Going Solar? Here are some links to get started …
Lets put some context on this article as I live in Calgary, however, I live somewhere and so do you and it does matter. For example, I am doing a Grid Tie because that is what the power companies will allow me to do with permits etc. That totally affects the price. I will organize the links in the order that matters to get designing.
Books you should read
- Solar Electricity Handbook: 2016 Edition: A simple, practical guide to solar energy – designing and installing solar PV systems (here is a free sample of the 1st chapters)
- Top 30 Costly Mistakes Solar Newbies Make: Your Smart Guide to Solar Powered Home and Business
First Analysis Steps
- Get you energy bills and look at the chart or get the last 12 of them.
- Do the online assessment for where you live. The system will ask for your email and is not going to spam you- these are the tools that belong to the book you bought or sampled above
- pay a master electrician to tell you how big of a system you can build
- one company in calgary, you pay $150 (CDN) and they come out and do an assessment. The cost of that is 100% refundable IF YOU GO WITH THEM – but is $150 that expensive for education of the $5000-$15000 you will be paying?
That is all this article entails for now, I will be adding another article that goes through the handbook’s steps and literally determines the exact numbers we can get for my set up that I am proposing. I personally am going to ask Civil engineering friend to ensure that the panels I am going to tilt won’t rip my roof off. Why? Cause I am an electrical/automation guy and don’t know what I don’t know. All that is coming in my future articles. I feel also that there is something missing in the handbook so I will be adding that in as well.