Do it Yourself Solar Power by Dave from 1BOG
A lot of people get excited about the idea of DIY solar — installing solar power on their home without any help using a solar kit they buy from the internet. But the vast majority of homeowners (at least in metropolitan areas) end up using a solar company to install the solar panels on their home in the end. The rare few who do are often electricians with contracting licenses. In fact, some of the solar companies host seminars for Do-it-yourselfers, as it’s win-win for them whether you decide to do it yourself or not. Either they can sell you products at retail, or throughout the training (what happens the majority of the time), you decide to use their services instead of being a solar energy DIY’er. Some of these reasons are:
- Most of money is tied up in the products. The solar panels, the solar inverter, the racking system, conduit, etc, make up over 75% of the cost of the turnkey system. So what you can save by doing it yourself is a pretty small area, and your time is worth money too.
- You’d have to buy your products retail, at a higher rate than the installer, thinning the amount you can save even more.
- String configurations (the number of panels wired in series and then in parallel) are hard, and it takes an electrician to hook it up right and practically takes and electrical engineering degree to understand exactly what’s going on. Hooking up the panels the wrong way can turn them into a load instead of a power provider, giving you a $50,000 power bill if you didn’t notice (you would after a few days).
- The big one: No warranty for your solar installation. Sure, you will have warranties from the inverter and panel manufacturers, but those are not nearly as solid as the solar company’s warranties. Also, once you’ve put holes in your roof, you’ve probably blown your roof warranty where the solar integrator would keep it intact, as well as cover the penetrations themselves.
It’s true that an installer might go out of business and your warranty can get left in the cold, so you’ll want to think about the company’s longevity when selecting a solar company. Please sign up at 1bog.org to purchase solar in a group for a discount. You’ll save about just as much money as if you did it yourself, with all the benefits of having it done by a reputable solar company.
Photocredit to banana2000
May 19th, 2009 at 4:18 AM
I am impressed and obliged if send me the details how to construct the compleate solar powersupply for my home.
Where to get the solar cell and other required parts.
Jiten.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:32 PM
I disagree with your one-sided view on this subject. Having taken classes with the Solar Living Institute in prep to do my own install and having participated in volunteer installs with GRID Alternative it’s quite clear that the average person can save $5000+ doing their own install.
Installing solar is NOT rocket science and in the open source and web interactive era we live in a lot more DIY projects are possible.
Maybe 1BOG should be trying to help people who want to DIY their solar install and help them buy their panels in bulk instead of just supporting existing installers.
Having gotten a quote from REC for 1BOG’s L.A. program I can tell you quite confidently that 1BOG does NOT “save about just as much money if you did it yourself.” Far from it.
I can also tell you that there’s no reason to pay retail for solar panels either. There are plenty of places to get much better prices on line. Perhaps you should do some research and write about their prices for Sanyo HIT panels verses what you want to charge customers.
I have nothing against people using solar installers for some of the reasons you present. But likewise I also have nothing against people taking the classes and getting the training to do it themselves.
The key should be accelerating the adoption of solar PV in all ways possible, not just your own profit motives.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:13 AM
Hey, you’ve got some valid points. I’m not saying it’s not for everyone. For some people it can make sense. But for for those looking for a weekend warrior project, I think an integrator is the way to go.
I take offense to the last statement. I’m not pushing an agenda here, I believe what I say. If we begin thinking it makes sense for us to offer group purchases of kits, we’ll do that.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:14 AM
On second thought, I think your anger probably comes from the photo, which I should have tried harder to find a better one, i was in a hurry. Sorry, I just flickr’ed “do it yourself”
May 20th, 2009 at 8:47 AM
@admin – First off, you make a mistake if you read “anger” into my non-emotional statement. Are you familiar with what happens when you assume?
Secondly, 1BOG is not a nonprofit is it? Aren’t you owned by a corporation? Please correct me if I’m incorrect and 1BOG is more like GRID Alternatives and you are working for Americorps size wages. But I do not think that’s your paradigm.
So it’s a fair charge to make that you’re motivated by profit. Perhaps you should be open to other points of view and not be so defensive when offered criticism. Give and take is part of the process too, isn’t it?
Thirdly, my opinions are based on my own direct experiences with 1BOG.
Consider my comments my user review – just like the ones many of us count on when shopping at Amazon.com and other places on-line where people are trying to sell us things. Isn’t “Activism 2.0″ all about interaction and voice of the customer too? Or do you only want to hear voices that agree with you and offer praise?
Your “weekend warrior project” statement is what’s known as a straw man argument. Neither I or anyone I know would position the installation of solar on your own roof as a weekend project.
It’s okay if you take offense at my statement about your profit motive. The truth is you can easily be pushing an agenda while at the same time believing what you say. People do it every day.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:06 PM
First, I apologize, I read tone that I shouldn’t have.
We are a for-profit for the best of reasons, a discussion we plan on having both internally and externally on an ongoing basis. We never claimed to be a non-profit. One of the other campaigns in Virgance, Carrotmob, has the best explanations as to why in written form on the web, check the FAQ: http://carrotmob.org/faq/.
“Or do you only want to hear voices that agree with you and offer praise?” No, that’s why I’m publishing these comments and having this discussion, like I said, we need to be fully transparent about what we are and why we do things the way we do. The bottom line is being a transparent for-profit model allows us to cause the most change.
Are you local (SF bay-ish?) You should come to our public “naked lunch” where we invite the public to participate in exactly these kinds of dialogue. We understand we have a thin line to walk in our model and we need outside eyes, ears, and mouths to keep us from being in a group-think mentality.
Cheers,
Dave