Are homeowners allowed to install solar panels in your area? Look on your city’s building division website to find information about if home owners are allowed to install their own solar panels in your area. If you can’t find the information there, call them. Also, call your utility provider to see if they allow homeowner installs.
Calculate your electrical needs. Add up your total kW used for one year taken from your monthly electric bills. For best results, take the average of two or three years of kW used to account for fluctuations between the years.
Measure the installation area. If the installation area is on your roof, hop up there and measure it out, ideally only south, west and east facing in that order. Remember to take into account any setback restrictions that your city’s building division may have. If it’s a ground mount, try and find a location that is south facing with no shade.
Tilt. If a roof mount, find the tilt of your roof by using an level app on your phone.
Azimuth. The Azimuth is the direction your roof faces. Use a compass app on your phone to find the direction or directions if using multiple roof faces of your roof.
PVWatts. Go to https://pvwatts.nrel.gov to calculate what size solar panel system you will need. Play around with different inputs on the DC System Size to see what will meet your requirements. You can add your tilt and azimuth to the calculator. The other inputs can be left as is.
For a more detailed description on how to size and plan for your future grid tied solar install please visit: Prepping for your DIY Solar Install