In the world of today's energetic concerns, there is much struggle and dismay in the strife of finding a better alternative to fossil fuels to better our planet and economy. With declines that are currently unfolding in many areas of our market, we the working class are often left holding the bag, so to speak. They are not about to turn away from the recession to put the necessary time into finding a greater alternative to burning fossil fuels. But I will not babble about politics in this article as I had already intended to designate this a small financial and methodical guide in making your home self sufficient with solar panels. The benefits of doing so would make it seem almost a no-brainer in most logic. You can create your own steady, renewable, green source of energy to power your home and can do it cheaply in certain ways if you are a well informed DIY'er or even a beginner builder of any kind also. I will discuss major points in deciding how you want your solar project to turn to out whether you build it on your own, or you have money you want to invest in getting it professionally done to get a better outlined understanding with all options laid out on the table.
Getting the Build Started
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There are different routes one can take when they decide to go solar. People from different environments, scale of intentions, financial situations, and technical know-how will all have a different ideas of going about this and different desired results they want to get out of this. Listed below are choices that can accommodate each level of interest
DIY- For the more mechanically adept, the DIY route is definitely a great way to go to save hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands as a vice to having a professional job done that can get pretty well into the k round about territory and on up higher for larger homes. You can even build your own solar cells with great ease if you are well informed with great ease. For those who are not so well informed, I will indicate a highly recommended site down below. (This online guide will get any level of builder well on his or her way to solar freedom.) This is what I was talking about when I said you could save tens of thousands off of a pro job or manufactured panels. If you already have the basic, leisurely garage builder or home fixer-upper setup for tools, you are set to tackle such a project with full on, high speed intent. Just a simple trip to the ole' lumberyard for framing and boxing hardware for your design and a stop at the hardware store for electrical wares and other misc. you have planned for you particular intentions. Build kit- This would do great on someone who has the skills, a little chunk of change (maybe between 5 to 10k) to invest in a project like and/or a little short on time. This method here can cut the a little bit of time out of getting it done as a pose to building completely from scratch. But the time saving is not that great plus the amount that you have to fork over for the prefabbed panels. Don't get me wrong, they are of great quality, but I have always been a man of doing the grittier and harder way to feel the pride of accomplishment and saving a good wad of currency to put towards something more worthwhile like kid's college or stock options. That's just me and my two cents plinkin' on the table. You can leave it there if it wont serve your purpose. Professional Installation- If you are a person who has done well for themselves and have the great freedom in life to enjoy the professional services, smiles, and courtesies associated with buying from a well suited professional business a custom made-to-fit, for Mr. Smith, finished product ready to go just push here, then by all means you deserve so. When I got an estimate for the house I am intending to build later in the summer of next year, I got back somewhere around k as a rough estimate for a very modestly built home. Whether you are doing it for the environment or to be able to claim self sufficiency or whatever be your reason, this is the option you have worked for to have in all areas of your life. Or even if you are not this person and want your home or project done to meet a given deadline or to be done to a very certain standard or quality, it is your choice. The money that should be spent, I feel, at this scale is for the big fishes.
Things to consider
Once you decide the best method to fit your labor preference and budget, there are some side notes associated with a project of this scale that you MUST take into account or it could easily quash your well structured plan to go solar. Below are some majors that any DIY'er must take into account also.
The Audit
Alongside your given method of getting your home to run on pure sun-sent energy, you also have to take into account the audit you have complete. There are auditors that you can hire, but these "professionals" can charge outrageous fees for the ignorant client and can tarnish your whole idea of this project being super low funded. There is literature on the net and in bookstores you can give a gander through. There are also programs you can download that are also pretty helpful as well, this I know of since it is the route I took.
-Things to Remember for Your Audit-
You can still do this yourself- This may sound like it is something for people who are good with numbers and punch away at calculators and keyboards all day for a living, but this is not true. Pick up some good literature on green energy devices and you will find out how easily this can be done by the regular Joe T. Schmoe. Some auditors will clean your clock- Because of people immediately being intimidated by the thought of having to evaluate and calculate a report of their newly installed green energy device for tax reasons, they will automatically think its a job they must leave up to an auditor. Don't let the their shark smiles and pocket protectors fool ya though. Some of these fellas will take advantage of your ignorance and they will come home that night with more than their earned keep. But again, if you have the flow to roll with this full on and you don't have the time to worry about a petty savings of a couple hundred quid or so, don't sweat it then. I still wouldn't turn a blind eye to them just so they wont take you for a fool.
