Looking forward to build 1000W home panel

[hehaaj]

Hey,

As some of us here, i'm a beginner with motive to go green.

I'm looking forward to set up a 1000W solar panel for our home.

Now can you please tell me how much i should be looking to spend and what equipments of what specification should i buy.

I've done some basic research already. So hopefully will be quick in picking point.

Many thanks

[Mike90250]

Even configuring a very efficient house, plan to spend a lot of money. Hi-Eff appliances, backup generatorS. Water pump? Furnace blower?

[russ]

What is your purpose of installing a system?

What is your present daily consumption?

You will be grid tied?

[hehaaj]

Well the purpose for installing this 1000W solar panel is the first step for the whole project of converting the entire house onto solar, since it required a lot of investment which i wont be able to do at the moment.

I plan to add 1000W to my switch board to power basic utilities like lighting, fans and etc

I know that converting heavier appliances like Refrigerator, Deep freezer and Air condition takes a lot of solar and investment juice.

Therefore i'm looking to install a 1000W system in my home

Hope that explains well.

[peakbagger]

The statement that you want to build a "1000 watt solar panel" unless english is your second language (no offense intended) gives a hint that you need a lot of education. Normally due to size and configuration of the panels, you would be building an array of multiple panels that when interconnected would be capable of 1000 watts at a standard illumination value.

The first piece of education is that despite what the internet ads advertise, you can buy a commercially made panel for far less than you can build one yourself. Many have tried but 99% of the home built panels will be junk within a year if they ever get built at all. A home built panel has no guarantees, and more importantly no industry certification. If you ever think of interconnecting it with the power grid a non certified home built panel is most likely not going to be allowed to grid interconnect.

Whay do you want to grid interconnect? Well if you dont, you are spending a lot of money to buy a lot of very expensive components, like charge controllers, DC inverters and most important a battery bank. Figure on spending 4 to 5 times more dollars per watt. I would rather go grid tied and put in more wattage of panels but if you want your independence from the grid realize its going to cost you far more for power than from any grid.

Assuming where you live has net metering or possbily Feed In Tariffs, I would suggest buying a commercially made panel sized for a microinverter and equip it with a microinverter if availlable for your particular grid. That way you can get nearly immediate benefits of generation and then as you save up money can expand the array.

Do note, every dollar spent on energy effiiciency reduce the size of your ultimate array and save you money immediately. The payback on PV is lousy compared to doing energy efficiency upgrades.

[Ian S]

The payback on PV is lousy compared to doing energy efficiency upgrades.

I see this claim a lot but it's not always true. For me to replace the 17 floor to ceiling windows and slider doors along with the remaining windows in my patio home with energy efficient ones would cost on the order of $25K and save about $500 a year in heating and cooling costs. For the same money, I could get a PV system that would save me twice that amount per year. And that's not considering any incentives which are huge for the PV system and miniscule for the energy efficient windows and doors.

[CJ SolarTown]

The statement that you want to build a "1000 watt solar panel" unless english is your second language (no offense intended) gives a hint that you need a lot of education. Normally due to size and configuration of the panels, you would be building an array of multiple panels that when interconnected would be capable of 1000 watts at a standard illumination value.

I completely agree with peak here. Initially I thought you were building a 1kw solar panel which indeed would be really nice. I'm sure if you pull it off, you'll have a lot of companies knocking on your door. Right now solar panels run in the 300w - 350w range for PV so seeing something in the 1kw would be amazing imo.

But then again, you are looking to install a 1kw system which at this point will require about 3 - 4 solar modules. If you plan to upgrade in the future, just do not limit yourself with a small inverter otherwise you will end up buying more inverters. Good luck

[russ]

I see this claim a lot but it's not always true. For me to replace the 17 floor to ceiling windows and slider doors along with the remaining windows in my patio home with energy efficient ones would cost on the order of $25K and save about $500 a year in heating and cooling costs. For the same money, I could get a PV system that would save me twice that amount per year. And that's not considering any incentives which are huge for the PV system and miniscule for the energy efficient windows and doors.

Windows are among the least effective upgrades - usually sealing the home, adding insulation and using or minimizing solar gain are among the most efficient. Replacing older appliances is usually only worthwhile in the event you have to replace them anyway.

[junaid]

I completely agree with peak here. Initially I thought you were building a 1kw solar panel which indeed would be really nice. I'm sure if you pull it off, you'll have a lot of companies knocking on your door. Right now solar panels run in the 300w - 350w range for PV so seeing something in the 1kw would be amazing imo.

But then again, you are looking to install a 1kw system which at this point will require about 3 - 4 solar modules. If you plan to upgrade in the future, just do not limit yourself with a small inverter otherwise you will end up buying more inverters. Good luck

Thats has been a big confusion i had being a newbie.

