- 1). Estimate your home's daily and monthly power consumption. You can accomplish this by charting the respective information provided in your monthly electric bills. Information provided in the Resources section of the article will help you achieve this objective.
- 2). Purchase photovoltaic solar panels. There is a great variety of panel products available on the market, including roll out solar sheets, solar shingles and solar panels. The most popular, efficient, and cheapest are solar panels. For home use, each panel should have 250-watt capacity, as anything lesser than this figure will practically be useless for home use. If you have greater power needs, for instance 5,000 watts of electricity per day, you will have to purchase at least 20 panels of 250 watts each. Five thousand watts will be able to run a few lights, refrigerator and a water pump. In any case, you can decide on the number of panels to be purchased after calculating your energy requirements from Step 1.
- 3). Install the panels on your rooftop using the rail-mounting system that comes with the panels. Ideally, the panels should be installed on a roof facing the southwest. Make sure there is absolutely no shade on the roof and the panels get maximum sunlight during the day.
- 4). Use a power inverter for converting the solar electricity into electricity consumable in your home. Solar panels generate direct current, while the energy used by your home appliances is alternating current. An inverter is required to convert DC to AC.
- 5). Run the wiring from the solar panels to the inverter and then to the AC fuse box of your home. Unless you are certain how to connect the wiring, you should have the help of a licensed electrician.
- 6). Contact your grid electricity provider and discuss your options of "net metering." Upon generating additional electricity, you can sell the power back to the company and earn money for it.
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