• Is Installing Solar Panels Cost Effective?
• Preparing your Home for Solar Power
• Does your home receive enough sun to warrant installing solar panels?
• Calculating Power Savings on Solar Installation
• How much do solar panels cost?
• Professionally Installed Solar Panels
• Do it yourself Homemade Solar Panels
• Reasons to get this Solar Panel Guide

Is Installing Solar Panels Cost Effective?

A question many people like to ask is how much does solar power cost per kilowatt hour?  That is hard to calculate because of the following variables:

• How much sun does your home receive a year?
• What amount did you pay for your solar panels?
• Were the solar panels commercially installed, or did you save money by doing it yourself?

Even after taking the above factors into consideration, the amount of your savings will only be realized over time.  Yet after the system has paid for itself, theoretically you don’t pay anything for solar power per kilowatt hour. So instead of asking how much does solar power cost per kW h, the question is really “How quickly can I expect a return on my investment into solar power?” We are still going to take a stab at answering this question.

Preparing your Home for Solar Power

Before you install a solar power system into your home, you should make sure your energy consumption is as low as possible. Of course, the less energy your home consumes, the more cost-effective your solar panel installation will be (because you will need less power, therefore require less solar panels). What costs more, to add additional solar power capacity to your home, or to reduce your power consumption by eliminate wasteful practices? As an example, consider the lighting in your home. Save money on light bulbs, and save power on light bulbs, by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs. Anyone who is considering upgrading their home to solar power, yet still uses incandescents, has a lot of research to do to reduce the power requirements your home needs in order to fully receive the benefits from a solar installation. There are other areas of concern to address as well, such as insulation, phantom power usage (power being sucked up by appliances and devices that are not currently turned on, yet still consume power). Browse around our “Conserve Energy” section to discover more ways to prepare your home for solar power.

Does your home receive enough sun to warrant installing solar panels?

Knowing whether your city receives enough sun for solar panels is vital to receiving a good return on your investment. The previous article shows cities which are good for, and not so good for, installing solar panels. Consider the sunshine your home receives each year with the understanding that the more sun your home receives, the quicker you will receive a good return on investment with your solar panels.

Calculating Power Savings on Solar Installation

How much money will you save by installing solar panels? That is a good question — there are many different things to take into consideration, such as longitude and latitude (determines angle of sun), time of year (again, affecting angle of sun), amount of sunlight and other factors. There is an excellent calculator for determining how much power you can expect from a solar installation from the University of Oregon available at the previous link, which is great for calculating power you can expect from solar. It even helps you determine your longitude and latitude by entering your zip code. It does not have an option for sunny vs rainy, so you will have to take into consideration that the power expected to be generated may be affected by weather.

How much do solar panels cost?

When you want to determine your ROI, or return on investment into solar panels, one of the key aspects of this will include the actual cost of installing the solar panels — from this figure we can calculate how much money you may save by installing solar panels and then average out that savings over the cost to install. Will you do a professional installation of commercially produced solar panels, or build your own solar panels to save a good amount of money? Both have their advantages and disadvantages — though if you like to save money (who doesn’t like to save money in today’s economy), you should consider building your own solar panel. Following is a comparison of DIY (do it yourself) solar panels vs professionally installed solar panels.

Professionally Installed Solar Panels

Here is a recent article about solar panel installation from Popular Mechanics. The gist of the article is that — if you wanted to be a professional installer, or to find a professional installer, there really is only one location in the US where you could become certified in it (NABCEP). The Popular Mechanics article continues by making the point that this certification teaches things like how to convert DC to AC power — then states that this information isn’t really necessary because newer solar panel technology eliminates this complexity (newer solar panels come AC ready and do not need inverters, because micro-inverters are embedded within the solar panels). What does this mean to you? It means that even if you do not want to save money by building your own solar panel, you should at least consider saving money by installing your own commercially-made solar panels. Unless your solar panel installing professional has been certified by NABCEP, they’re no better than you if you can read instructions as well as they can. This Popular Mechanics article prices new commercial solar panels at approximately $717 to $787 per unit before tax incentives (or approximately $4.10 to $4.50 per watt). Tax incentives will reduce this amount even more. Using a professional installer may increase this amount many times over however — depending on their charges to do the installation.

Do it yourself Homemade Solar Panels

If you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty, you can save a large portion of that bill by building your own solar panels. Most people wouldn’t mind getting their hands a little dirty to save money. The main concern of most people is whether they can actually do it or not. Is building your own solar panel like rocket science — or a simple project you can easily complete in a couple weekend afternoons if you had the right instructions?

Yes — you can do it. It is not rocket science. With the right instructions, and some basic tools, you can build the casing for your solar panel, and order the more intricate pieces (buy just the pieces you cannot make yourself, such as the photovoltaic sheets) — you can piece together a solar panel far cheaper than you could buy them commercially.

Before I continue — let me put in a notice here. I’m about to recommend some excellent instructions for building your own solar panel. If you happen to buy them, I make a profit. That being said, I selected these because they are the best, most complete and simple instructions I have found for building your own solar panel.

Reasons to get this Solar Panel Guide

• 100% 60 day money back guarantee. This is a highly professional guide, with videos and plenty of great materials, but if you feel that they are beyond your abilities, you can receive an easy, no-questions-asked 100% refund if requested within two months of getting the solar panel guide.
• Sale managed by clickbank. This guide is sold through clickbank. If you request a refund, they process the refund automatically. They manage your download — you can get this guide emailed instantly after your purchase. They provide security to your purchase, when ordering this guide you will be using their highly secure payment processing system. Clickbank manages millions of product sales a year, ensuring your delivery, security and refund if necessary go without a hitch.
• Solar Panel Videos. Some prefer to see how something is made. This package includes many videos. Included are videos covering all of the more complex parts of assembling your solar panels, but also included are many other videos involving educating yourself on solar power. There are well over two hours of video included — ensuring you fully understand how to build a solar panel.
• Solar Panel Package. The actual package for building your solar panel is quite impressive. It is all-encompassing, including things such as a solar calculator for deciding how much solar power you can expect from your installation, the guide for mounting and installing your solar panels, necessary electrical wiring plans with simple step-by-step instructions and videos for installing them — even the forms necessary for applying for your tax credits which can total hundreds of dollars saved from your taxes.
• How to build a wind turbine included. Why stop at solar power when seeking alternative power sources for your home? If you get some wind at your house, build a cheap wind turbine. There are comprehensive instructions on how to build a wind turbine that are included when you buy plans for building your own solar panels. Build your own wind turbine for less than $150 in materials.

There are many more features this guide has to offer, if you are interested in DIY solar panels for your home you should check it out. Follow the link below for more information on this solar power guide.