Generating your own free solar power is really not as hard as it seems. To help you start, here are a few tips about Off Grid Solar Power.
Tips for Building an Off Grid Solar System:
- Determine your power needs
- Pick the right location
- Choose your components
- Build the battery house
- Install the panels
- Wire up the system
- Enjoy your free power!!!
While there is a lot of terminology to sort through, going off grid with solar power doesn’t have to be hard.
Overview of Building an Off Grid Solar Power System
You must start with the end user’s needs in mind when beginning to design your own self-sufficient solar power system. You will save money, time, and make the process of going off the grid a pleasant one if you make the effort to follow a proper design.
Here is an Overview of the Steps You Need to Take
to Start Using Off Grid Solar
Step 1 — Design a DIY Off Grid Solar System that Meets Your Needs
When getting ready to build an off grid solar system, the most important things to know are how much energy you need, plus how your energy usage changes throughout the day, month, and year. Because renewable energy systems are inherently variable, understanding the daily, monthly, and yearly rhythms of your family’s energy usage is a must when planning an efficient system.
Step 2 – It is Essential to Choose the Right Place for Your Panels
In many cases, the top of the house is not the most efficient place for an off grid solar array. You want to choose the right spot to prevent excessive shading and to make sure you have proper access and passive cooling for your solar panels. Making the right decisions at this point can more than double the efficiency of your solar panels over the course of their lifetime. Next, take care to find and plan for the right site.
Step 3 — Ordering the Right Solar System Components
Choosing the place to put your solar panels will give you an idea of the power potential of you site. Thus, allowing you to choose and order the proper equipment for your system. There are numerous choices to make at this point including:
- The number and size of your solar cells
- The type and size of your charge controller (MPPT vs PWM, etc)
- Your battery bank capacity, while considering battery type
- Choosing the overall voltage of each leg, as well as which loads should be AC vs DC
- The rating of your inverter, if any
Step 4 — Time to Start Building Your Solar Battery House or Compartment
After ordering the components, your are ready to start building your battery house. This may be a room in your existing house, part of your garage, or a separate shed. Batteries take up a fair amount of room. Plus, they need to be protected from kids and animals that might hurt themselves by touching the contacts or might accidentally damage the battery and release the acids inside.
Furthermore, most battery types do not do well with freezing temperatures and require some amount of temperature control. However, you do have the option of using cheaper, unsealed batteries, but you will have to build in a ventilation system in your battery house. When charging, cheaper, unsealed batteries release small amounts of explosive hydrogen gas. Therefore, you need to ensure your battery house has adequate ventilation to prevent buildup of this dangerous gas. Most solar setups have their main power electronics, charge controllers and inverters, as well as safety shutoffs, fuses and breakers in the battery house as well as a way to reduce costs.
Step 5 — Installing Solar Panels
Finally, it’s time to build the panel support and install the solar array. Solar panels are far more efficient when they directly face the Sun, and they last longer when they are rigid and well cooled. A proper solar support structure can be built in many ways, depending on the materials you have on hand, and the skills you posses. I recommend, at the least, building a south facing A-frame type structure out of wood, or metal, with the ability to manually adjust the tilt of your panels during the summer and winter, which can increase your power output by up to 40{6240f97e29b4159de6ff78317e10f820a7e2f517694b3d1c4628c71d0a3ac8d8} with almost no addition cost.
Step 6 — Wiring System for Off Grid Solar
Now that you have your panels up, it is time for the wiring system. Going off the grid with an RV in the middle of no where, a cabin in the country, or an agricultural homestead, means your electrical system can be much simpler than any system tied to the main grid. Therefore, this doesn’t need to be complex step.
When going off grid, it can be simple and efficient to install a direct current (DC) system. However, even a DIYer can install a whole-home replacement alternating current (AC) system. Are you planning to connect and use your off-grid solar system with a home already connected to grid power? If so, you are more than likely to be legally required to hire a licensed electrician to wire in your system. Plus, to make your own energy system work with line power, you will need additional hardware from your utilities company.
