Alternative forms of energy interest not only businessmen but also each of us. After all, the benefits are obvious to everyone.
If you have a private house or you are just beginning to build it, it is worth thinking about solar panels to make your home autonomous.
To the delight of homeowners, solar panels can provide a safe, long-term capital investment that also reduces its negative environmental impacts and electricity bills.
The installation of solar panels is a serious and critical transition to alternative sources of energy. It is necessary to be aware of all options of attachment and other subtleties so that the quality of the future station does not suffer.
In this case, it is better to trust the professionals and contact the solar installation company. But you have to learn enough information to install the solar panels yourself.
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How to Choose a Place to Install Solar Panels?
You probably saw houses with shiny panels on the roof. It would seem that the place is obvious, but this choice has its own rules.
For maximum efficiency, batteries are installed in the most illuminated place in the entire yard. And it is not necessarily a roof. For this purpose, suitable land on which special pillars are placed.
If this is your option, make sure that the panel does not fall shadow from neighboring buildings, trees, and large objects.
Interestingly, polycrystalline models can still cope with obscuration, but monocrystalline models almost stop their work if they fall under the shadow.
Perhaps, while there are no neighbors behind your fence, in the future, they will definitely appear. This moment must be foreseen.
If you still like the placement of solar panels on the roof or walls of the house, you need to withstand a certain distance between them.
In the context of the installation of alternative energy sources, it is worth mentioning such indicator as insolation. It indicates how much solar radiation falls in your region.
The higher this indicator, the more energy will be able to generate modules. If you live in the north, you may need more panels to achieve the same output power as in the south.
Solar panels can be installed:
- On the roof of a private house. Residents of private houses most often choose to install solar panels on the roof. This saves farmland on which a garden or garden can be built. It is important to consider the angle of the roof slope and the distance between the batteries. The roof should not be flat, but the inclination angle should be less than 40 degrees. The distance between the rows shall be at least 1.7 height of the row.
- On the roof of a high-rise building. To install solar panels on the roof of the high-rise will have to do a little more paperwork. You will need a roof lease and technical documentation. When installing the system on the roof of a high-rise building, the inverters are placed in the basement, where there is an electrical panel.
- On the land. When installing on the ground, the main thing is to choose a place that is not shaded by trees, adjacent buildings, or a fence between the plots. In this case, it should be taken into account for more small trees, which will grow over time, unfinished houses, etc. The batteries are mounted on a solid frame pillar, which is mounted from a metal profile.
How to Calculate the Number of Solar Panels?
First of all, it is necessary to calculate how much electricity your family consumes per day. The approximate amount can be deduced from the figures in the electricity bills that came to you earlier.
Just divide this by the number of days per month. If this is a brand new house and you did not have bills before, you will have to calculate the power consumption of all electrical appliances for a day.
To this figure add another 20%, which will go to the work of the batteries themselves.
The obtained data will help to determine how many panels and what capacity you need. When calculating, you should take into account the level of insolation in your region.
Stages of Self-installation of Solar Panels
Preparatory work and installation of solar panels are performed in warm, dry weather. The algorithm of action looks like this:
- Preparation of the site for installation – cleaning of garbage, leveling of the surface (if installed on the land), degreasing, priming.
- Marking for support posts. Keep in mind that the distance between them should be from 1 to 1.2 meters.
- Make a hole in the support surface, pour them with any lubricant such as solid, and insert an anchor or dowel into them.
- Installing brackets under the panel.
- Place sheets of heated ruberoid on the brackets. Note that it is more than 5 cm and must protrude beyond the edges of the panels.
- When the ruberoid cools down, hot galvanized profiles are mounted on the brackets with the help of aluminum fasteners. The thickness of the profile coating should be from 70 to 150 µm.
- Installation of cables under the metal structure with the help of plastic clamps, and wiring to the transformer substation.
- Installation of solar panels. Special clamps are used as fasteners to hold the structure and screws.
If the solar panels are installed on a land plot, it is necessary to create a support structure of metal from a height of 1 meter, which is poured into the concrete or just embedded in the ground.
It is then fitted with a frame made of wood and aluminum beams.
Maintenance of Solar Panels
In winter, when snow falls, the electricity generation of the panels is reduced to zero. Logically, they need to be cleaned of precipitation.
To clean the snow on the batteries that are installed on the supports, you will need a brush with a long handle or a blower.
If they are placed on the building, then at the time of installation should take care of easy access to them. Often the batteries are attached to the walls at an angle of 90°. In this case, perhaps, you do not have to clean the snow – it will fly by.
The generation of solar energy is hampered not only by snow, but also by bird droppings, excessive amounts of dust, and dirt. Therefore, modules need care not only in winter but also in the warm season.
To get rid of all this, water the panels with water from a hose up to about four times a year depending on the degree of contamination. I
n addition, it is necessary to check from time to time whether all sources of alternative energy on your site work properly. Also, only every 10 years do you need to replace batteries.
So, independently installing a solar system is quite possible. In addition, you will save a lot by doing everything yourself.
But the most important thing is that properly selected and installed sources of alternative energy will pay for themselves in 3-4 years.