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Has anybody installed solar cells on their house? I am not interested in the solar cell companies, as their contracts are really over the top expensive, I am interested in buying my own solar cells and installing them myself. Anyone have experience with this type of installation?

I have had a house run on solar and wind but it was set up by a friend so I am no help. It appears pretty simple but what I know about electricity would not fill a thimble.

Watts to know?

OK, that was worth at least a 7.5 on the funny scale.

We're looking at doing so on two remote cabins we have OO

the smallest set up with 4 batteries, inverter, panels etc. is gonna run us around 3K (seems damned high to me)

all we want to run on the first one is a fridge and a few led lights.

too new at it to be much help, sorry, but I'm interested in this thread as well

Batteries will be your friend or foe.

I made a small set up to transport to some remote property I have (7 1/2 miles from power) the set up was not a stationary mounted system.
I works OK but I need more batteries for storage.

I agree, batteries, good ones and lots of them. They will be a big percent of the total cost and the one place you cannot cut corners.

Putting up the panels themselves should no harder than putting up sheets of plywood on a frame. They also generally connect to one another and your charger with standard wires with plugs on the ends. The hard part (for me) was getting everything wired into the charger and the inverter, etc. configured correctly. You might want to compare the cost of replacing one set of batteries to the cost of hiring a solar contractor. I lost one set of batteries (about $1200 at today's prices) because I didn't get one of the charge points set correctly on my Outback Power Panel. Apparently do-it-yourselfers often trash their first set of bats - you will sometimes hear solar folks refer to 'learner batteries' for that reason. If I'd hired a contractor to begin with I would have been up and running properly sooner for less money in the long run. My take is that with solar contractors are really paying for their configuration skills not their construction skills. FYI: Fridges are one of the biggest energy users in a house; I went propane for that reason.

Anyone use Tesla's Powerwall battery?

My BIL went with a battery and a simple solar system for $1,100. It does ok in the summer but it takes a week for the battery (115 amps) to charge on cloudy fall days. He only has one solar panel though. A lot of times he just runs the generator but it is loud. I have a Honda EU 2000. They are about $1,100 new so it is 6 or half dozen. All I need is a gallon of gas . This will run the lights all night for 3 nights and a shop vac for a while. It sits on idle with just 300 watts of lightbulbs. I am tempted to just get a battery and charge it at home and run led lights. I know this is already off subject a bit though.

I have a decent webpage here: http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar-information/pv-cell-types

So basically calculate what you need, get solar cells (after checking on what is good, and what isn't), install solar cells, wire to batteries, wire to inverter, to home panel.

I am looking at a small system to reduce grid costs around 1/2.

My neighbor tried it on his house in town. He wanted to try it incrementally starting with the garage and basement then main floor. Was gonna save lots of money. Between cloudy days and inverters with inductive loads and battery maintenance/replacement and cost he pretty much gave up. I think what's left of his project runs the garage and maybe the basement.

Have lived on wind and solar the past ten years. I would not put directly on house. I mounted 2 sets of four panels on two steel poles next to house.Poles are sunk into concrete slabs i poured

The panels have to be adjust a few times a year for maximum exposure. I just tilt them depending on time of year angle of sun

I have a dedicated power shed with a generator and batteries. . And the charger and invertor for the panels.


I set up myself but did have help from a neighbor who is a retired engineer. I would at least have an electrician check work before hooked up if no experience


Without the govt tax credits it is expensive.

the folks at backwoods solar are very helpful but their stuff is a bit high

I just bought more panels from home depot

I run propane fridge freezer, dryer and generator

It sounds like the cabin will be used more or less like an RV. For batteries in your situation, I recommend golf cart 6V's, wired in series to be 12V. That's what I have on my camper. Interstate makes some good ones.
Look at the reserve capacity (RC). That's the number of minutes a battery can put out a given number of watts before dropping below about 10.5V. Most 12V deep cycles batts will have an RC around 100 to 125. These 6's have an RC of 425, almost 4 times as much.

Costco sells an Interstate golf cart battery but it's not the same one. It has an RC of about 100 to 110. It's a far cry from their good one. The good ones cost about $150 each and they're worth it.

2 of these will run an RV fridge and a bunch of LED lights, along with a bathroom fan as needed, for well over a week. How fast you need to charge them, and how much panel you need, depends on how often you use the cabin. If you leave the fridge running when you aren't there, you'll have to have a panel large enough for it plus charging the batts.

edited to add: I'm talking about a propane RV fridge, not 12V.

There are a lot of cabins in this area. I think the best solution in a small Honda that runs on propane tanks. No old gas to deal with and 100 pound tanks are easy to toss around. Popular to have a"power" shed to house the stuff. With LED lighting, that should be plenty. Solar will never have a payback if used seasonally.

I bought some led light bulbs (12 volt) to use in my RV trailer, thinking that it would cut down on power consumption, but the bulbs were crap and lasted just a short time. How do you tell a good one from a bad one when buying? miles

We have a cabin that runs on solar power (predominantly). Original owner/builder set it up so I am not that conversant in it.

There are 2 panels that are roughly 4' by 18" that mount the roof on a system that passively tracks the sun. Works very slick. We run 2 deep cycle 12 volt batteries. Runs all the lights for the cabin easily. We have a fridge but that runs on propane. All the lights are 12 volt lights so there is no inverter that we are using.

Pretty nice to have those batteries constantly being topped off and not having to worry about it. There are some others in the area that have quite large solar systems with large banks of batteries. Far more involved than our simple system.

have been off grid for 20 years. batteries are the heart of the system. Backwoods solar and Solarbiz. are both goos sources of components.
Trojan L16 batteries a what i have used but neighbors have used Hup solar 1's. outback flexmax charge controllers are the best i think. the solar panels i have are sunpower 480 watt each. using the Flexmax 80 charge controller lets you wire the panels in series to a higher voltage which in turn allows you to transmit the power further on smaller wire.
do a lot of research and talk with the folks at either of the above companies. Solarbiz has the best customer service/support.

i have the L16's too. Ok battery, noticed it seems to have a different cycle than other batteries I have used. Will check out solarbiz

With respect, that's 7.5 on the Scott scale. 3, maybe 3.5 on the average scale.