Solar power to home info

es, for installing solar panels, and No for completely going Off-Grid. The only thing is, you will need
a very huge investment, excruciatingly huge.

Keeping in mind an average 2BHK household in an urban area, I am expecting an average daily power
consumption of atleast 7–8kWh, over the span of 24 hours. Better would be to fetch your electricity bills
for the past year, and divide by 365 and you will get an average daily power consumption. It’s better to
separately estimate your average daily power consumption for summers and winters, since there’s a
wide gap here. The system you’re going to install will be done keeping in mind the maximum power
requirements plus ~20% buffer.

So why did I put focus on the investment part? For a solar powered setup, to give you that much power
~8kWh daily, at peak, I suppose you will need solar panels worth 1.5-2kWh, depending on your current
location, this might increase or decrease (just a bit).

Coming to the costing breakup, (you would need the following and here are the approximate costs in
INR, considering an 8kW power generation through the entire day):

Inverter/Battery Bank x 1 (3.5–5KVA): should cost upwards of Rs. 1,00,000

Solar Panels 250 WP (Polycrystalline) x 8: Rs. 12,500 (each) = Rs. 1,00,000

Solar Charge Controller x 1: ~Rs. 35,000–40,000 (each) = Rs. 40,000

Wiring, connectors and other miscellaneous stuff: Rs. 1000–2000, depending the distance between your
solar panels and the battery bank/inverter, plus all the costs of panel installation, electrical and technical
work.

All these estimates are considering you have all the necessary internal wiring, etc. in place.

So, you are looking at an initial investment of around Rs. 3,00,000 -3,50,000

Intimidated? There’s no need to be. You will over the time, get much more than you invested, and
believe me, it’ll be totally worth, and you will still be left with lots of time to get an handsome RoI
(Return of Investment) in the system.

Now coming back to why I suggested you shouldn’t go off the grid completely. There are times when
there’s almost no or very less sun hours. This happens during monsoon and also during extreme winter
seasons. Now depending upon your actual location, this is variable. On these days, you can see almost
negligible power generation. Your power backup won’t be enough to last you more than a day, in which
case, grid supply will come-in handy.

Secondly, the above initial investment is too much. I’ll suggest you to make an alternative arrangement.
Instead of going in for a complete system in one go, you can have staged investment. Like I am doing.
Last year I introduced two polycrystalline solar panels 265 watts each, and an MPPT charge controller
capable of taking solar panel inputs upto 40 Amps. Over the next couple of years, I am planning to add in
atleast two more panels 265 to 320 watts each, and by that time I will upgrade my current inverter as
well, which will allow me to switch all the electrical appliances in my home to the solar powered power
backup system.

Beyond that, I am implementing a fully autonomous Dual-axis Solar tracking system that will track the
sun day in and day out, and ensure that the panels are aligned perpendicular to the sun throughout the
day. This, as I have ran the tests and have the numbers, suggests that fetches me a 50% improved power
generation, something that’s quite critical, considering the investment done and the RoI time duration.

Installing Solar panels is a wise choice. It will help you to reduce your monthly electricity bill. But I won't
advise you to completely cut-off power from grid.

If you completely cut-off from grid, then you will be needing batteries for storage.And batteries not only
increases cost of project but they need to be replaced after 4-5 years plus its maintenance. Instead, go
for net- metering.You can enjoy all electricity generated by panel during day time and during night time,
you can fetch power from grid. In case you consume more than you generate, you have to pay for excess
units. On other hand, if you generate more than you consume then you will paid for excess units. As
per UPERC Solar Policy 2015 , Rs 0.50 will be paid for each unit you generate.This amount is too less.
This indirectly encourages rooftop owners to install solar just to meet their demand and no more.
Hence, those residential consumers who are trying to really earn money of selling solar to the grid, gross
metering is the appropriate option.

As far as initial investment is concerned, 1KW solar system will cost around Rs.70,000 without battery
without subsidy. You can always avail 30% subsidy and other incentives from Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy. Hire a solar consultant for better result and returns.

And to safeguard and promote this systems,all relevant information like products
sepcification, certification, policy and procedure, authorised or empanelled vendors are
available on your state nodal agency website, state discom website, MNRE website.