Want to DIY Solar on a Budget to Bring Down Your Household Bills? Don't Start with Solar Panels!!!

As energy costs continue to rise and concerns about environmental sustainability grow, more and more homeowners are turning to solar power as a viable solution. The allure of slashing household bills and reducing carbon footprints makes solar energy an attractive option. However, if you're looking to invest in DIY solar on a budget, it's crucial to understand that diving straight into solar panels might not be the best starting point. Here's why and how to maximize your investment without immediately purchasing panels. A step-by-step approach.

Note: This has been written primarily for UK audience but may be useful for others as well.

If you need further clarification or assistance with any of these stages, please reach out through the contact form. We will be happy to help.

Prioritize Energy Efficiency First

✅Checkpoint 1: Insulation and Weatherproofing:

✅Checkpoint 2: Energy-Efficient Appliances:

✅Checkpoint 3: Energy Saving Thermostats:

✅Checkpoint 4: Economy 7

Thanks to checkpoints 1 to 3, now you have a relatively much more energy-efficient home. Now consider switching to a cheaper supplier or your own supplier but to a Economy 7 plan, for example, E-On Next . An Economy 7 plan is one where, during off-peak hours (typically 7 hours per day starting at midnight), electricity will be cheaper (~7p to 15p/kWh) versus on-peak times (~30p/kWh). If you join E-On, you will receive a £50 account credit applied to your account.

1) Any high-power consumption tasks such as running dishwasher, washing machine, car charging, or even some baking could be timed to run during the Economy 7 off-peak period. With E-On, the tariff for car charging is even lower than the usual Economy 7 tariffs. Dishwashers could run late at night (Most dishwasher such as this comes with a timer to start late at night). Washing Machines could be timed to start around 6:00 AM so that as the Economy 7 period ends, your clothes are ready for drying. Again, if you prefer indoor electric drying, with options such as the DrySoon system, you can better make use of the Economy 7 reduced rates by using it with a smart plug timed to start and stop within the Economy 7 period.

2) Carefully note down your on-peak and off-peak power consumption in kWh for the next 10 days or so. This will be used in the next stage. It will be a good idea to note down usage from any high power equipment (>2kW) such as your electric shower separately. This will be excluded in the initial battery or solar installation process.

✅Checkpoint 5: Battery Storage

You will put into use the knowledge you have from the previous stage here. Now you have an idea of your average on-peak and off-peak energy consumption per day. The goal of this stage is to use as much battery-stored energy as possible during your on-peak times and then charge the battery during your off-peak times and later with solar. Here is where going for a scalable solution will help you to start on a budget and then add to it in the long run. There are several options. Depending on your budget, you could carry this out in several stages:

The stages below are tentative ideas and will primarily depend on your house and how your consumer unit is configured.

Stage 1: You could start with a solution which does not require access to the consumer unit at all to begin. Consumer unit access will require an electrician as per regulations. Any equipment you use for long time or heavily during your on-peak time are the ideal candidates for this stage. If you use a home office, shed, annex, TV or even a workstation PC with several monitors, extensively during on-peak times, you could buy a plug-n-play power station(>3 kW is recommended) to suit your on-peak power consumption and then connect them through the power station. The powerstation can be set to charge during off-peak times from mains and power your devices while discharging during on-peak times. Another even more cost-effective scalable option instead of this all-in-one powerstation is to start building your own battery storage/inverter solution to use.

You could achieve this with the following components:

-a inverter such as this. The inverter comes with its built-in transfer switch which will come in handy.

-a battery (pick a 12V battery from here with a suitable kWh (i.e. 12 V x battery's Ah/1000)). It is recommended to add some inline fuses in the battery and the charger

-a charger such as this

-Protection fuses/transfer switch/isolation in your consumer unit

-a smart plug timed to turn off the charger during on-peak times and turn on the charger during off-peak times for charging the battery.

-another smart plug timed to turn on the inverter bypass AC input during off-peak times and turn-off during on-peak times.

The latter your own inverter solution is a more scalable solution compared to the power station option. Getting familiar with your battery storage system for few months will help in the next stage. Congrats! on your first battery storage project, which will eventually lead to solar installation.

Stage 2: Now that you are familiar with this off-peak storage and on-peak usage for a selective area, lets try to add battery storage to major part of your home. This will require, as per regulations, an electrician for one task, that is access to consumer unit, while the rest could be DIY. Now you need to scale up the battery to power most of the devices throughout off-peak times. This will include and will depend on the energy usage you have estimated in the ✅Checkpoint 4 stage. The capacity for the above-recommended inverter is 3 kW as per stage 1 of this checkpoint. This implies equipment such as an electric shower, which tends to consume >5 kW typically, cannot be powered through this inverter. Most other equipment within a kW of power requirement can be powered through this inverter with the caveat that, at a time, the total power consumption cannot exceed 3 kW. This implies all lighting and most other low power equipment can be operated simultaneously. But equipment such as kettle, microwave, iron, etc., need to be operated one at a time when using inverter. Not simultaneously. If this minor inconvenience is bearable, then this solution will lead to a huge power saving on a budget. The inverter and the battery should be installed in a shed or a electrical kiosk near the junction box. The output of the inverter will be fed as a input to all the low-power consuming sections in your consumer unit. Usually, cooker/convection ovens and showers will have their own separate circuit paths in the consumer unit. The rest could be connected to the inverter. Warning: Seek advise from an Electrician before implementing this stage! More batteries have to be added in parallel to power most of the home during on-peak times. Congrats you are very close to solar installation now!!!

✅Checkpoint 6: Solar panels

Now you have a wonderful energy-efficient home and a battery storage system which stores energy during off-peak hours and then powers your home during on-peak times. Let's do the last step, i.e., charging the batteries through solar panels!

To do this, you need:

-Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) battery chargers such as this

-Some solar panels

-Wires: right gauge/length for outdoor solar panel use, such as these, and appropriate wires between your consumer unit and storage shed/kiosk

-Protection fuses and isolation for your solar panels/MPPTs

Carefully assemble all the components, and you will have a solar-powered system at your home/shed/annex.

Congrats! With this, your solarification project is complete! You need not stop here. You can add more batteries and panels and upgrade the inverter/other systems over several years as per your budget and savings. Good luck on your journey towards a Net Zero home!