Electrical Wiring/Installation
If you are savvy with electrician work and wiring the layouts of outlets, conduits, and circuit breakers in houses, then this part is of no real concern to you. But for everyone else, it would be vital to know how you are going to have your network of electrical wiring laid out to deliver this newly harvested, solar electricity for home use. In some cases, it will have to satisfy building code regulations depending on where you live. This step right here could deliver you right back to the pro' installers door step. Although, it is possible to find electricians that can wire the panels for you, especially if you live in a more developed city, like I don't, and have unlimited services and stores around for assistance in any of the above stated scenarios. But if you are the DIY'er wishing to make this a sub-Franklin spending project, then this is not a choice! If you are wanting to pull through this project and claim the victory of spending a nil amount of your cold, hard, green earnings, then you will have to adapt and overcome a little better than that. You learn the true essence of this practice in the Marine Corps, especially if you are of an infantry type specialty. It can be done, all you need is to be a little more resourceful and determined. So to sum it up in more digestible bits, here is the different routes you can take for electrical part of the job.
-Who can do the electrical wiring-
1. Yourself- Grab an electrician's around-the-home kit from radio-shack or your local hardware store that comes with a pair of splicers, shrink tubing, an assortment of connectors, and maybe even a voltmeter to be properly outfitted for your DIY installation.
2. Family or Friend- Call a your favorite uncle or in-law and coax them with a six pack or a pay per view event to help you wire up your new setup. It can be a great bonding experience but it can also put you in the hole for when they need help with their next big "favor". When going with choice number two here, beware of what types of deeds these may be. A random call could come at the middle of the night asking if you got some money to bail them out on a DUI charge....
3. General Electrician- There are plenty of electricians usually anywhere you may live. This type of work would be elementary to them, although it would still cost you and would cross out the idea of doing this build under a Benjamin.
4. The Professional- This would be the route to go for those who are willing to pour their money into a guaranteed quality job. Still be wary of those who claim to be "professional" since there is always the con jobbers in almost any occupation. Ask for credentials, certifications, some type of references and definitely do research on their trade name to see if there is any outstanding talk about these guys' performance.
Choosing Your Mounts
Yes I know, its crazy to think for you hardcore DIY builders who were scrounging around for old busted bits of poly-chrystalline solar cells from scrap yards and soldering them all together into a giant 5x3 panel with a home brewed power inverter and all that now ya have to build/buy some framing to hold it in and a mounting contraption to keep it at its desired angle for proper abundant sun-ray consumption. So now that you have finally got your panel built and functioning, its kind of like, "What? I still have to do things!?" When you do your mounting, you must decide based on what type of environment you live in and what best suits your lifestyle. Say if you live in a more dry, sunny suburb like in Arizona, you could probably about mount your panels any where on the ground at a stand-off from your house and make it an easy mounting job. But having your newly installed, sunlight harvesting panels out on display for any wandering eye to behold can inspire thoughts of jacking the fruits of your hard earned labor to turn around and sell for more than you invested in them! You have to consider points like this. But the type of mount you want to use is probably one of your biggest decisions. I will list below the major types of mounts you can buy or possibly duplicate.
-Types of Mounts-
1. Pole Mount- This is the most basic setup and easiest to put together in most cases as it is basically. You just have to make sure that the spot you put it in will be favorable towards the trajectory of sunlight that vary throughout the day and the seasons. There are two types of these that either have the panel on an X or Y axis meaning supported on the the top of the pole or on the sides of it. So logically, when using the on-the-side type to hold up your panel, you may have better angling you can achieve but you will have to use smaller panels so it will be better able to support itself. Ergo the on-top-of-the-pole variant will be able to hold more panel and weight and be more stable.
2. Roof Mount- With these guys, the thievery issue becomes less of a concern since your panels are out of their reach of their sticky fingers and interests. If your roof is very well exposed where you know the sunlight will be able to glare directly down at it at all times of the year, I would recommend going with this. But another thing to remember, is that since it is on your house, it needs to pass building inspection to get before you get the green light on self generated renewable energy for your home.
3. Tracking Mount- An outstanding way to go if you are wanting to spend a little bit on this project. If you are rationing you budget on the things you want to buy for this build, get the tracking mount. It will make your system act more optimally since it will always point itself in the best direction to suit its purpose. Although if you live somewhere that is cloudy 90% of the year, you may reconsider on this one since it wouldn't exactly serve its purpose. But if you are wanting to put at least some money into getting your house solar outfitted, have some money to put down on these mounts if it is at all possible.
I hope this article helped some to get a grip of where it is you need to start. I too am planning on doing the whole enchilada totally DIY as many others have also discovered they too can build solar panels from scratch under 0 and run their house on them. When me and my wife begin building this summer (hopefully) I am planning to run my newly built home on my made from scratch solar panels. For those who are going to do any building on your own, when seeking out your desired knowledge, you can go and search blogs or forums that talk about these certain topics and maybe dig up some useful tidbits here and there to piece together to outfit your own plan, but can also be pretty time consuming as well if you are not keen to doing so. You can dig around on Youtube also but that's just about like the last idea. There is some pretty helpful software out there also that can really take you by the hand and guide you through the process. Since I am going totally building form scratch myself, I know of a program you can get online that has been very useful for me and I believe would be for the percentage of you that are also going to make this a fun DIY project built from scratch
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Dec 03, 2011 14:09:26
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