Where To Start With DIY Solar Power? Looking For Step-by-Step Help Isn’t So Easy

Why isn’t DIY Solar Power information easier to find?

So, we’ve been thinking about the idea of getting some Solar Panels installed to help combat the insane power bills from NB Power and also because their services going down way too often.

I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of people adding Solar panels to their homes and bragging about how much they’re saving in energy bills. They make it look like it’s so easy to just buy a kit and plug it all in. But when I go looking for information I’m overwhelmed with information overload.

I bought a few books from Amazon that I regret getting because they say they’re a DIY Solar Power book, but when you open them and start reading the content, all you get is a Ph.D. in physics on how they work, but not actually tell you how to get them to work.

Then I got to thinking about how I might actually be overthinking it and I should just start at the basics and go for the never failing DIY Books for Dummies.

Make money from your opinions!

I ordered the book and found the information not only informative but it was dumbed down for such Dummies as myself. The book, “Solar Power Your Home for DUMMIES” is a must-have for anyone looking to get into installing solar panels to power their home and want to do it on their own.

Yes, there are parts that you’ll need a licensed electrician to come and perform certain tasks like connecting it to the grid if you still need to rely on the power company and so on. Things you really want to be done by a professional to keep things safe anyway.

The power company is gouging every cent they can out of us

The power went out a bunch of times last month, but NB Power still seems to think that it’s fine to still charge us the full $25.51 for the Monthly Sevice charge. They should be forced to prorate that charge by the number of hours they don’t supply us with power, after all, it’s a Service charge and if they’re not providing service then why should we pay them?

Luckily this season so far has been warmer and we’re using less energy to heat the home, but even though it’s warmer, we’re still paying more for power this year than last year because of the rate increase. Even with equalized billing, the monthly payments keep getting higher and higher with each passing year. We’re already behind in the Actual charges and it’s only the first month of our new EPP Contract!

So that’s pretty much the main reason why we want a DIY Solar Power setup to help offset the power bill and possibly feed power back into the grid and have NB Power pay us for energy. Just check out how much we paid for power at the end of our EPP contract.

We paid NB Power over $3K for a small mini-home. There isn’t a whole lot of square footage and we close off rooms we’re not using to help bring the heating costs down, but yet we’re still paying out the ass to heat the place. So why wouldn’t we want to Install a solar power system for our home? To do a DIY Solar power system seems like the right path to sticking it to the corporate pigs! YEAH! LOL!

Lots of DIY Solar Power options to consider

As always I went to my go-to website, Amazon. And WOW!, they have a lot of products to choose from and if you’re like me you go straight to the reviews. No, I don’t fall for those 5 out of 5 reviews that are probably paid reviews. I look for honest reviews like people complaining about the product, I look mainly at the 3-4 star rated reviews. Those are usually the ones that are by actual people who have purchased the item and made an honest review.

Of course, the top sellers always seem to be a good choice when deciding on an item on Amazon, at least in my experiences so far that is. Most of the time you can usually Google the product and read a lot of reviews not made on Amazon, like Google reviews and websites like mine that make honest reviews about products they’ve actually purchased.

After a lot of review reading, we think we found a winner!

We searched for reviews on a lot of DIY Solar Power kits provided by different companies and the one that just kept popping up was ECO-WORTHY. A lot of people seem to like their products and customer service. There were a few reviews that weren’t great, but those reviews seem to be the usual, I didn’t read the manual and it didn’t work so it’s no good, and the reviews made by their competitors trying to tarnish their products by making fake reviews.

The first DIY Solar power kit we had a look at seemed to be a bit more than we thought it would cost, but if you need it for a small home like ours we’re told that the price is actually very reasonable considering that the kit provides you with everything needed pretty much.

So we were on the right track with finding the DIY solar power kits that would suit our needs.

3000W 48V Off Grid Complete Solar Panel Kit System comes with 16pcs 195W Solar Panel and 4 String PV Combiner Box and 60A Controller for Homes, but we want to be able to tie it into our existing power grid with NB Power, and this one says it’s off-grid. So maybe this would be great for a place that’s completely off the grid, or maybe there’s a way to tie it into the power grid, we don’t know.

It says off-grid, so we’ll go with that. So we went the next level up with the ECO-WORTHY 3000W Solar Panel Systems for Homes: 16pcs 195 Watt Mono Solar Panels + 4 Strings Combiner Box +3500W 48V-110V Inverter + 60A Charge Controller Kit, 12000Wh/Day Output Off Grid Solar Power System.

After reading through my Solar Power Your Home for Dummies book, I figured that this is right up our alley because we initially plan to use it to run the energy-sucking furnace and in the summer the Air Conditioner. If the specs allow it, we’ll use it for the water heater, fridge, and so on. Baby steps first.

You just have to Love Amazon right? If you want something, just go to Amazon and have it delivered to your door! LOL!

Conclusion…

I know $4K for a DIY solar power kit may seem a bit expensive, but when you factor in that we paid over $3K to the power company just for one year of electricity the kit would pay for itself in just over a year and then after that, we can enjoy our hard-earned pay and spend it on what we want and not have to throw it away on expensive electricity bills from NB Power.

If you’re looking into doing this with your home we would love it if you would consider using the links we provided to help support the site. You’ll get your savings and you’ll also be helping us out too, and we thank you for that.

Cheers!