Thank you for the clear explanation. Electricity overwhelms me at times, and most other don't explain the process sequentially like you just did, explaining each step on the way. Now, to find funding...

Thank you so much for making this video. I think I’ve watched it like four times as i mull over Whether or not to get solar for my house

I can finally understand how the solar system (this kind) works! Very detailed, very informative, all components involved, etc. Thanks you for your time.

Really good explanation- thorough and with just enough technical terms. Perfect- many thanks for this effort! Sweet system and really nice property!

I have been debating solar power for a while now and have been watching hundreds of videos for research. This has been HANDS DOWN the most informative video series I have seen to date. I appreciate you sharing your info with me.

This is one of the best videos I've watch in explaining a solar system. Great job.

You did an excellent job of explaining technical aspects of a solar installation.

This video was very informative. it made me feel as if I was back in high school learning it all over again!

Excellent video! I’ve watched a lot of videos about solar systems and none of them explain the principles behind them as well as you. I guess you put down some effort in making this. Keep up the good work!

Excellent presentation. I am a retired electrical engineer who has been dabbling in solar and wind power generation for many decades. My non-grid-tie systems have been small due to the usual high costs and lack of technology. To give a point of reference, I power my garage (mechanical, welding, metal and woodworking shop equipment), outbuildings with refrigerator and freezer, and all outside electrical needs. Basically everything but the house. Now that solar grid-tie equipment is legal, feasible and cheaper by the watt than in the past, I am going to take the plunge and put a system together for my entire property. You have done exactly the same system I want for mine. I subscribed to your channel for more solar videos. Thank you.

Thanks this has been one of the most informative videos I have found on grif tied solar so far

2022 when I’m writing this. I want to thank you for this video. I’m designing a grid tie only system for my house and I needed to see this video. Fabulous description of how solar panel energy can overcome grid impedance and flow backwards through the meter. Nice job explaining that. Thank you. I was the student 5 years after you first published this!!! Smile.

Easily one of the best videos I’ve seen so far regarding solar. Thank you for posting it.

I learned a lot from this video...thanks for the time you took to make it. Much apprciated!

I sincerely appreciate your effort putting this video together. And actually telling us how much the system costs.

Hi there. An incredibly informative video. I felt like I was in an online class with not a wasted word. Have ever thought of being a teacher. Even if you are not or ever have been you are a natural teacher. Thank You so much! I subscribed also!

Outstanding "review", for me on the basics of power and terminology. Cheers.

Absolutely BY FAR the best explanation of the system without extraneous information.

Nice that you have the property for the array that isn’t sitting on your roof! Well produced and thoughtful presented. I’m hoping the pricing will become more affordable over time with new technologies and products entering the market.

So nice to hear someone who actually knows what he's talking about. Interesting vid

of course great video .....and well built system ....i am intrerested in your battery build and notice that that has not been costed ..plus credit ......i think this is an exciting time of change and you showing that it works helps ...... Tim australia

You have a really good way of explaining the details of this and making it easy to understand - thanks for the great video!!

Really informative video. I learned a lot from your examples and simplifications of the process. Thank you

Good to see actual outputs from the system and not just the advertising spiel. You can set up the inverter to supply the house during an outage but it adds a lot of cost to put the isolater and changeover switches in. The most cost effective way is to just live with the odd outage and buy a generator so you have backup power even at night. If you hook it up to your house supply, you will still need a grid isolator anyway.

The 'newish' SMA SB5.0-US or SMA 6.0-US are grid tie string inverters that will output 2kW emergency power direct from your array during daylight hours if the grid fails without any storage. I bought the 6kW for around $1320 2016-17. I have installed 3 units and they are very solid and well engineered with 3 MPPT channels each. BTW excellent video...one of the best I've seen... I run a small home/hotel and reduced my cost from $13000/yr to $3200/yr with a DIY 10kW system with tracking for $23000 Actual estimated return of cost

The most important thing to me that makes the cost worth it is you learn how to provide power on your own. The cost for power will continue to rise even when power companies have surplus. In my area we were informed there will be brown outs implying shortage and going to raise the bill but then against people installing solar. If you are interested in doing solar but worry about cost then start with a smaller project it is rewarding and it is a good skill to learn. It is also a fun project.

Nice setup! Love your videos. This one answered several of my questions. Thanks for sharing!

great video, thank you very much for such a simplistic straight to the point personal experience and knowledge.

Enjoyed this walk around...we're getting ready to build our home and have space for solar setup...this was helpful

One of the best explanations out there of how a solar system works, and the positive financial impact of residential solar systems.

This video had excellent analogies with the water.

You gave a good, no-nonsense insight. As I expect from a farmer(!).