How Many kW of Solar Panels Do I Need?
To accurately figure out how big of a solar system you need, you need to determine how much energy you are using. Energy is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). And, measuring it yourself is the best and most accurate way to determine your power usage. It takes time to get an accurate reading of the amount of energy you are using. Ideally, you want to leave the kill-a-watt device plugged in with everything attached for 24 hours. This will give you an accurate reading of how much energy you are using and let you know how big to make your solar system. Or, just measure your energy usage for one hour then multiply that number by the number of hours you plan on using that item throughout the day. No matte which way you choose, it is an easy process.
However, there is a third option. Although it is much faster, it is a far less accurate option than the other two. All you need to do is measure the watts that the device is using, which show up almost instantly. No need to wait one hour or twenty-four hours. But then you have to multiply the watts by the number of hours you would use it per day. But, this formula doesn’t account for the fluctuations that happen naturally in most appliances.
The Importance of Calculating Your Daily Usage
Now, add up all of the energy measurements that you took all of the devices that you plan to use in a given day. This is your daily energy usage.
It’s important to realize your energy usage fluctuates throughout the year. You may use lights for longer periods of time in the winter when it’s darker. Yet , your refrigerator will run for less time. I recommend you take a power measurement both in the winter and the summer or at least attempt to adjust the number of hours used by each device to account for the seasonal differences.
Solar power production also varies throughout the year, it is extremely important to know how your power usages varies seasonally. It is easy to over or under size your system if you only use a yearly average to plan for your system and not accounting for seasonal variations.
How Much Energy do Solar Panels Produce?
The amount of power that your solar panels will produce depends on how much sun they get. Simple, right?! That means you will get less power on cloudy days and during the shorter days of winter.
Again, the best way to know how much power your solar panels will produce is to measure it yourself. Of course, you can buy one solar panel and measure how much energy you can produce throughout the year. Not every year is the same, so you will need to oversize your system just a little bit in order to account for unusually dark or cloudy years..
Thankfully, the US Government has produced solar power availability data for the entire United States, so you can use that information to get a rough estimate of how much solar power your panels will produce.
How to Choose the Right Size Off Grid Solar System
For most of the year you will be producing more power than you can use because your system is sized to cover your power needs for both summer and winter.
Plus, you will need to account for the fact that solar systems are somewhat inefficient. Each step of the power transfer process includes some loss of power. The process of transferring power from the panels to the charge controller, the charge controller converting it and storing in the batteries, and then the power coming out of the batteries and being potentially transformed into AC, all have some power loss associated with them. Currently, there is no way to avoid this type of power loss..
Although, it is possible to go through each component in the process and determine how efficient they are, I recommend using a 70{6240f97e29b4159de6ff78317e10f820a7e2f517694b3d1c4628c71d0a3ac8d8} efficiency figure for typical after power systems. Using this figure to calculate how many kW of solar panels is as easy as dividing your energy needs by 0.7, or whatever figure you come up with, to determine your total system efficiency.
You Must Consider Battery Capacity
At night, when your system isn’t producing any energy, it is necessary to have batteries to run your solar system. Batteries also help level our power consumption between sunny days and cloudy days. You know. those days when you are getting more power than you can use and then those days when you aren’t getting very much.
At a bare minimum, your batteries should be large enough to store a full day of charging in the winter. Therefore, if your system is capable of producing 1 kWh during a full day in the winter, then I recommend choosing a battery bank that is capable of storing at least that much.
We use amp-hours (Ah) to measure a batteries capacity. Therefore, in order to get the kilowatt hours you need for your system, you will need to multiply that number by the battery’s voltage. Although there are batteries with 24V and 48V available for renewable energy systems, most renewable-energy batteries are 12V.
Be cautious! Many types of batteries, particularly lead acid batteries, have a very limited discharge depth. Even ”deep cycle” lead acid batteries should only be discharged to 50{6240f97e29b4159de6ff78317e10f820a7e2f517694b3d1c4628c71d0a3ac8d8} capacity. This means you’ll need to double the size or the number of batteries in your system over what the nominal amp-hour rating suggests.
