• Net Metering vs Homemade Solar Panels
• Net Metering and Incentives along with Homemade Solar Panels Don’t Mix?
• What is Net Metering?
• Pros of Not Allowing Net Metering for Homemade Installations
• Cons of Not Allowing Net Metering on Homemade Solar Installations
• Devil’s Advocate
• Make Homemade Solar Panels?

Net Metering vs Homemade Solar Panels

This article is just going to consist of me rambling about net metering. I don’t suggest you do what I suggest in this article, but I have some random thoughts on challenges with net metering and hypothetical ways of getting through those challenges. Don’t tell anyone I told you to do it because I haven’t done this myself, as there may or may not be legal issues involved blah blah — ok you get the warning gist.

Net Metering and Incentives along with Homemade Solar Panels Don’t Mix?

If you’ve read my other articles, you’ll see I often mention the fact that Net metering is for UL listed solar panels. Your local power company may require you to have these installed by a professional — as well as obtain appropriate building permits. Many local power companies have systems in place where they offer (or are required to) buy alternative energy from residences. They are required to do this as part of going green legislation on the state level (depending on the state you are in). However, you can’t get these incentives with a homemade solar panel setup.

What is Net Metering?

Net metering is pumping your excess solar power back into the local power grid during the times of the day you are generating excess energy, so that later on when you need power but the sun has gone down, your power consumption is offset by the extra power you fed into the power grid during the day. It is what is referred to when someone says their meter is “spinning backwards”, because they are generating more power than they are consuming. The power company gives you credit for this excess energy. If you generate more than you use, some power companies even issue you a check. The problems with homemade solar panels include not qualifying for net metering, and thereby not qualifying for various incentives for producing alternative power.

Pros of Not Allowing Net Metering for Homemade Installations

Obviously, the power company has reasons for requiring UL listed machinery as well as requiring proper installation by professionals. Power can be a dangerous thing. If you don’t really know what you are doing and set up the installation improperly — some serious issues could happen. For instance, lets say the power goes down from the power grid due to a downed-tree. The repairmen need to fix the wires — so they shut off all the power being supplied to the lines so they can work on them. An improperly installed solar panel installation set up for net-metering on those downed power lines can be a real problem for the workers. They believe they’re working on dead wires and all the sudden they get a huge zap from your solar panel installation at your house, ouch! (Solar panels need to be installed with “anti-islanding”, which prevents this from happening).

Cons of Not Allowing Net Metering on Homemade Solar Installations

Not qualifying for all these financial incentives or net metering isn’t that good for people doing a homemade solar panel installation. Sure, you’re cutting down the cost of solar panels from $7 to $9 per watt installed down to less than $2 all-things-considered, but those people doing the $7 to $9 get to use the local power grid as storage for their excess energy whereas the homemade installation needs to set up a huge battery bank to store the power. Furthermore, the homemade installation gets no financial incentives. You can make your own solar panels pretty cheap, but missing out on net metering and other financial incentives kind of sucks right?

Devil’s Advocate

Not saying you should do this, but what if?  When you look at a break-down of a solar panel installation — solar panels are only one of the components.  You also need a charge controller and a grid tie inverter.  Grid tie inverters can be expensive, from 60 cents a watt for a conventional installation to $1 a watt for micro inverters.  These are expenses you cannot reduce by doing-yourself.  Like, when it comes to solar panels — we say you can “do it yourself” but it boils down to it being a kit of items you assemble together — certainly no one is building their own solar cells.  There isn’t anyone selling “do it yourself” inverter kits, you will need an inverter for your solar panels and you will need to buy a retail one.

So what if — you had a professional installation of solar panels that included a big ol’ inverter to handle say 4 kilowatts.  Then you have a professional installation of that plus a charge controller.  Then you add on one little commercial bought retail solar panel that they professionally install.  Tell them you don’t have enough money to do the whole job right now and you will add more professionally installed solar panels at a later time.

They guide you through the process of getting set up for net metering with your local power company.  They help you apply for your tax incentives and financial incentives for getting reimbursed for your installation.  They get the authorization to get your building permits.  They work it out with your local power company so you are set up with net metering.

The final result, there you are with a properly wired, professionally installed grid-tie inverter.  The local power company won’t get suspicious if you start putting power back into the grid, because they believe you had a professional installation and all ducks are in a row.

And THEN …

You build your homemade solar panels and patch them into the 4 kilowatt grid tie system.  The extra power you are generating qualifies you for net metering.

The benefits of a setup like this … 100% comply for federal and state tax incentives on the retail purchases you would have had to make anyways (solar charger, inverter, wires).  You qualify for 30% deduction on your professional installation on your taxes.   Can use net metering with your homemade solar panel setup.  Power company doesn’t become suspicious of the power you are introducing to the grid.  Meanwhile you can make your own solar panels for 85ish cents per watt and add to your solar panel installation capacity for producing free electricity.  Of course, if everyone found out you would still have a problem — the chances of them finding out would be considerably less.

The benefit of setting yourself up with net metering like this would be to use your local power grid to store your energy 1:1 for when the sun isn’t shining — as opposed to having to set up a massive, multi-thousand dollar battery bank setup which would need maintenance and replaced every 5 years or so.

Its fairly simple to assemble a solar panel and get them for far cheaper than you could buy them retail (often times less than a quarter of the price).  Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages to building your own solar panels.  This article was just me thinking out loud about how to have your cake and eat it too.  This article is for educational purposes — whether you do it or not is up to you, but I’m not recommending it.

Make Homemade Solar Panels?

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