Living Off The Power Grid – 3 Things To Consider

It would really be an ambitious project to generate your own electricity for your general household usage. Though it is difficult but not at all impossible. This might be quite challenging particularly if you don’t have much knowledge or experience on renewable energy sources such as solar.

To power your entire home by solar energy requires time and also serious investment on your part, but if you are dedicated to the idea, it can be done. Here are 3 things to consider when you are planning to generate homemade solar energy.

You must have patience.

This is one element many DIYers lack when they are planning to hook their home up with solar power and that is “patience”. There is no way you can get your home off the grid after building a single Photovoltaic (PV) solar panel.

What you’ll need is multiple numbers of solar panels linked together in series to generate sufficient electricity for your home. To do that, you have to spend a lot of time meticulously arranging and soldering all the connecting wires together.

When you have completed that portion of the project, you can start using solar panels to reduce your monthly power bills. When you feel that your power bills are almost zero, this is the time when you can actually get the power disconnected from the local grid. But for all of that to happen, it will take some time.

Getting the power requirement calculations right.

Before you know how many PV panels are needed, you have to be aware of the total power consumption of your entire home. Don’t worry, it is quite easy to make the calculation.

An American home requires an average of 588 Kilowatt (kWh)-hours per month, this can vary as it depends upon the size of your home and other power needs. Nonetheless, that figure can be used as the benchmark.

This number also depends upon the climatic conditions because in summers, many homes consume double the power as the need of air conditioners increase. Such calculations will help you to arrive at the total energy requirement per month.

You can now calculate how many solar panels are required to power your entire home. When you have that number, you can now arrive at the right total units of solar cells needed.

Again there are other parameters which you will have to keep in mind, as the electricity generation by the individual solar cell can vary. This depends large on factors such as size, location, time of the year, clouds coverage etc.

If you are hitting a road block and can’t calculate the numbers, you may need to get professional help from solar suppliers who can supply you the reliable number of average watts produced per solar cell per day.

Next, you will have to calculate how many batteries you require to store the power produced by the Photovoltaic cells during day time. During evening and night time, your power needs can be met by the power stored in the batteries.

Wet batteries which are basically lead-acid batteries are not suitable for solar power. What you will need are marine type deep cycle battery to make up your home battery bank.

Batteries which are based on deep cycle gel known as AGM are more expensive, but they can last much longer. It is a heavy initial investment but it has a longer lifespan thus saving you money in the long run.

When you’ve calculated the total energy needs of your house on a daily basis, now you can choose the battery type as per its storage capacity. This calculation will give you a fair idea about the total number of batteries you will need to power your home.

Reducing your household power consumption.

Lastly, to make a DIY home solar power system a success, you have to start thinking about reducing your home energy consumption. When we use electricity from the grid, we don’t think of energy wastage because there is an ample supply of power.

However, to go off grid, you have to take the limited power availability from your battery bank into consideration. Firstly, you have to ensure the solar panels are in peak power producing condition.

Next, you have to start thinking and adopting ways to reducing your household energy usage. A large portion of the work here is to change your family members’ power usage habits. Gone are the days where you can leave the lights on in a room with no occupant.

Shifting from grid power to solar power requires a change in your lifestyle. Because there is a finite amount of power in the battery units, your home lifestyle now revolves around the availability of power in the batteries.

When there is no sun light to activate the solar cells, you would have to forgo some conveniences at home. It is a tough decision but there are tremendous financial benefits to living off the power grid. Anyone can make the shift to be self-sufficient but it does require a lot of scarify.

Using Solar Power At Home – Save Cost By Buying Solar Panels On Sale

Ever increasing power costs and the requirement for additional electricity over the years have prompted the consumers to look for alternative sources of power. Solar energy is one of the most popular alternative sources that more and more people are depending upon to fulfill their power requirements. Solar power is a type of renewable energy that is eco-friendly and pollution-free compared to power generated from fossil fuels.

It is easy to get a lot of information related to home on solar power systems. There are a number of websites that provide a wealth of information on solar energy and solar power systems, which can be easily downloaded for use. The instructions provided in several e-books are easy to understand. In this blog alone, we have bought and reviewed quite a number of DIY home solar panel construction guides.

