r/diySolar

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience after buying and installing a custom DIY 4.4Kw grid tied solar system from solar wholesale. My experience overall was superb!! Not everything went to plan but whenever an issue did occur, I simply called or emailed my project manager Brielle and she quickly found a solution with the rest of the solar wholesale team!!

Working with solar wholesale on my project was amazing!! They have a lot of experience helping first time solar installers like myself reach our goal of becoming a little bit more independent from our grid providers.
Getting a quote was extremely easy to do!! After filling out a questionnaire and providing a picture of our electricity bill. I was contacted by Jacob, one of their sales representatives. Jacob explained how the DIY installation process works and what I could expect from solar wholesale if we ended up deciding to go with them. I never felt rushed or pressured to make a decision 🙌🏼🫶🏼!!
Jacob recommended a 4.4Kw solar system that consisted of twelve solar panels and six AP system micro inverters. The size of a the solar system that he recommended was spot on with our yearly power consumption. I really appreciated the fact that he did not try to sell me on a bigger system like other companies that I reached out to did. I mentioned that I also wanted to install a battery back up system and after asking me a few more questions, he mentioned that they also had experience with adding battery back up systems to the custom plans that they provide!!

We agreed to move forward and we sent our deposit. Solar wholesale began designing our custom system. This is where I first started working with Brielle, our project manager. Brielle sent over the first iteration of how our project was supposed to be installed. They used satellite imagery of our homes roof to create the plans. I was never asked to go up to our roof to provide real measurements and this was something that I found strange but I just decided to trust them and continue to move forward with the project.

We sent them the final payment and solar wholesale immediately started getting our custom solar system ready for shipment 🚚!! Two weeks later we had a semi truck pull up to our home with everything that we needed to install the solar system. Solar wholesale literally sent everything that we needed except the power tools 👌🏼!! We proceeded with the project and decided to measure the solar panels and see how they would fit on our roof. Unfortunately this is where we ran into our first problem. The plans that they provided displayed two solar arrays consisting of six solar panels on each line of solar panels. From the measurements we took this configuration was definitely not going to fit on the top array. From the measurements we took we needed to install eight solar panels on the bottom array and four solar panels on the top array. After contacting Brielle to inform her on the problem that we ran into, she immediately stated working with the rest of the Solar wholesale team to see if we would need any additional equipment to install the solar system in the new configuration. They reached out to me extremely quickly and they informed me that no new hardware was needed for the new configuration!! Brielle sent me the new plans with the new configuration.

We moved on to the next step of the project, the permitting phase!! We submitted the plans to our city and unfortunately they didn’t get approved due to them wanting some things changed for the battery back up system that we purchased. Getting the plans to get approved took a couple of reiterations. The process was fairly long and really complicated but I was extremely happy that I had the entire Solar wholesale team there to help guide me through the permitting process. Their experience and knowledge proved to be invaluable throughout this part of the project!! Eventually the plans got approved and we were finally ready to begin working on the installation!!

The installation was fairly straightforward!! Everything was really simple to install since solar wholesale provided literally anything that we would need for the installation minus the power tools. This helped us a lot since there was no need to look for materials or look for any sockets or drill attachments. The installation took us roughly two days and everything went together exactly how the plans that they provided showed!! After we finished installing everything we scheduled the inspection from our city. A week later the inspector came to our home and we passed the inspection with flying colors!!

The only feedback and advice that I can provide is to make sure that you measure your roof, even if the team forgets to ask you for this information. In my case everything worked out fine in the end. The same might not happen to you so take the time to measure your roof to avoid any issues down the line 📏 !!

Personally I would highly recommended going with this awesome company!! They were very responsive throughout the entire process and they went above and beyond to make sure that we succeeded in completing this awesome project!! I really appreciate the time and effort that the team put into our project!!

If you have any questions about my installation please feel free to comment below and I’ll try my best to heal you out. I am not affiliated with this company!!

System is small but does what I need to start. Looks awful and could be more efficient if panels were higher. Good news for me is that roofline sits at a 24 degree angle and faces south. Need to trim some trees back but I want to mount rails that run across the roof so I can add more panels later but searching for this has turned a lot of mini rails and ways to put a ton of holes in the roof. Anyone done this before that could lend some advice. Trying to remain on the cheaper side but also realistic that I’m not going to just magically make this with stuff in the garage. Thanks for experience anyone can lend.

The 2nd solar tracker {work in progress(4040w)} for Deye 8kw inverter

So I’m very interested in the Pecron 500. I reached out to the and asked if they would have a breaker panel coming out soon. They told me it definitively wouldn’t be this year.

South Facing Wall

I live in Erie PA and have been noodling on a DIY solar project. In the end I want to roof mount solar for my home but i'm not quite to the point of replacing my roof yet (it for sure needs done first), but I was noodling on if getting started makes sense with my South facing wall as shown in my image. It gets unobstructed sun until mid afternoon when the sun moves to the west more. Doing some eyeball measurements I was estimating I could get at least 10-12 panels on this space, but I had a couple questions.

1. I was hoping this was a good chance to get the first permits and electrical setup with the intent to expand this system, The power meter / circuits are not super close but are on the other side of the sun room on the right of the picture. Is doing a chunk on the wall a OK idea then add on later?

2. I hadn't done a full calculation yet, but my rough math had me needing around 18-20kWh - system. We have 1:1 net metering so I'm not looking at a battery at this time... I'm still working out if i can even put that much system on my house. This wall and the sunroom roof are the south facing surfaces with the main part of house having East and West roof space. I'm not sure how much 10-12 panels would get me, but it's probably not a bad start?

3. If doing in phases makes sense (rough idea would be the roof would be done in next 3-5 years) what are some things I need to consider now? Since my system would be all on the wall, I would guess it's more of getting the power tie in setup and plan on where the roof would come down when it's time, but I can't find too much on wall installs so I was hoping for some insights on the general plan... is it worth doing maybe 20% of this project now and get some use of the system?

I’m looking into solar systems and found a good offer on a system that includes an inverter and battery from bluecarbon. However, I couldn’t find any details about connectivity over WiFi . The system has a usb port and two ports that look like RS-485.

My question is: if the inverter doesn’t have WiFi connection, would it be possible to add it using an extra dongle? Or do I need a raspberry pi style system over the usb port?

Hi folks, I picked up a PowMr 5KW low frequency inverter to experiment with. Model number POW-RELAB 5KU-SPLIT. I bought it after reading it's manual, which claimed a tracking range of 60-245V, which would work great for my 3S panel setup. Thing gets here, and the manual and sticker claims it's only good for 105V? That may get kinda hairy if the thing unloads the panels. I found another manual that claims 150V max as well. Just peering through the vents, I can see a capacitor in the PV circuit, good for 250V. So, which voltage rating is correct? If it's only good for 105V, that makes this inverter kinda useless. Anyone familiar with these inverters? TIA!