Great video! Anyone else notice that at 4:14 his house windows look like a standard 110v outlet?

Wait a minute. Geeky solar panels? Perfectly describing parallel/series? Cheesy cutaway attempts at jokes? Masterfully using water flow to describe voltage and current??? You are a fellow EE, aren't you? :-) Excellent video. I particularly enjoyed that you showed the structural components of your array. Nice in-focus, steady and clear shots of the undercarriage stuff. Great job at describing the complex setup in easy to understand terms.

Dude super educational and straight to the point no selfi fluff

This is my first time enjoying your KZfaq channel. Great work! I’m looking forward to more great content from you. Thank you so much!

I was listening the whole video for the "ugly truth" and didn't hear it. Maybe you need to re-title this video to Solar Basics or something like that. And thank you for doing this.

Thanks for the informative video. I like the way the panels are mounted away from the bldgs, but I've seen some stones thrown by mowers and even vandals break glass and panels. I think I would have the panels mounted higher, and be able to used underneath as shelter from the elements. I'm not sure where all the pop-up suggestions were coming from but they were too numerous and obnoxious.

Good explanation on how Grid Tie works. I'm running Off Grid with changeover switch to Grid. Expanding setup but currently 1K4 PV with 8K7W Batteries backup. A battery system is the way to go.

Great video, clear/easy to follow your explanations. I watched it because I'm trying to understand why too much solar power could destabilize the grid system(that's what we are told). So far I have not found any sound technical reason. But I can see that it impacts the economics of power companies.

Great video, thanks! Awesome setup, just what I would have if I ever decided take the plunge. It appears you have a water tank under your panels to rinse them. Many people don't realize that even a light haze of dust can rob you of 10-20% of your panel's output, so they must be cleaned often and endlessly.

Perhaps not Ugly truth more of this is how it works :) good video! I have 17kW on my roof with 100kWh battery bank and can work all year now. I cover 100% 10/12 months if power goes out. Last 2 months i will survive but not without lowering consumption. Its worth mentioning that we have not changed our useage and during winter we only get 10% compare to summer..... Solar is very interesting but there are so many systems out there so its easy to get fooled if you dont know what you are working with.

Thanks for your explanation ... good work. That high voltage might be something to really consider.

So much great info, thank you for all the explainations

oh man..wish my teacher had told me about water hose idea to explain Volts and amps. I'm 37 and now i get it!

Nice system. I'm leaning toward a 10.2 kw micro-inverter system.

Man you're good at teaching -thank you!

I like the ironridge racking quite a bit! It's super easy to use.

Great video thank you!

We have a 3.5 kw system that I installed almost 5 years ago. This system cost about $15,000. I saved about $3500 by installing it myself. After the Federal rebate it cost about $8,500. In talking to a property appraiser, solar systems are somewhat like swimming pools and you get about 50% return if you sell. Our system produces almost all the power we need. We saved approximately $900 the first year. Instead of having $8,000 in the bank making 1% ours is on the roof making about 11% tax free. Our electric rates are increasing almost 6% per year. So is solar a good technology? I think it is.

FC101, You sir, are a damn genius!!! Thank you for the video!!!!

so well done and just what I needed

We are about to purchase a solar array kit (12 panels, I believe? 3.6kW) and your video is very instructive and helpful! I understand amperage, wattage and inverters much better now. Thank you for posting it.

They have some grid tie inverters out now that one can plug into and still get power in a black out as long as the sun is up. Great video!

WOW !!! This is so wonderfully explained !!!! Fantastic job Sir !!!

Great video!!! Thanks for the detail ,, and in depth explaination

Interesting, thanks! Would you consider experimenting with covering panels to see how much the optimizers help? You seemed uncertain of the improvement they claim to provide.

This video was absolutely perfect for what I wanted to know. Thank you for this

Better explained than my college professor. This fella is smart and articulate

Thank you. I learned a few things.

There are many grid tied systems that have battery backup as well so one can continue to use the solar even when the power company is down.

A few months ago, we put in a SMA 5.3 Kw system. We bought the secure power option. Instead of shutting down the system to avoid the anti-islanding situation, the system diverts the power to one outlet with 2000w available. We just had hurricane Irma blow through and lost power for 4 days. The secure power system worked like having a 2K generator that worked from 9am-6. This might be a half-way solution. It's much cheaper than putting in the battery backup but obviously we had to use a generator at night.

Very good information - thank you for putting this together.

Very good presentation. Very simple language so any one without engineering background can understand it.

:-) your power meter is in the witness protection program...

With the new inverters, they simply disconnect from the grid during power outages, but you still get power until the sun goes down, unless you also have batteries, then it never goes out, but batteries are expensive, a generator is much cheaper than batteries.

