Take Control of Your Power
BugOut MAG!|Fall 2016

Are you one of the many people with a desire to cut the utility cord and go off grid? If you have ever dreamed about the possibility of using electricity that you generate on your own and telling your power company to take a hike, it is easier than ever. This article will outline the steps you can take to get closer to achieving that dream.

Mary McGraw
Take Control of Your Power

Rooftop or ground mount?

The first step is to assess your property and decide if a ground mount or a roof mount system would work best.If you are considering a rooftop system, you will need to assess the condition of the roof. If your roof will need to be repaired or replaced in the next five to ten years, you may consider taking care of the repairs before placing the system. After the system is installed it would need to be removed in order to make repairs.

With either system, check for obstacles which will cast shade on the system during the day. This may be trees, neighbor’s rooflines or other such obstacles. Shade will reduce the power production capabilities of your system. In the northern hemisphere, it is best to have a southwest or south exposure on the system.

What size system?

A previous article, Solar 101, discussed how to read your electric bill and compute your average electric usage. National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) has a fairly decent solar calculator called PV Watts (http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/). The calculator has a feature that allows you to draw a system on your roof or elsewhere on your property and it will estimate the average size. There are options to change system losses, azimuth and tilt values. Once those values are set, the next screen will estimate how much electricity your system will generate monthly and annually.

A 1000-watt system with good solar radiation should generate in the ballpark of 1000 watts (1kW) or more per year under ideal conditions. What if your house used 10,000 watts per year and you don’t want to invest in a 10,000-watt (10kW) system? Work towards making your house more efficient: install LED lights, insulate, put in new windows and do other energy efficiency practices to reduce your energy usage. The cheapest energy is always that which you don’t use.

This story is from the Fall 2016 edition of BugOut MAG!.

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