Installing Solar Panels
Installing solar panels for your home is a task that you can do yourself with strategic help from an electrician with knowledge of solar power. Begin by purchasing the appropriate panels with enough to make a solar array that is adequate to provide power for your home. The panel will be backed up by the local power grid, so that you don't have to worry about peak use periods eclipsing the capacity of the solar array. Choose a location for the array that will give the panels maximum exposure to the sun. Now dig a trench to bury the electrical conduit that will house the wires running from your house to the array and then bury the conduit.
Next, build a platform by installing concrete pillars that will support 4 x 4's to which the panels will be attached. Now with the help of your electrician, mount the solar panels to your platform by attaching them to angle brackets. Mount the front feet first and make sure they are properly squared to the platform and then secure them in place. Now here is where some solar expertise is necessary to create the proper angle for the array to elevate and secure the rear legs of the panels.
Join the panels at a fuse combiner box mounted at the platform and then run the wiring to the conduit that you have already laid. Connect the red wires to the positive terminal and the black wires to the negative terminal. Run the wires through the bottom of the junction box and connect them to the corresponding positive and negative terminal blocks. If you have any doubts about your ability to do this safely, make sure to have a qualified electrician make the connections for you.
Now you have to run the wires into your home and connect them to the interior control panels, The solar breaker will be connected to the circuit breaker much like any other external power source is connected. From there the energy will be fed to a charge contgroller and finally to a bank of batteries where it will be stored to be used as you require it. The batteries will feed the energy back to the circuit breaker and on to a power inverter where it is converted from DC to AC and then on to an electrical panel from where it will deliver the power to your home.
Now it is like connecting a new television set. Run the electrical cable from your solar array into the house through the conduit. Connect the electrical cables to the fuse combiner box at the base of the solar array with the green cables connected to the grounding strip, the red cables connected to the PV out positive terminal block, and the black cables connected to the PV out negative terminal block. Finish off by driving a grounding rod into the ground and running copper grounding wire from the rod to the fuse box and then from the solar panels to the fuse box. Make the matching connections at the inverter panel disconnect inside. Test your system and then install all of the box coverings and you should have years of power from the sun.