Thanks for the vid - very clear explanations!

Great video, very informative, keep up the good work

I have a 3.2K grid-tied system, which works perfectly fine when the grid is down. I have a switch box which disconnects the system from the grid when I throw the lever. This is one of the reasons I chose a grid-tied system, after experiencing quite a few down-times from our rural electric co-op.

Well done video. As a master electrician with a background in physics and engineering I have however chosen to not become involved with any system that does not include on site storage. Having been involved with co-generation in various forms from small rural windmills to industrial heat reclamation projects since the early eighties I have seen the mandated beginnings of ‘net metering’ all the way to the current phase out of that model. That mandate occurred during the era of mechanical metering and the added cost of dual metering made most small installations unfeasible at that time. I disagree, as a matter of principle, that taking advantage of modern electronic metering which makes possible grid ties feasible, and thus using the grid as ‘storage’ is not a fair and equitable system under net metering. Obviously the courts and regulators agree with my position as net metering is now on the way out. The proper analysis in my position is always grid tied for reliability, net zero draw from the grid under normal operations, and on site storage for management of the differential between electrical generation and load times. This of course comes at a significantly higher initial investment and longer payback. As examples of my rational I offer disagreement about your statement regarding selling excess production to your neighbor. If that is your goal then you should route your own cables to your neighbor’s property. Using the grid instead takes unfair advantage of the utility company’s infrastructure and is also an unfair usurpation of the company’s business model of producing electricity at wholesale and selling at retail like all other free market capitalized businesses. Plus utilities may be monopolies, but they are very much regulated monopolies. They, like all other businesses, are entitled to charge for their services and make a profit for the shareholders albeit regulated under government oversight. One very big fallacy of solar is hidden in that need to store that energy. We are making it when it is not needed. Dumping it to the grid is actually a very poor choice for a myriad of reasons besides the unfairness of the net metering issue. It is a logistical night mare for grid operations on a system that was engineered and constructed to transport power from a centralized source to distributed loads. Things were ok when only a handful of installations were involved and thus net metering made some sense. But with more widespread adoption of the technology these points I am raising have become critical issues. In addition your description regarding the inverter’s ability to manage the direction of power flow is a very good analog of what is occurring but not technically accurate. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the concept of power factor in electrical circuits. You very clearly have the basic understanding of electricity to grasp and add this concept to your tool kit. Once so you will realize that the electronics management utilizes phase angle to perform its management of power flow. Again, we’ll done and thank you for consideration of my position.

Wow solar sure is getting better great video

Awesome I'm ready to start working my hobbies back at home as well..

Hi Being on the grid there are monthly cost you would have to add. Here in Alberta are monthly charge for electricity is cheap it’s the monthly fees just to be hooked to the grid. Example out of a $200.00 bill 50.00 to 60.00 is the electricity charge the rest is fees. So in my case without money conversion 17,000.00/60.00= 23 years to pay for it self. On grid you could use no power and you would still have a ton of fees depending on where you live. Thanks for listening.

could you show a breakdown of the cost of the $17,000 system?

Thank you! This is very helpful!

Excellent information! Thank you for the effort it takes to explain things so clearly and concisely!

It appears that the panels could have been installed much closer to the house, therefore using a smaller length of wire (cheaper and less voltage drop). I'm guessing these were placed farther away for aesthetics.

At any rate, you're helping save natural gas coal for future use! Side note- America should rid of 120 v, yes America uses a split 120/120 v power box, and go strictly 240 v to all outlets! You don't need to bring three wires into a house you would only need two, that's a cost-saving right there!!! We could have double power with 240 v. On the same outlets that you have now! 120 v is plain stupid wasteful... Just curious but why are the panels so far away from your house?

I'm getting a system of the same size as you put in here in South Australia but I'm getting a 12KwH battery too and we can run it during a blackout. It comes with blackout protection and we can nominate two rooms in the house to keep live in a blackout. Handy feature really.

thanks for the info, few makes sense, yours was one of them.

nice video, however, grid-tie is only effective if the electric company you associate buys back the electricity at a reasonable rate which most do not give competitive pricing for they will charge you more for using their electric than clearly what you sell them. also if you place your grid close to the usage area the cost of wire digging and etc is greatly reduced. when buying complete systems many times the companies will include a tax incentive package but increase the price of their system so they make a greater profit at your expense using part of the tax break as a selling point but profiting from it themselves.

