SOLAR POWER: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide / How To

Understanding Your Solar Power System

by the end of this video you'll have a basic understanding of everything that you need to know to convert the sun's energy through your solar panels into power that you can use in your everyday life whether that's on grid or off-grid

Solar Panels: The First Ingredient

the first and probably most important part of any system is the solar panels themselves these come in a huge variety of sizes powers and efficiencies like this panel right here for example produces up to 395 watts but this one that's almost the same size produces only 250 watts at best and no that's not because it's shattered it actually works quite well despite being shattered it just doesn't have the same capacity as the newer nicer ones now the more power they produce per area the more they tend to cost which could be a factor if you have limited space on your roof or wherever it is that you're placing the panels

there are also portable panels like these but they tend to produce a lot less power they are however great for portability and for lower power needs like charging a phone i'd say the two main things to consider when looking at solar panels are the wattage output and also just making sure you've got the right voltage and nowadays you can also buy what are called bifacial panels like this one that even if the back is at all uncovered they absorb light from the back adding up to as much as 30 percent power output

I set this one up so that it's not actually getting any direct sunlight but it's still collecting power from both the front and the back and producing about 39 watts of power not too shabby

Converting and Managing Power

Inverters: Converting DC to AC Power

The second ingredient is inverters now inverters can either be up with the panels and these are called micro inverters or they can be downstream where all of the panel's wires are collected in what's called a string inverter and you can even use both their job is simply to convert the dc power that comes from the panels to ac power that we can use for our devices and appliances micro inverters typically connect to between two and four photovoltaic panels or these solar panels and they make it really easy to expand or condense if you need to your system you can add monitoring systems to these but they do have to be serviced up on the roof and typically underneath the solar panels so they can be challenging to get to

now because micro inverters handle power in smaller groups if certain panels are shaded or under producing it typically has less of an impact on the total power production string inverters bring all of the panel wiring into a central location and they have a specific size rating in order to accommodate up to a certain number of panels based on wattage and voltage now if you have to set your panels up in series to accommodate your string inverter your panels will only be as productive as your least productive panel though power optimizers can help with that it's also possible to use a combination of micro inverters and string inverters if that makes sense for your setup

now it's worth noting that certain string inverters actually require a battery to work since they're designed for off-grid situations so be sure to check out those details before you buy another major consideration when choosing between micro inverters and string inverters is whether or not you want the ability to reroute power to your house during a power outage to do that you need to disconnect it from the grid like we can do with this setup this can allow us to keep our freezers running in a couple of lights on for example in case of a blackout now not all inverters allow for that especially when you're looking at micro inverters

Connecting Your System

Series vs. Parallel Connections

Now let's pause for a second to explain series versus parallel because that's something you definitely need to understand when connecting batteries and panels so series when you connect something in series that means the positive of one panel or battery is connected to the negative of the next this puts them all in line with each other and you can think of it like a tv series there are certain tv series where if you skip them or go out of order you're gonna get totally lost so you actually need to watch them in order episode one episode two three and so on this is also how the old christmas lights were set up which was super annoying one bulb would go out you're not sure which one it is and none of them worked and it's just horrible so with parallel on the other hand you're connecting every positive line together and every negative line together so you can pull one out of the mix and it really won't matter it won't affect the rest of them

the other big thing to know about series versus parallel is how the power gets added up so the difference between series in parallel is one will add up the volts of each and the other one will add up the amps of each now in trying to come up with a good way to memorize this i decided to use the word suave and if you think about the letters and break them down you can say in series you add volts of each so in this case with the series the amps stay the same if you put for example two 250 volt 10 amp panels together in series they'll produce an output of 500 volts and still that same 10 amps now the opposite is true for parallel these same two panels will produce the original 250 volts but also 20 amps of power

this is really important in how you connect batteries this inverter for example can handle 24 volts so i've connected these two 12 volt batteries in series that means it's adding up their voltage to produce 24 volts and then the amp hours stay the same which in this case is 150 amp hours this other inverter on the other hand is a 12 volt inverter so i connected these two 12 volt batteries in parallel that means they still add up to only 12 volts but they give me double the amp hours so 300 amp hours it's also very common to mix and match series in parallel to meet your needs but no matter what type of circuit you go with you do need to understand the output that you'll get as a result

Installation Options and Safety

Now i totally understand that some of this can get pretty overwhelming which is why i'm trying to keep a little bit high level here and i'm not going too far into some of the details but if you're just overwhelmed by the idea of understanding all that goes into solar and especially doing it yourself there are some great options out there for you

Non-DIY Installation Options

now this video is in no way sponsored but i do want to tell you that there are options out there that can save you a lot of money and still be a high quality installation as i've done my research and looking at my system that's almost 7 years old i wish i had the options that are out there today and when i look around one of the best options i see is actually going with tesla which does very similar systems to what i've got here but they do it for a lot lower price than what i paid so i've got a coupon in the description that you can use to save 300 off any installation it's just a referral code it helps me out and it saves you a few bucks too so if you're interested in doing something that's not diy that's a great option that you can check out they actually have a configurator right on their site that you can put everything in see what the cost will be for you see what the loan options are versus paying it out of pocket all that good stuff so feel free to check that out if that's something that you're interested in

