Is It Worth Building Your Own Solar Panels

Yes you may have heard of solyndra collapsing and may have even thought at least once in your lifetime how it would be like having your own solar panels mounted in your backyard or on your home s rooftop.

Is it worth building your own solar panels.

Buying solar panels requires an investment and more decision making than leasing but over the long term the benefits of owning your system are hard to beat. Overall the project was a fun experience and the total amount of money that i spent was around 400 500 which includes the battery charge controller and deep cycle battery. Most property owners can break even on their solar investment in 7 to 8 years. If you live in an area with high energy rates and a suitable solar rating and can afford the initial investment it s worth installing solar panels in your home while the 26 tax break is in place.

With a solar payback period of between 4 10 years this represents a simple investment return of between 10 25. Most of the claims made by these websites are either false or misleading. One of the biggest advantages of installing residential solar panels is a 30 federal tax credit on the total cost of a system. So i saved a large portion by building my own solar system since a commercial solar panel would have cost 400 on up for just the solar panel itself.

This is a significantly better return than the long term average returns for both shares or property. Start comparing solar quotes on the energysage marketplace to see how much you can save. That means homeowners but not renters can subtract the credit from the federal income taxes they owe in effect reducing the price of their solar purchase by nearly one third. Of that amount design and installation labor costs contribute about ten percent of the total bill this ten percent is what homemade solar panels will save you in essence since you ll still have to buy the equipment yourself.

There have been many claims made from certain web sites that say it is possible to build your own solar panels and run your entire house from solar panels for an outlay of 200 or less sell excess power back to the utility grid and even generate an income from solar. If you really want to as a project for fun then by all means have a go but be careful and i would not suggest using the panel in a position where there is a risk of fire. Here is a more detailed discussion on whether solar panels are worth it.