Solar panel advice

Qulegata

Hey guys. I'll make this short and sweet. I just bought my home in January of this year. I want to set up my house to run off solar panels. I already talked to my EC and they have a program where I can hook into their grid and receive a credit if I over produce what I need. My question to you is what equipment will I definitely need? Is there a kit I can buy that will come with everything I need? It's a small home 1584 sq ft. Everything in the house is electric. Thanks for any info you can give me

New_Mexico_Will

Solar panels, inverter/micro inverters, and wires, at a bare minimum.  That will let you make power and sell some back during the day.

Photowhit

Qulegata said:

Hey guys. I'll make this short and sweet. I just bought my home in January of this year. I want to set up my house to run off solar panels. I already talked to my EC and they have a program where I can hook into their grid and receive a credit if I over produce what I need. My question to you is what equipment will I definitely need? Is there a kit I can buy that will come with everything I need? It's a small home 1584 sq ft. Everything in the house is electric. Thanks for any info you can give me

I don't think you have a strong understanding of how things work.

There are typically 2 system a Grid tied system and an off grid system; Here's a short bit I wrote about them;

First you need to decide if you want a grid tied or an off grid system.

In most places there will be NO long term savings with off grid electric! Off grid requires a much larger system than a grid tied system for the same amount of electric, you can usually figure about 3x the size. In addition you will most likely need alternative sources of power usually a generator for long periods of overcast weather.

Off grid requires a larger system because it has high system losses, roughly 50% for stored energy with flooded lead acid batteries! In addition, the system must reach a fully charged point a few times each week for battery health. Once fully charged the system either is idle or can be used to power opportunity loads. These are loads that you don't normally use solar electric for, like water heating.

In some locations grid tied can be cost effective and save you money long term. These systems basically use the grid as a battery bank. They push electric back into the grid when you are producing more electric than you generate and draw energy from the grid when you aren't producing enough to cover your needs. In most states 'net metering' is still the law. The utility company will off set the energy use 1:1 for the energy you push back into the grid. Much less equipment, not batteries which require maintenance and replacement.

So basically a grid tied system, without batteries, when the grid goes down so does the your system. There are some systems that will give you minimal power when the sun is shining, without batteries, but not a lot. Look at SMA Sunny Boy and the Enphase system (which I recently read won't allow battery less designs right away.

With a grid tied system, you basically use the grid as a battery bank, when you produce energy in the sunny part of the day it all goes to the grid less any you might use, then you draw energy later in the day.

I'd suggest having a local solar company come out and assess your site for available sun and give you an estimate. They will likelly do this free and you'll learn a bt more along the way.

AlexGomez7

Getting a battery will help store any extra energy you make for later... unless, does your utility company do net metering? Can you sell extra solar energy back to the grid?