Where to Put Your Solar Panels
Although the go-to place to put solar panels is the roof, roofs are frequently not the best place for your solar panels. Roof direction, shading, and access are the three reasons why roofs are not the ideal spot for your solar panels:
Proper Angles are Crucial to Panel Location
When your solar panels are not properly angled nor facing due south, you lose a lot of the potential power production. It can be expensive, difficult, or even impossible to face your solar panels in the right direction when they are on the roof because many homes do not have a roof lines that face directly south.
At All Costs Avoid Solar Panel Shading
When solar panels are shaded by trees, even partially, buildings or any other obstructions that may be exist, they suffer greatly. You may think having your panels only 10{6240f97e29b4159de6ff78317e10f820a7e2f517694b3d1c4628c71d0a3ac8d8} shaded will just reduce the power output by 10{6240f97e29b4159de6ff78317e10f820a7e2f517694b3d1c4628c71d0a3ac8d8}. But, in most cases it will reduce the total power output of the panels by at least 1/3. And, depending on how your panels are wired, it may reduce the total array output by 1/3, not just the one panel. Frequently, it is better and cheaper in the long run to place your panels a short distance away from your house where the panels will receive full sun for the entire year. Unless, of course, your house is completely free of shade, even during the winter months.
Your Solar Panels Must Be Accessible
Whether your panels are on the roof or located a little ways from your house, you need to make sure they are accessible. To work at maximum efficiency and have a nice long life, your solar panels need to be clean and cool. Dust, dirt, and snow will all naturally accumulate on solar panels and they all need to be cleaned off periodically. Snow accumulation on your solar panels will significantly shorten their life span. Therefore, placing your panels closer to the ground where they are easier to access can go along way towards ensuring you complete your routine solar panel care and maintenance in a timely fashion.
Make Sure Your Solar Panels Stay As Cool As Possible
Even though solar panels are black, they do not like being excessively hot. If your panels are over heated, they produce less power and they will wear out at a much faster rate than normal. A properly set-up solar panel system should have at least 6 inches behind the panels. This will allow air to flow freely and cool down the panels. Roofs are already excessively hot so they are not the ideal location for solar panels. Although you can by solar panel mounting racks for your roof that will allow for ventilation, you may save a lot of money in the long run by placing them down lower where it is cooler. In terms of overall system cost, it is best to place the solar panels as close as you can to your home while keeping them in full sun.
How Many Solar Panels do I Need to Run a House With Off Grid Solar Power?
An average size off grid solar power system in the US is 5 kW. This means, on average, 20 solar panels at 250 W each, or 50 smaller 100 W panels. Whether this will be enough to run your house or not depends on two key factors. How much sun you get and how much power you use.
What To Do With Your Savings?!
In my opinion, the first thing I would do is put the money into a savings account for life’s unexpected emergencies. The car dies; the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer or dryer quit working; or, the air conditioner or furnace stop working. The list can go on and on. I recommend setting a dollar amount that makes sense for you such as $1k, $2k, $5k, an so forth. Whatever amount fits your situation and then keeping that amount in a savings account, replacing as needed to maintain that amount. But, who wants to be responsible and logical all the time?! We need to have some fun, too!!! Keep reading for a couple of ideas.
Travel
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Wine
Join our amazing discovery wine of the month club and get 4 bottles of true fine wines from Napa/Sonoma Valley California delivered to your front door every month. These are true fine wines created by wine makers that have been creating this liquid art for generations. If these wines were sold retail (but they never will be), you would pay upwards of $100 per bottle. But, by joining our Club, you can get 4 bottles right to your front door for roughly $25 per bottle. Through this Club, you also get access to discounts to handmade cheeses and wagyu beef for cattle raised in the United States. Go Here and start your journey enjoying the finer things in life. After all, you deserve it!!!