Please clear me if i'm wrong. TO generate 1000W of solar energy do we need to have 1000watt of PV panel and similar power inverter
or
can we generate 1000W of solar energy by 500W PV Panel and more powerful inverter.

Because i've received couple of quotes from China, and they all looks like banana and oranges, can't really compare at all.

[CJ SolarTown]

Thats has been a big confusion i had being a newbie.

Please clear me if i'm wrong. TO generate 1000W of solar energy do we need to have 1000watt of PV panel and similar power inverter
or
can we generate 1000W of solar energy by 500W PV Panel and more powerful inverter.

Because i've received couple of quotes from China, and they all looks like banana and oranges, can't really compare at all.

It really depends on the verbiage used when talking about solar and basically everything else. The standard convention is that if you are looking for a 1000w system you will need X amount of solar panels. For example, if the name plate of the solar panel is 250ws then you will need 4x to achieve 1000w system. The amount of solar panels needed will be more or less depending upon the nameplate value. As for the Inverter, just keep in mind whether or not you will be upgrading in the future. Not upgrading then get whatever your solar panels will output otherwise buy a notch up to prevent buying multiple inverters.

What I'm assuming without looking at the quote, if the solar panel name plate adds up to 500w then the quote may be referring to the system generating 1000w in X amount of time. But then it comes down to what the quote is referring too so you will know more about the quote than I.

Good Luck

[Ian S]

Thats has been a big confusion i had being a newbie.

Please clear me if i'm wrong. TO generate 1000W of solar energy do we need to have 1000watt of PV panel and similar power inverter
or
can we generate 1000W of solar energy by 500W PV Panel and more powerful inverter.

Because i've received couple of quotes from China, and they all looks like banana and oranges, can't really compare at all.

You misunderstand some basic concepts: watts are units of power not energy. Power is the rate at which energy can be produced (or used). If your solar panel can maintain 1 kW of power for an hour, it will produce 1 kWh of energy. If you have a 500 watt panel it will take two hours at its rated power to produce 1 kWh of energy. The inverter cannot add and will actually subtract a small amount due to inefficiency of conversion.

[aqa204]

What I would do

1.- Change all my lighting to LEDs , so I will save 50% of lighting energy bill compare to CFL bulbs.

2.- Use Windows films to save in AA energy bills, without blocking all the light inside the house.

3.- Change the refrigerator (if it is more than 5 yearsold) to a new one with high energy efficiency, and or any other appliances that you can change to save energy.

4.- Then after all these changes look at the next energy bill, write the KWR/ month you are using, / 30 = the KWR / day, the this KWHR / day divide by 24 = KWHR . These is the average KWHR that your home use with all the above changes.

5.- Take the KWHR and x 0.5 = these would be size (No morethan....) of the first Grid tie system you could purchase.

6.- The Grid tie system will lower the actual energy bill, with the savings you can see if it is possible to purchase a off grid solar system to power all the lights in your home.


BR

[billvon]

Please clear me if i'm wrong. TO generate 1000W of solar energy do we need to have 1000watt of PV panel and similar power inverter

To generate 1000 watts DC you need 1000 watts of solar panels in theory. In the real world you need about 1300 watts to deal with losses, insolation levels etc.

To generate 1000 watts of AC power you need about 1500 watts of PV panels (to account for the losses in the inverter.)

can we generate 1000W of solar energy by 500W PV Panel and more powerful inverter.

No.

[junaid]

4.- Then after all these changes look at the next energy bill, write the KWR/ month you are using, / 30 = the KWR / day, the this KWHR / day divide by 24 = KWHR . These is the average KWHR that your home use with all the above changes.

BR

Many thanks for the great insight, i've just checked my bill of last 6 months and surprisingly the average 194KWh per month that is 269 Wh per hour
Please correct me if i'm wrong about this calculation.

What I'm assuming without looking at the quote, if the solar panel name plate adds up to 500w then the quote may be referring to the system generating 1000w in X amount of time. But then it comes down to what the quote is referring too so you will know more about the quote than I.

Good Luck

Great, according to your information i've short-listed from 5 quotes to only 1 quote :P which proved to be valid after all the discussion. I've attached the quote (all company details removed) i'll really appreciate if you can have a professional opinion about it.

Moreover i've a related question:

What if i install 1000W system, can i switch a 2000wh appliance for an hour and rest of the time the utilisation is 500Wh? Will this be counted as overload and crash or will it be fine?

[Ian S]

Great, according to your information i've short-listed from 5 quotes to only 1 quote :P which proved to be valid after all the discussion. I've attached the quote (all company details removed) i'll really appreciate if you can have a professional opinion about it.

The quote doesn't appear to include the batteries you'd need for the off-grid system it describes.