If you are like a growing number of people in your country, you are thinking about the idea of generating your own power.  It definitely something that more and more people are thinking about over the past few years, and now, people are actually doing it too.  Here are the ideas you need to be thinking to get started and to get off the grid:

First of all, it is not at all true that an off grid solar system needs to be and can only be designed by a professional.  That simply isn’t the case anymore.  There is too much good information that exists these days.  If you on the other hand are looking for a system that will be connected to the utility grid, then yes, you will need some help from a professional.  But off grid is different.

As the solar industry has moved forward over the years, there are many different companies who now manufacturer pre assembled, or easy to install kits. That’s right, these things are nearly put together before they arrive at your home.  So, in reality, there is not much work at all to do once they arrive.  And as you would expect, you usually get a great manual that will talk you through the final steps of putting this system together.

Some of the factors you should consider before you purchase anything is with regards to sunlight.  If you live high up in the forest, where there are many trees all around, you should consider sunlight for sure.  The solar panels need to have as much sunlight each day as possible to do their job the best, so you want to minimize or even eliminate the potential for shade hitting the panels.  Since most people still live under a roof, that is the usual spot to place solar panels, but there might be an even better location where you are at, so just make sure to consider heavily the location before you buy anything.  You need to make sure you have enough space for the actual panels too, so figure all that out before you purchase anything.  You can match up your space available to different solar panel kits to make sure you are “all good”.

So, once you have done just a little bit of homework, it is entirely possible for you to start living a life off the grid, and producing your own power.  More and more people are doing it each day, which is great for many reasons.  Not only does it cut down or eliminate the electric bill, but it is even building a solar industry throughout the world which means more and more experiences people to help you along the way if something strange does occur.

Shade hitting solar panels is just plain ugly.  For the record, solar panels are happy when there is unobstructed sunlight hitting them.  When there is shade on solar panels, they simply do not operate at optimum efficiency. The hours of sunlight on solar panels is super important.

So, with shading in mind, do everything you can to make sure there is no or as little shade as possible on your solar panels.  Some people who are planning on buying a solar panel system build there future home with shading in mind.  This is a GREAT idea.  If you too are planning on building a home in the future, why not take some time and contact a solar installer and ask them what their opinions are on the best places for solar panels with regards to shade.

One common mistake that homeowners make with regards to solar systems and shadding is they assume they know exactly how the shade effects their property.  This is great that everyone feels they know how sunlight hits their “land” or “house”, but in reality, most of us don’t usually sit outside all day long throughout the year and observe how the sunlight falls down every minute of the day and take notes on it.  There are scientific shadding devices that solar people use that can callculate this instantly, and they are VERY ACCURATE on predicting shadding on a specific part of your house.  All types of lasers and things like that are involved.  So ask your solar installer about conducting a shading analysis prior to installing any type of solar system.

At the end of the day, if you can eliminate just 10% more shade that would otherwise be hitting the PV solar cells, then you will be increasing your energy production by another 10% at the same time.  This will payoff in many thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the solar system.