Essential Safety Measures

Having said that let's explain the rest of this system so you can see how this all comes together now just as a reminder all electrical work that you do of this nature should definitely be checked by a certified electrician and then you need to make sure to adhere to all local guidelines local codes and whatever it is that your town tells you to do with solar in your area

Essential Components and Power Storage

Switches and Safety Measures

All right on to our third ingredient which is switches and safety measures now there are several different versions of these so here i've got a pv combiner which is just a really nice box with fuses and switches to be able to allow you to connect multiple solar panels to one output you can also use circuit breakers there are disconnects involved both dc and ac there are fuses and each of these basically serves two purposes the first and the one they all do is they create a break point between one portion of your system and the next they make it easy to disable power to a section so that you can service it now the second one that almost all of these do is they also provide protection from surges and overloads an electrical code requires these in certain locations but it's always best to err on the side of having too many in place for safety sake the only one of these that does not provide any overload protection is the disconnect boxes those really are just an on off switch that you can use

Sizing Your System: A Water Analogy

Now when it comes to deciding how much power you need to generate with your solar system consider this analogy imagine you have no running water at your home but you do have a water tank out back you also have a large opening on the top of the tank to collect that water but it only rains for about four hours per day now you've got a water pump that pushes the water from your tank to your house so that you can actually use it now in this analogy the tank is your battery system the opening to the tank is your solar panel array and the pump is your inverter if you're not getting enough rain into your tank you need a bigger opening to collect the rain which means more solar panels if you're not getting enough water from the tank to your home you need a bigger or better pump which is in this case a better inverter and if you're using more water than is in your tank you need a bigger tank which is a bigger battery system

Batteries: Power Storage

On that note let's talk about batteries which is the fourth ingredient in our recipe there's a ton to cover with batteries so we won't get into all of it but there are several kinds of batteries out there that can be used to store power from a solar panel system for later use if you're building a grid tied system you don't actually need to use batteries unless you want to add protection against power outages you can use a tesla power wall for this or you can use your own batteries if you are building an off-grid system however batteries are essential for power storage just like with solar panels these can be combined for additional storage

in addition to solution like the batteries that we've shown here as well as the tesla power wall there are even certain electric vehicles coming out that claim to be able to power your house like the ford f-150 lightning says it can power your house off the ford's battery to provide power for up to as much as a few days which would be pretty awesome so i'm sure we'll see a lot more of that sort of thing coming out over the next several years

batteries do have a voltage rating like six volt 12 volt or 24 volt typically they also have different amp hours kilowatt hours cycle count efficiencies temperature ratings and more to compare so we won't get into all of that for now but i will say that you do need batteries to store power if you're not tied to the grid and they're optional if you are

Wiring and System Integration

Now the last ingredient is the wiring and connectors to connect all the pieces together there is again a lot to get into here but if you're using wires that are going to be outside at all they need to be outdoor rated or you need to use what's called thhn or thwn wire that goes inside of the electrical conduit th n wires are individually sheathed cables that are rated for exterior use inside a conduit a cheap alternative to using the solar specific panel wiring is just to use some 12 gauge landscape wiring this actually works really well you just need to connect your mc4 connections which is what most solar panels use as their connector mc4 connectors are great because they make it really easy to see that you've got a secure connection they're weatherproof and you can both feel and hear when they make that perfect connection

Wiring and Connectors

Now for wiring up batteries you usually need a much heavier gauge wire because there's more amperage going through so i'll often use this two gauge wire which also requires the use of either a 3 8 or a 5 16 copper lug and then some pretty heavy duty crimpers to put these together

Assembling Your Solar System

so those are those five ingredients now to put those together we're going to connect the solar panels to a fuse or a pv combiner box that gets connected to an inverter and then you can connect your inverter to either batteries or the grid for the off-grid setup this is pretty much the whole install right here you can connect outlets to this if you need to but more typically you'd connect this to a circuit breaker panel that is completely non-grid tied

for grid tied you would run wiring from your inverter through an ac disconnect box and then into your main circuit breaker panel like this this provides power to the rest of the circuit breaker panel and your power company will install a bi-directional meter that measures how much power is coming in from solar versus how much is being used at your residence

With that you've got working power to run your appliances and devices directly from the sun's rays how awesome is that i'm nils with learn to diy thanks for watching

Technical Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need batteries for a solar power system? A: If you are building an off-grid system, batteries are essential for power storage. For grid-tied systems, batteries are optional unless you want to add protection against power outages to keep certain appliances running during a blackout.

Q: What is the primary difference between micro inverters and string inverters? A: Micro inverters are typically placed with the individual solar panels on the roof and handle power in smaller groups (2-4 panels), making system expansion easy and localizing the impact of shading. String inverters collect all panel wiring into a central location downstream, accommodating a specific number of panels based on wattage and voltage, but their efficiency can be impacted by the least productive panel in a series.

Q: Why is understanding series versus parallel connections important for solar setups? A: Understanding series versus parallel connections is crucial because it determines the total voltage and amperage output of your combined panels or batteries. In series, voltages add up while amps stay the same. In parallel, amps add up while voltage stays the same. Correct connections ensure compatibility with your inverter and meet your specific power needs.