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6 things you need to do before installing solar power in your home | The Alternative

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6 things you need to do before installing solar

power for your home
Looking to heat water and light all or parts of your home by solar power? Here is what you need to know
before you start.
The Alternative Oct 10, 2013

Looking to heat water and light all or parts of your home by solar power? Here is what you need to
know before you start.

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6 things you need to do before installing solar power in your home | The Alternative

Mini solar panels to help you build your own solar products.

1. Reduce your usage/Increase efficiency

The first thing to do before going solar is to see if there are ways to optimize/reduce your energy
consumption. Check for all conventional equipment in your home and see what you could make more
efficient or reduce. CFLs are 4 times more efficient and last 10 times as long as an incandescent bulb, so
replacing regular lamps with CFLs and LEDs can bring huge energy savings. Check if you are using
energy-star rated equipment. These might cost more in the beginning but will pay for themselves in a few
years compared to equipment that has no energy rating. Reducing your energy consumption makes it
easier to go off the grid and convert your energy source to solar power.

2. Check on how much space you have

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Check how much sq ft space you have and in what direction before you buy equipment. Pic courtesy:
Alexlittle.net
The amount of space you have in your home fundamentally decides how much you can go solar in your
house. Find out how many sq.ft of roof/balcony area you have in order to install a solar panel. It is
optimal for solar panels to face South so that they get sunlight throughout the day. Solar Panels usually
come in standard 250Wp (Watt Peak) to 300Wp panels for larger home installations. Even some medium
to large installation use multiple 74Wp or 100Wp panels. It depends on the installer, the space
availability and the system design.

3. Measure how much electricity you use everyday

A 3000Wp of solar panels, charged through the day, can provide about 8000 Watts of power,
subtracting inefficiencies. A typical Solar Cell provides around 0.5 Volts and around 36 and 72 Solar
Cells make up a typical solar panel which implies 12 and 24 Volts. With one panel, you can choose a
combination you want to power all fans or all lights or just the kitchen. The first step is to study your
electricity bill. Always go for genuine suppliers. A regular 2/3BHK household using a microwave, will
need about 15,000 Watts of power everyday.
The India Solar Homes from Bridge to India can estimate your solar power cost by looking at your State,
your last months electricity bill, power backups you have and reliable power you get. The Bijli
Bachao site helps you analyze your electricity bill. It also has information about equipment and power
used, so get an approximate usage per room and by device before you plan your solar lighting in your
home. Anu Solar has a comprehensive water heating/lighting/power backup calculator.

4. How much will you pay for the sun?

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6 things you need to do before installing solar power in your home | The Alternative

Though solar power can cut down your electricity bills, it does require some installation cost and initial
investment. Figure out how much you can spend and plan your solar implementation accordingly. The
cost of solar varies from Rs.40,000 to Rs.6,00,000 depending upon how much of the energy you would
like to generate from solar. You can calculate your cost by following method (simplistic way of arriving
at approximate)
Calculate your approximate load (in watts) for a day
Divide it by 3 (avg. no of hours of sun)
Multiply by Rs. 110
Eg: For 1800 Watts a day, you need solar panels that can produce 600 Watts. The cost will be 66,000 for
this installation.

5. Servicing and maintenance

The life of a solar panel is 25 years. Solar panels have no moving parts or electronics and require
practically no maintenance throughout its life of 25 years or so. While buying, ensure you are picking up
reliable equipment from genuine certified suppliers. Question the dealer about how they have built the
structure of the panel and what is the guarantee.

A typical solar setup has a solar panel, charge controller, inverter/battery and the equipment.

6. Get a good battery

A typical solar power installation has 4 components: the solar panels, the charge controller (to convert
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6 things you need to do before installing solar power in your home | The Alternative

DC to AC), battery charger (for storage) and the actual equipment.

Make sure you buy your battery from a known brand and it is kept at an airy space otherwise t will get
heated up and the life will get reduced.

myecoday offers a wide variety of solar products for your day to day needs.
Information put together by The Alternative with the help of Ifthikar Javed of myecoday.com. If you
have further queries, write in to us at editor@thealternative.in with Green Homes in the title.

The Greenprint Your Home series on The Alternative brings together news, views, analysis,
expert opinion, photospreads, product reviews, DIYs and much more to help you go green with your
dwelling. This series is supported by of ZED Habitats the largest green residential developer in India
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today, and a leader in pioneering building technologies and management systems.

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Patricia Salvales

9 months ago

Very informative article, people should know this first before jumping on buying Solar, its better
to know what you need to know first before you end up regretting because of your lack of
knowledge..

Reply Share

Mohan Singh Sudan > Patricia Salvales

4 months ago

Every one wants to share his theoretical knowledge to impress and exploit the viewer
but none has offered any practical solution to solve these problems of harnessing solar
energy by providing training program showing actual assembly line of manufacturing
process solar cells and solar panels to the interested people. Can some can offer this
practical training to the interested persons ?
MOhansingh.sudan@gmail.com

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