Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at
11:19 am
Many people when starting out with diy solar power kits ask the question, what do I need?
First a good DIY Solar Panel Guide is a must, having a professional walk you through the steps will save hours of frustration, time and money.
Before you start setting up solar kits for your home energy solution, you’ll need to be familiar with the following components. listed in the order they will be wired into your solar energy system.
1. Solar Panels – In most DIY situations these will be built by you. You can buy discount photovoltaic cells, and assemble them into 50W, 75W, or 100W solar Panels.
2. Array DC Disconnect – This simple device is basically just a switch. It allows you to cut the DC power from your system should system maintenance be needed.
3. Charge Controller – Good home systems will have a battery backup. The charge controller ensures that power sent to the batteries is consistent, and that the batteries don’t discharge over night.
4. Deep Cycle Batteries – To store the power from your solar panels. If you find reconditioned batteries, these can be obtained for fairly cheap. Better yet, you can get old batteries for free and recondition them yourself.
5. System Meter – This component is actually optional, but it is a good idea to know the status and charge of your syatem.
6. Converter – Solar panels produce DC power, and as your home runs on AC power, the converter makes the solar energy usable by your home.
7. Backup Power – Most systems will also include some sort of backup power. In an off grid application this would generally be a generator. In a city or town, the power grid itself provides the backup.
From there the system gets wired into your home breaker box. At this stage, its best to get a qualified electrician to do the install. However, you now have an idea of what will be needed to get set up using solar power kits.
If you haven’t done so yet, you should also consider downloading a copy of one of the top guides to teach solar panel DIY. Doing so will ensure you have all of the information you need to get the conversion finished right – the first time!
