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by fewald_net 993 days ago
I am thinking about installing solar. Do you have any resources to learn about panels etc?
1 comments

There are a lot of guides out there like:

https://unboundsolar.com/solar-information/diy-solar

https://www.renogy.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-diy-offgri...

You may also want to watch some YouTube videos about how other people have installed their own. Mostly they are off-grid, but there are a few grid-tied systems as well. For the grid tied systems I would recommend buying plans like dymk did. A bill of materials and a plan will help a ton.

Based on the kit DYMK showed in his breakdown I think he used SelfSolar:

https://selfsolar.com/your-solar-journey/

I originally started with one of those semi-DIY companies (not Unbound, but similar) where they build a site plan, give you a permit packet, and offer to sell you the hardware in a kit, but I found it to be not worthwhile. They mismeasured the roof via poor quality areal photography, and the BOM they came up with was low to midrange hardware with a large markup.

I just rolled it myself and found suppliers for the panels, inverters, racking, did the roof CAD layout & branch structure, and permitting (single line diagrams + some paperwork) myself. Saved a bunch of money and ended up with a nicer install that way.