Design a DIY Off Grid Solar Power System in 6 Steps

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Design a DIY Off Grid solar power system in 6 steps:

#1 Figure out how much power you need

This is the most important step, and yet many people skip this. Don’t. Planning an off grid solar power system without knowing how much power you need is going to be a major problem. You can’t buy a couple of solar panels and a battery and hope it will be enough for your needs. Determine the total power and energy consumption of all loads that the solar PV system need to supply. READ MORE…
#2 Calculate the amount of batteries you need

Now that you know how much power you need, you need to figure out how many batteries you need to store it. Do you need only enough storage for a day or two? Do you have another power source like a generator or wind turbine that will kick in if the sun doesn’t shine? Do you need to have enough batteries to store 3 or 4 days, or more, worth of power? Will you be storing the batteries in a warm room? Will they be in a cold location? Batteries are rated for storage at around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The colder the room, the bigger the battery bank you need to compensate, by over 50% more for below freezing. Each of these answers affects the size, and cost, of your battery bank. READ MORE…
#3 Calculate the number of solar panels needed for your location

Now you can figure out how much off grid solar power you need. We want to compute the minimum power that the PV array needs to deliver per day. There are losses in all systems due to voltage losses as the electricity flows across the wires, batteries and inverters not being 100 percent efficient, and other factors. READ MORE…
#4 PV array configuration

How are you going to connect your panels? Series, parallel or combination of the two? READ MORE…
#5 Select a solar charge controller

Now we need to determine the size of the solar charge controller required by the system. READ MORE…
#6 Select an Inverter

If you are only running DC loads straight off your battery bank, you can skip this step. But if you are powering any AC loads, you need to convert the direct current from the batteries into alternating current for your appliances. READ MORE…

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Do you want to learn how to use solar power? Because if you do, then you’ve come to the right place. The ebook, Design a DIY Off Grid Solar Power System in 6 Steps, will guide you through the process of designing stand-alone solar power systems for all applications, anywhere in the world.

Download the Design a DIY Off Grid Solar Power System in 6 Steps ebook and you will get:

A simple explanation of how solar power works
The best way to estimate the available solar energy
A step by step design process that anyone can follow

This is an easy to follow guide for the solar power newbie DIYer. The explanations are in simple language such that those with zero solar power knowhow will still be able to design an off-grid system that will work to expectations.