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Diy - Domestic Solar Power Systems


DVT

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Dear all,

This is not abot automative but domestic renewable energy. Thouht that you will want to share some thoughts.

As you know the electricity bill is giving us heart attacks.

Thought of doing a research to see how feasiable to install a solar powered energy system at home.

Contacted about 3 vendors and rough cost eatimations are below

1kWp (125 units on average capacity) about 550,00 LKR

1.5kWp ( 125 units on average capacity) about 700,00 LKR.

Warrenty - 25 years for the solara pannels / 10 years for inverter.

I am now considering if I can buy these units seperately (pannel and inverter and other units) and install by myself for knowledge/fun and most importantly due to higher initial cost.

I am not an engineer by profession but good in basics.

Please share your thoughts that might help my DIY project.

Thanks

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Basically you can do it. Calculate your energy consumption and find out how many panels you need based on the output of each panel you are going to buy. Inverters are expensive. So first you find the total cost that will incur if you need to do it by yourself.

Also you have to get permission from electricity board and ask for a special meter which will measure the total power generated and consumed that the rest will be billed for you. (Basically a meter that can reverse your consumption at day time when panels provide electricity) If your inverter is up to the standard, you can get permission from electricity board and they will replace it.

Solar panels are expensive to buy at first but for the first 10 years they are meant to be working without any deduction of efficiency but after that there will be a little loss. ( may be 10- 20%)

There are places which you can find solar panels imported from European countries and sell for cheaper prices. There are many types of solar panels (quality wise) that you will have to read and understand.

Apart from all those, no matter how much you generate and add it to the grid, if in case a power failure occurs you will get effected because you do not store it anywhere. However storing is costly due to higher cost of batteries. But you can use 1 or 2 batteries (2 * 90Ah) to store and rest you can feed to the main grid so that any time if there is a power failure, you can use the batteries at least for lighting. I have done the second part which I have separate wiring for solar lights at home with batteries with LED bulbs that are being used daily. One of my friend is running a grid tie interver from his panels. But he is not able to avoid power cuts because he does not store it anywhere. So you decide what you want and come up with final solution. Happy DIY project. :)

Edited by Nishan.dj
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Basically you can do it. Calculate your energy consumption and find out how many panels you need based on the output of each panel you are going to buy. Inverters are expensive. So first you find the total cost that will incur if you need to do it by yourself.

Also you have to get permission from electricity board and ask for a special meter which will measure the total power generated and consumed that the rest will be billed for you. (Basically a meter that can reverse your consumption at day time when panels provide electricity) If your inverter is up to the standard, you can get permission from electricity board and they will replace it.

Solar panels are expensive to buy at first but for the first 10 years they are meant to be working without any deduction of efficiency but after that there will be a little loss. ( may be 10- 20%)

There are places which you can find solar panels imported from European countries and sell for cheaper prices. There are many types of solar panels (quality wise) that you will have to read and understand.

Apart from all those, no matter how much you generate and add it to the grid, if in case a power failure occurs you will get effected because you do not store it anywhere. However storing is costly due to higher cost of batteries. But you can use 1 or 2 batteries (2 * 90Ah) to store and rest you can feed to the main grid so that any time if there is a power failure, you can use the batteries at least for lighting. I have done the second part which I have separate wiring for solar lights at home with batteries with LED bulbs that are being used daily. One of my friend is running a grid tie interver from his panels. But he is not able to avoid power cuts because he does not store it anywhere. So you decide what you want and come up with final solution. Happy DIY project. :)

Many thanks Nishan

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  • 1 year later...
Hi Guys,

There are lots of solar electricity suplliers in Sri Lanka, i am looking for a affordable solution. Cost of SMA is very high. Can any body share the experince with other inverter???

Correct me if I'm wrong, there are only two electricity suppliers in SL i.e CEB & LECO. Assuming you are talking about solar net metering providers, yes there are many of them. Their technology and pricing also seems to be similar.

The inverter which I have in my house is Israeli made 'SOLAREDGE' brand. I can't compare inverters as I have no experience with other brands and can't really rate my inverter as well. All I know its doing the job its suppose to do as the vender described when i bought it.

If you are looking for a net metering solution I hardly doubt it DIY as need approval from CEB for the installation and the Inverter which must meet their criteria. Also you'll need some skilled installation and Its a hi-voltage DC system so better you get the installation done correctly to the industry standards.

As someone mentioned correctly earlier, with a net metering system you'll still have a blackout if the CEB shuts down its supply and it'll also halt your energy production since your inverter need to be shut down within (as I remember) 30 milliseconds or less.

If you're looking for a solar panel/s with a regulator/Inverter to charge battery/ies, yes its a DIY. Assuming you use this for few bulbs during power cuts, if that circuit is DC you don't even need a inverter which is much more efficient I guess.

My system is up & running since January and its a 2.7 KW system with a 4KW inverter. The reason for higher capacity inverter is to add few more Solar panels in the future. I'm actually considering to add 5 more panels soon. System is design for 300 units per month and so far it has provided average of 340 units per month.

Edited by maersk
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Maersk, Thank you for all details. This is not a DIY one. This was a old therad so i post here as AL is like to reuse old posts. I have disscussed with a Solar Edge person they have good knowledge. But price is bit high. I like to know experince with Other supliers as well. I anybody is there please reply.

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  • 4 years later...

Bringing up an old thread. I feel that it's high time to go for a solar net metering system. But as of today some leading solar energy providers are non existent or gone bankrupt. Appreciate if anyone can recommend me a good company with good after sales services. Thanks.

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