• True Cost of Installing Solar Panels
• Option #1 — Net Metering
• Option #2 — Off-Grid Solar Panel System with Battery Backup
• Real Cost of Homemade Solar Panel Installation
• Save Money Reconditioning Batteries
• Homemade Solar Panels

True Cost of Installing Solar Panels

You have three options for installing solar panels — make your own — or buy cheap solar panels off the internet and install them yourself — or hire a professional company to come in and sell you their solar panels and do a professional installation.

Meanwhile, net-metering is the most “effective” method of storing your excess power you generate from your solar panel installation. Getting the appropriate net metering solution actively working for you is not always that simple. In fact, many states do not allow net metering. The ones that do allow it will require bureaucracy and a certain amount of red tape to start getting you credit for it. Though expensive, a professional installation company will know how to help you apply for net metering. If you are buying UL approved cheap solar panels and simply doing the installation yourself, you will need appropriate permits (building structure and electrical permits) to be allowed to apply for net metering. If you plan to make solar panels yourself, fat chance of qualifying for net metering.

Understanding the above, there are only certain applications of solar panels that make sense depending on what your goal is. Is your goal to have a huge solar panel installation that totally eliminates your electric bill? Then here are your options.

Option #1 — Net Metering

Most homes have from between 4 to 6 hours of peak sunshine a day. That represents only 20% to 25% of the day. The theory for “breaking even on your electric bill” is that, during this small amount of time, you will generate an excess of the power you need for the remainder of your day. This excess is pumped to the local electric company through net metering. Later in the evening, the electric company gives you the power back that you gave them during peak times.

Net metering is the most efficient way to store power, as it is theoretically a 1:1 exchange. To qualify for net metering, you will need UL (Underwriter Laboratories) approved equipment. This means that you can only use net metering if you have a professional solar panel company install your panels, or if you buy cheap solar panels on the internet that already have UL ratings. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to get a homemade solar panel to qualify for net metering. In reality, if you want to see your meter “spin backwards”, or sometimes they install a separate meter to only track the power you supply to the grid, you most likely cannot accomplish this with a homemade solar panel installation.

Option #2 — Off-Grid Solar Panel System with Battery Backup

Many people who set out to install solar panels enjoy the benefits to the environment, as well as financial savings on their monthly electric bills. Many people who set out to do a homemade solar panel installation are really looking to save money on the solar installation and their monthly electric bill. If the “option #1″ above seemed like bad news, you always have the opportunity to do an off-grid solar panel installation.

If you were a fan of “The Colony” on the Discovery Channel, the premise of the show is recovering society after the aftermath of a global viral epidemic. To the left is Michael Raines, who is a fabricator and a solar panel installer.

In the show, the participants were required to make the most of their environment. After scavenging through a warehouse, the cast found an inverter (a device that switches power from DC to AC). They found a bunch of old car batteries. They wired them up to deliver power — which they used to power lights at night, and electrical power tools for building during the daytime.

Originally, the bank of car batteries had no source of incoming power — the power within the batteries would only last a few days. The same episode, they configured a generator to add electricity to the batteries. In a later episode, Michael Raines discovered a solar panel on the top of a nearby roof and scavenged it to add power to their battery bank.

You can make a homemade solar panel installation that can supply all the power of your home this way, power all your lights, computers, a refrigerator and other household appliances. This is a very real and doable application of a homemade solar panel installation. However — this type of solar panel installation has some unique expenses. How large do you want your bank of deep-cycle batteries? You will need a solar charge controller to regulate the output of the solar panels so that it won’t overcharge your batteries, damaging them. You will need an inverter to convert the DC power of the battery bank to the AC which your appliances can use.

Real Cost of Homemade Solar Panel Installation

Homemade solar panel installation guides like to boast how you can build your own solar panel for less than $1 per watt (including my favorite one that I promote). In reality, however, to have a useful homemade solar panel application, there are many ancillary items that need to be obtained to take advantage of the power it generates. Following is a list of the true expenses of the items necessary for a successful homemade solar panel installation.

Keep in mind these are Fall 2010 prices. (I hate reading articles about solar panels that do not have the date on them, the industry changes so fast that prices over 6 months old can be way off). Following we will discuss a 4 kWh system, which would supply roughly all of the power necessary to run the average American home.

• Make the solar panel, including items such as the solar cells, wire, cords, frame, etc. This can be made for under $1 per watt. Lets assume you can build the solar panels for roughly 85 cents a watt, which will be approximately $3400.
  Buy an inverter. Micro inverters will cost around $1 per watt, conventional inverters will cost around 60 cents per watt. Micro inverters have their benefits (one of which is a 25% boost to your power generation) — which would technically make a 4 kWh system generate far more than 4 kWh. So for this example, we will use the conventional inverters at 60 cents per watt, for a total of $2400.
  Buy a solar charge controller unit, many start around $50 for a small panel installation, up to over $250 for a system that includes tracking (moving the panel so that it always faces the sun).  A 4 kWh installation will need several controllers, so lets factor $500 for charge controllers.
  Batteries. A decent deep-cycle battery will last about five years on average with proper maintenance. You can pick up a deep cycle battery for around $140 per kilowatt of storage. You will want to buy enough batteries for roughly seven 1/2 times the output of your solar panels. Assuming a 4 kWh system, you will need to buy approximately 32 batteries, at $140 each that is $4480 worth of batteries. (Remember, a solar panel can last over 25 years — but the batteries will last only 5ish).

This represents the bulk cost of a 4 kWh solar panel system that is entirely homemade and off-grid.  The total cost is $10,780, divided by 4 kWh = around $2.70 per kilowatt hour.

You will qualify for a 30% tax break on that $10,780.  Following is a description of the solar panel tax break.

RESIDENTIAL RENEWABLE ENERGY TAX CREDITS
Consumers who install solar energy systems (including solar water heating and solar electric systems), small wind systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel cell and microturbine systems can receive a 30% tax credit for systems placed in service before December 31, 2016; the previous tax credit cap no longer applies.

This tax credit brings the $10,780 you would have paid out-of-pocket, and return $3234 as a refund on your tax bill, for a net cost of $7546.  This will bring your 4 kWh solar panel system to around $1.89 per watt installed.

Save Money Reconditioning Batteries

The themes of this website are centered around going green, saving money and do it yourself.  There is nothing more green than taking a battery that would need disposing, and recycling it into a battery that works like new.  It will save you money, whereas a replacement battery can cost up to $140 — it can be refurbished for around $30 in materials.  We have a guide that will show you how to do it yourself.  You can literally save thousands of dollars if you are managing a huge array of batteries, such as the 32 recommended in the 4 kWh system mentioned above.

The batteries in this system are actually the most expensive part, and will need to be dealt with every 5 years.  The spirit of this website is “do it yourself” — and you can actually recondition batteries yourself. Click below for more information on this battery reconditioning guide — and remember there is a 2 month full money-back guarantee, no questions asked!

Homemade Solar Panels

The goal of this article was to give you a taste of what it is really going to take to completely convert your home to break-even on power consumption. As it is just an article, the amount of details I can provide are somewhat limited — it is intended to show you the direction but not take your hand through the process, step-by-step. However, we do have a detailed guide that will take you step-by-step through your own homemade solar panel installation! It has a 60 day guarantee, if you don’t like it or feel it was worthwhile to you, you can receive a full refund, no questions asked!

Click Below for More Details!