As the price of electricity continues to rise on the backs of rising fossil fuel prices, and the cost of solar panels declines, installing a solar system for your home becomes more and more attractive. A home solar system can dramatically reduce a household’s monthly electricity bill or even drop it to zero. The problem is that even now, a solar system can be very expensive in up-front cost, so that it takes many years for the savings in electricity to pay back the cost of installing the system in the first place.

A large amount of that cost, however, is for the labor to install it. The wicked little secret is that a solar system is not that difficult to install. It can be done over a single weekend, using only a few simple tools. In this way, all of the contractor labor portion of the cost of a solar system is eliminated.

It’s even possible to reduce the cost still further by making your own solar panels. That’s a good deal more work, though, so what will be discussed here is a “middle way” as it were: installing your own solar system using a kit.

Home Solar Kit Types

Solar power kits come in two main types, grid-tie and off-grid. These are different ways of dealing with the fact that solar power is generated only in the daytime, while more electricity is used after the sun goes down.

 A grid-tie system is one that is designed to work with the commercial power grid, using what is known as “net-metering.” The way net metering works is that the excess power your solar system produces during the day is fed into the commercial grid. The power utility can sell this electricity to other customers, and you receive a credit.

At any time that you are using more power than your solar system produces (e.g. at night), you buy electricity from the utility using the credit for the power you produced earlier. At the end of the month, if you have used more electricity than you produced, the utility sends you a bill for the difference; if you have produced more than you used, the utility sends you a check.

An off-grid system is designed to work completely disconnected from the commercial grid, and relies on storage batteries to store power during the day for use after the sun goes down.

Home Solar Kit Prices

The difference in price between the two types of kits is not great, although off-grid systems are slightly more expensive. In either case, you are looking at a total cost ranging from $2.25 to $3 per watt. For a solar system which generates two kilowatts, therefore, the price of a kit would probably be around $4,500 to $6,000. A more powerful system would, of course, cost correspondingly more.

Compare this to the cost of installing a solar system, which can easily run more than $20,000, and obviously using a kit represents considerable savings!

For a household with an average electric bill of $150 per month, the new solar system could pay for itself in as little as two and a half years.

How Much Work Is Involved?

A good home solar kit comes with solar panels, all necessary electric and electronic hardware, and mounting racks.

To install one requires some simple and common tools, including screwdrivers, a ladder, and pliers. Depending on your situation, other tools such as a power drill or a saw may also come in handy.

The solar system can be installed in a single day by someone with some experience, but it’s better to budget a weekend for the purpose.