3 ms·

A little bit of sweat equity is the ONLY way to do solar installs. Even if you hire other people to do the installation, sourcing the panels, the hardware, and

by foxyv 3y ago

A little bit of sweat equity is the ONLY way to do solar installs. Even if you hire other people to do the installation, sourcing the panels, the hardware, and your own electrician will save tens of thousands of dollars. If you let a general contractor like SunRun, Tesla, or Solar City do the sourcing, you will either get: a) The older generation equipment for top of the line prices. b) Top of the line equipment for obscene prices.

fewald_net 3y ago
I am thinking about installing solar. Do you have any resources to learn about panels etc?
- foxyv 3y ago
  There are a lot of guides out there like: https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/diy-solar https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/diy-solar https://www.renogy.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-diy-offgrid-solar-systems/?Rng_ads=30dfdebf70858a7b&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyNSoBhA9EiwA5aYlbwUgKV4xtXRO7MBQmd_5dXuJuqcR-f92wkh8ss3sLnj0OL7qPbs4YxoCX9UQAvD_BwE https://www.renogy.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-diy-offgri... You may also want to watch some YouTube videos about how other people have installed their own. Mostly they are off-grid, but there are a few grid-tied systems as well. For the grid tied systems I would recommend buying plans like dymk did. A bill of materials and a plan will help a ton. Based on the kit DYMK showed in his breakdown I think he used SelfSolar: https://selfsolar.com/your-solar-journey/ https://selfsolar.com/your-solar-journey/
  - dymk 3y ago
    I originally started with one of those semi-DIY companies (not Unbound, but similar) where they build a site plan, give you a permit packet, and offer to sell you the hardware in a kit, but I found it to be not worthwhile. They mismeasured the roof via poor quality areal photography, and the BOM they came up with was low to midrange hardware with a large markup. I just rolled it myself and found suppliers for the panels, inverters, racking, did the roof CAD layout & branch structure, and permitting (single line diagrams + some paperwork) myself. Saved a bunch of money and ended up with a nicer install that way.
dymk 3y ago
And I'd have saved a lot more if I did the actual installation myself as well, but my roof is an 8/12 and 12/12 slope on a two story house. I did some test walks up there, and there was absolutely no way I'd have pulled off a one-man install even with a cherry picker. If the roof was 6/12 and had an easier geometry to work with, I'd have ended up paying closer to $14k for a 16.5kW system, which is an absurdly good price ($0.84 / watt) for solar, even if you compare it to a country like Australia. Smaller installers are more likely to take on semi-DIY projects like this at a reasonable rate that'll still save you money. Here's my cost breakdown - https://i.imgur.com/lieB9XG.png https://i.imgur.com/lieB9XG.png

by foxyv 3y ago

fewald_net 3y ago

I am thinking about installing solar. Do you have any resources to learn about panels etc?

foxyv 3y ago
There are a lot of guides out there like: https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/diy-solar https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/diy-solar https://www.renogy.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-diy-offgrid-solar-systems/?Rng_ads=30dfdebf70858a7b&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyNSoBhA9EiwA5aYlbwUgKV4xtXRO7MBQmd_5dXuJuqcR-f92wkh8ss3sLnj0OL7qPbs4YxoCX9UQAvD_BwE https://www.renogy.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-diy-offgri... You may also want to watch some YouTube videos about how other people have installed their own. Mostly they are off-grid, but there are a few grid-tied systems as well. For the grid tied systems I would recommend buying plans like dymk did. A bill of materials and a plan will help a ton. Based on the kit DYMK showed in his breakdown I think he used SelfSolar: https://selfsolar.com/your-solar-journey/ https://selfsolar.com/your-solar-journey/
- dymk 3y ago
  I originally started with one of those semi-DIY companies (not Unbound, but similar) where they build a site plan, give you a permit packet, and offer to sell you the hardware in a kit, but I found it to be not worthwhile. They mismeasured the roof via poor quality areal photography, and the BOM they came up with was low to midrange hardware with a large markup. I just rolled it myself and found suppliers for the panels, inverters, racking, did the roof CAD layout & branch structure, and permitting (single line diagrams + some paperwork) myself. Saved a bunch of money and ended up with a nicer install that way.

dymk 3y ago

And I'd have saved a lot more if I did the actual installation myself as well, but my roof is an 8/12 and 12/12 slope on a two story house. I did some test walks up there, and there was absolutely no way I'd have pulled off a one-man install even with a cherry picker. If the roof was 6/12 and had an easier geometry to work with, I'd have ended up paying closer to $14k for a 16.5kW system, which is an absurdly good price ($0.84 / watt) for solar, even if you compare it to a country like Australia. Smaller installers are more likely to take on semi-DIY projects like this at a reasonable rate that'll still save you money. Here's my cost breakdown - https://i.imgur.com/lieB9XG.png https://i.imgur.com/lieB9XG.png