I liked the explanation right up to the discussion of optimizers, where I disagree. My take on optimizers, is that they are good for when there is an under-performing panel, also optimizers and microinverters, can give you information via apps. I didn't see any trees or anything else to block the sun and your system is accessible. Your panels already get the same amount of sun and you can visually inspect for and clean, dirt and snow. If you see poor system performance, you can test circuits to find a bad panel. 3 string-disconnects may help with that too. At 50-$70 each, plus the installation, you may have paid as much as $3000 for an unnecessary component, especially since you seem to be a hands-on person. The max residential voltage is 600v, so you could have done 2 strings.

Nice install !and nicely explained !

I also plan to set up one. Thank you

I found this video to be quite interesting, and some of the comments as well. My problem with going to a solar system, would be with warranty and getting anything out of said warranty. One viewer/commenter (before me) stated that the company that made his inverter was bought out by another company, and is refusing to honor the warranty or even share the schematic diagrams so that someone else could attempt to fix it. Having gone thru ordeals involving roofing, automobiles, snowblowers, etc., and seeing how many "warranties" aren't worth the paper they are written on, leaves me sort of gun-shy to take a leap into such a venture as power generation. Don't get me wrong... Kudos to those who do commit, and best wishes for a trouble-free operation.... But....

So, sorry I know its minor details but there is a very common misnomer that annoys the hell out of most Electrical Engineers... power dose 'not', just "flow in the path of least resistance". Where the misnomer comes from is it is true that 'more' power will flow along the path of least resistance. But unless the circuit is designed correctly with the correct controllers and/or limiting Diodes to conduct the electricity where you want it to go, electricity will always flow through all available paths... A better analogy would be, if you had a 5 gallon bucket and you drilled a 2" hole in the bottom and a 1" hole next to in on the bottom, then you plug the holes, then fill with water; If you could pull both plugs simultaneously the 2" hole would obviously have a larger flow/volume then the 1" hole. But its VERY important to notate that you will still have flow out both holes unless circuit/inverter is properly designed/set up... Considering your giving advice to the potential "shade tree", "DIY'er", "sudo-Electrical engineers" that could be handling an out-put of even a fraction of the amount you are describing is easily in the range of being a potentially lethal power flow....

very informative, keep up the good work!

Best explanation yet! Thank you…

Technical accuracy of this video is superb, except the "Optimizers" are (as far as I know) simply bypass diodes.

to test this optimizer thing, cover a panel and see how the system reacts

Very nice explanation and learned a lot!

most of the inverters on the market today have a single outlet feature that will have power during a blackout from the grid. They are not designed to supply enough power for your whole house, but enough to run a fridge, medical equipment etc. These have been around for a while now, I don't know when your system was installed, but video was uploaded October 2017, these inverters have been around since 2016. I do know it's hard for the average person to know whats available, mainly because the industry moves so quickly, also the agent selling the system doesn't bother learning what the options are for every component.

I'm at the same point. I've built my own 18650 battery back up system at 48V and about to have a 9000W system installed. I've been looking at the Schneider as well as the Outback for my system. The DIY powerwall group I belong to, no one discusses final assembly of their system and what equipment they use and why they chose that equipment, which in my mind is the most important part, I'm really looking forward to the next video, and if it is already out please provide me a link....I can't find it in your list.

Very good one.. But wonder why you captioned it as 'Ugly' truth ! It is safety which it provides and yes it is meant for areas where Grid power is considered to be available during day time without much interruptions ! There is some inconvenience that when Grid power is not available (due to outage or load-shading), your solar panel in a sunny whether are of no help to provide you power.. That got be lived with and that is truth !

A very well presented overview, thanks

Very nice job explaining grid tied solar, one of the best! FYI, my (8k) hybrid, off grid system will payback in 12 years. The number one reason to have an off grid system is for self reliance. I will have power even if there is a zombie apocalypse.

You can reduce numbers and diameters of DC wires, if you place the inverter directly under the solar Panels, make a little weather proof housing. Like this, the DC lines with bigger loss are short and the AC Transmission from the House (to operate the inverter) and to the house with the inverted current are cheap and with little loss.

The higher voltage inverters are usually alot more efficient!!

Very informative video and thanks of all of your efforts. For those of you hating on the cost of solar try to think of all the money you have wasted over the years, if you purchased a new vehicle the value dropped as soon as you drove off the lot, and yes I see lots of people driving shiny new pickup truck and they are not all for work. What he is doing is not only good for the environment but also good for our country, less money to the middle east, The cost of electricity is only going up, my power company ups its rates every November 40 percent for the winter months. My neighbor is putting in a big system and using the Tesla batteries and is cutting the cord off the grid, he said he has had enough. In my part of the country houses are very expensive and 20 to 30 grand in the big picture is not that bad and unlike the grid solar is coming down in cost. Again thanks for your great video.

That's a good video to learn how bet metering works