In addition, a lot of material may also available on solar power locally. The first step in initiating ways and means to reduce electricity costs is to understand which type of solar panels for sale are most appropriate for the individual’s requirements.

As a solar system utilizes the existing wiring, its installation is not at all a complex issue. You can buy the solar panels either from a well-established shop dealing in solar energy systems or online. Most of the sellers offer their services to install the system free of cost.

For those who want to install the system on their own, the instruction manuals would provide step by step instructions. It is important to install Photovoltaic (PV) panels correctly in order to ensure optimum performance.

It is essential to install PV panels in such a way that they always get a lot of sunshine. It should be ensured that trees and other objects do not obstruct the sun.

The weather conditions and place are two important factors that determine the amount of power that solar panels can produce.

Another advantage with solar panels is that there is always a scope to add more number of panels whenever required. In other words, if only one or two panels are installed in the beginning, more number of panels can be added at a later date depending upon the power requirements.

This will make sure that the home is never short of electric power. Moreover, adding new solar panels is very easy. An important advantage of enlarging the solar energy system is that power that is surplus to the individual’s requirements can be sold to the other consumers in the locality. In order to do this, it is necessary to install a ‘reverse electric meter’.

This routes the un-utilized power to the local grid. When the world is getting adversely affected by climate changes, the need to control the situation cannot be overemphasized. The greatest advantage of utilizing solar energy is that it is a renewable form of energy and keeps the environment free from pollution. Those who utilize solar power will be doing their lot in conservation efforts, which the green campaigners actively support.

Apart from this, those having Photovoltaic panel at home will have an opportunity to get an additional income by selling surplus power generated by the system to other consumers. The possibility that solar power can reduce overall energy costs and also provide an opportunity to generate additional income makes installation of a solar power system at home an attractive proposition.

My Solar Plans – 7 HD DIY Solar Panel Instructional Videos

If you are looking for the MySolarPlans ebook, you can actually find their main web site at www.mysolarplans.com/.

In actual fact, My Solar Plans is not a digital PDF file at all, it is more like a videos membership site. Anyone who subscribed to the program will have instant access to the members’ area.

Inside the members’ video section, there are 7 High Definition (HD) instructional videos teaching you how to make your own solar panels on a shoestring budget. The videos are:

1) Video 1: Introduction and tools

In this video, the presenter shows you what My Solar Plans is all about. Next, you are immediate shown all the tools needed for you to build your own Photovoltaic (PV) panel.

2) Video 2 : Soldering PV cell together

To build your own solar panel, you must know how to solder individual solar cells together. This is where you will need to get your hands dirty by learning how to use a hot soldering iron.

3) Video 3 : Testing the PV cell

When you are done soldering all the solar cell tabs together, the next step is to check the connectivity to make sure you’ve done a good job. The 3rd video from MySolarPlans will show you how to use a multi-meter to check the current output from the PV cells you soldered together.

If there is no reading on the multi-meter, that means you’ve messed up somewhere and you have to check all the tab connection.

4) Video 4 : Building the base of the solar panel

In this video, the presenter shows you what is the best material to make the base board of your solar panel. You will also need to download the Do It Yourself (DIY) solar panel plans to get the correct dimension.

5) Video 5 : Fixing PV cell to the solar panel

In the next video, you will learn how to fix the soldered PV cells on to the base of the solar panel. The process is a bit tricky because you will be using silicon to make the solar cells stick properly.

6) Video 6: Wiring the solar cells

The following video is the fun part, this is where you learn how to wire all the PV cells in the solar panel together. The key here is to make sure the positive and negative run wires are connected properly. If you made an error here, you won’t get any power.

7) Video 7 – Completion

In the last video, you get to see the completed DIY solar panel. Does your self made solar panel look like the one in the video? If you followed the instruction closely, most probably it will. The next step is to repeat the entire process and start making more solar panel for your home solar power system.

Remember, the MySolarPlans ebook is mainly made up of HD streaming videos. There are a couple of digital PDFs though, you’ll get the solar panel design blueprints, tools list and also parts list in digital format.

If you are in the process of researching DIY solar panel guides on the web, I hope this MySolarPlans review has been useful to you. Click on the link below to visit My Solar Plans now.

==> Click here to visit My Solar Plans now!