Grid-Tie Solar Builds Archives

6KW Grid Tie Solar On a Budget

As long as you are willing to hire your own electrician or even install everything yourself the parts for grid tie solar are not expensive! Here are some pieces that can be used to build a system that should be well under $1 per watt if your racking isn’t very expensive.

For racking what I did was spec out the system at ironridge.com and then take the generated Bill Of Materials over to www.ressupply.com to purchase. the prices were half or less than MSRP and shipping was a flat $150.

Check out the parts list below for other pieces and suggestions on quantity for a very nice 6kw system.

Parts List for Reference

This is a high quality inverter by Delta made for Solar City. It was designed to operate with a version of the Tesla Powerwall however with its needed 480VDC input this is probably quite useless for any of us layfolk trying to connect batteries. Still works perfect as a standard grid-tie inverter with a bonus that it will island without a battery to a separate split phase output if you’d like some backup power when the grid is down! The price point of under $700 shipped can’t be beat for a brand new inverter.

TIGO provides aftermarket off-the-shelf DC Quick Disconnect products. The reason this is important is when you’re doing a roof mount system in a jurisdiction that is enforcing NEC 2017. This TIGO product line allows you to shut down the individual modules so that no more than 80vdc is available on the roof after shutdown is triggered.

by fourthbean