably do very well to spend a bit of cash up front for a class. Solar Energy International http://www.solarenergy.org/ offers some great instructional programs including online courses, and there may be a more local school (don't know where you're from).
    Welcome to the forum
    HB
  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New and still learning!

    First, Avoid ready, fire, aim!

    Define what it is you are trying to do. A couple of things to keep in mind. First "buying solar panels" isn't going to give you "cheaper electricity". Pv solar is still more expensive than grid power.

    Next, before you buy any solar equipment, do every possible energy conservation method you can think of, and then do a few more! Not just electrical, gas, hot water, etc. Every $$ spend on conservation will yield as much as $8-10 in PV costs.

    Next, consider solar hot water. Solar hot water is ~1/3 the cost of PV and is ~3 times as efficient.

    Next, by defining what it is you wish to do, ( and learning) you will realize you don't need batteries (and ancillary hardware) for a grid tie system. Adding batteries (in rough numbers) doubles the cost and can halve the efficiency, leading to a cost that is much greater than grid tie. If you are looking for a hybrid system, consider the real world time the grid is down, and I would suspect that it WAY cheaper to use a small emergency generator for those few times a year when the grid is down, than it is to have to buy, maintain, amortize, replace a battery bank for the few times a year that the grid is down.

    Finally, or perhaps first, read and learn all that you can. This forum is a great place to start, populated by some very smart folks who have forgotten more about RE than most of us will ever know. People who offer their vast experience to us willingly, if only we are smart enough to use that experience wisely. By doing so, one can potentially save a ton of money, and a ton of heart ache.

    As a brief Ps, I suggest that you read through the wind section of this forum carefully. I will suggest that you will find that very few people are happy with small scale wind. As a rule, small scale wind over sells and under performs,

    Good luck, and keep in touch,

    Tony
  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    Re: New and still learning!

    Thanks everyone for your input, I will be doing some reading and once I get a more understand of where I am trying to go with this system I will let you guys know.

    I am from Wisconsin about 45 min. North of Milwaukee.
  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    Re: New and still learning!

    I would like to use solar panel to power lights in the four main parts of the house we use a lot. I already use CFL and that helped with our bills.

    I will be looking into a newer water heater but trying to see what would really help with cost, still reading and I will get back to you guys.

    8 lights in the basement total
    2 in the bathroom
    2 in the kitchen
    2 in the living room