SOLAR POWER: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide / How To

Solar Power System Explained in 12 Minutes! On grid, off grid... inverters, panels and everything in between. #solar #green #diy

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00:00 #1: Solar Panels
01:22 #2: Inverters
03:08 Series vs Parallel
05:20 Non-DIY Options
06:42 #3: Switches & Safety
07:33 How Much Power Do You Need?
08:25 #4: Batteries
09:32 #5: Wiring & Connectors

[andymccabe]

I am an electrician that has never done any solar work. This video is a great start. Well done!! Thank you!

[olawlor]

Great summary! One thing to keep in mind with landscape wiring (at 9:54) is the voltage rating of the wire: panels run in parallel might be a manageable 40V open circuit, but panels stacked in series can reach eye-popping voltages, even to where the 600V rating of ordinary AC electrical wire isn't enough. The dedicated PV wire often uses thicker insulation to allow 1000V or higher operation without breaking down, as well as sunlight resistant outer coatings.

[BaawBee]

The best beginner guide I've ever seen by far. Absolutely loved the bit about series vs parallel!!! Never knew about this.

[bmiller]

Thank you. This helps me understand better.

[leepennington]

Thanks for the video - Very informative - Noticed that you mention Tesla on several of your vids, but have you checked out GAF's new solar shingles? They install same as regular asphalt shingles. Simply nailed down.

[Sjrick]

To make it easier for me to understand, i go by what my current box has. Breakers. Each breaker is from 15 to 20 amps. So volts and watts are confusing to me.

[fakefakerton]

This is awesome. Thanks for the detailed video.

[imolazhp]

Great intro to solar video.
One note, not all electric companies use or offer bidirectional meters. Be sure you find this out BEFORE installing and figure it in to your payback schedule if you are concerned about payback.
For example, we sell all of the power we generate at $0.09/kWh, but we buy all of the power we use at $0.1126/kWh, making payback abysmal.

[DamBevers]

It takes talent to make such a concise, comprehensive, and understandable introduction to a technical topic. I wish every explainer video on YT was as great as this one. Thank you!

[aaronsmith]

Read Kindle books on off grid, rv solar and basic electrical books will guide you in what you need to get started.

[scottsoward]

Great video, and tons of info. This is one I'll need to review a few times!

[jhoodfysh]

Thank you Nils, I was curious how that all worked.

[raz]

Lol the Suave got me
Great video thanks!

[kurchak]

Parallel has an A in it (amps), series does not. Boom, done.

[profuse]

Can you do video on cost benefit analysis on DIY vs pro install? I love to see the beak even point to see savings

[GavinStoneDIY]

Good explanation of some of the basics. I did consider purchasing some of those salt silicate batteries at one point. But I went with the lifpo batteries instead. I do have some of those combiner boxes and inverters from Watts247 though. Looks like we shopped at the same store. I would recommend investing in some of their fuses though. Ian has 150-200 amp switches that are really high quality. I’ve seen multiple tests on the cheaper types and they don’t trip when they are supposed to. That can make for a scary situation.

[Koh_Scoot]

Great video. One thing i don't quite understand, is when solar modules are in a string setup, why are the panels only as productive as the least productive panel? What is the reasoning/cause behind this?

[Wereallfd]

So the way you explained the order of operations at the end makes it sound like the order is panels to safety box, to inverter, to batteries, but the inverter should come after your batteries (to convert the dc into ac), as well as a charge controller likely being the second step.

[willow-wfjf]

I was thinking of adding on solar power in addition to electric power usage in Florida. I would not buy a battery but just plan to use the solar at time of day that the sun is out. I talked to the electric company and they warned that my prices for buying electricity from them would be high. I'm not sure what she was trying to say. Is this likely true or just a scare tactic?

[eldenjr]

Nils, thanks for the great video. Unfortunately the Tesla systems don’t service my area. My wife and checked into getting a solar system for our home but after the math I just couldn’t see it being affordable. The system would have put us at 89% electric independent according to their numbers but the system with a battery backup was almost 60k! Minus 18k in Federal tax credits, the 42k left was going to financed and in the end we wouldn’t see any real saving for 10 years. Maybe I was looking into a wrong dealer, but the system was made by a company that I know so I wasn’t worried about that, it was the cost of installing it that pushed us to saying no. If the US Government wants folks to go greener, then the tax credits should last longer in years or be a greater lump sum. Any advice if we should look into it from a different view would be helpful. Maybe I just didn’t see the numbers clearly. But usually that’s not the case.