DIY Solar Power: How To Power Everything From The Sun

10 reviews for DIY Solar Power: How To Power Everything From The Sun

1. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   George – January 31, 2018

   
   I bought some recycled solar panels from a power plant, back in 1993. They ended up on a camper, covering most of the roof space because they were 4v panels and I needed 4 big panels (to make 16 volts). Then I headed off for a year. I was always impressed that the power was just ‘there for the taking’, and it was really the only power I used. Back then it was not cheap, and you had to scrounge for something at a decent price. Propane was still a bigger source of energy, anyway.Now the thing is completely reversed. People get 100 watt panels at Home Depot for $100, or ‘distress’ panels from Solar Blvd for 50 cents a watt. To me, people have lost sight of the bigger picture. I mostly think about RV’s or tiny houses. With an RV, you can get a lot of watts on the roofs. But, these days, that is not going to solve very much. You jump from running lights and fans and entertainment systems to air conditioners, massive jumps in power requirements, and none of that is really workable.The strength of this book is that it deals with integrated systems. Partly this is battery choices, but it’s also knowing what to do with the power. If you want air conditioning in an RV, a big fifth wheel trailer is not a good choices. The roof units barely work, you may need two units, and the output is still not going to be enough. If you want to air condition an RV I’d suggest a box truck or trailer with 2 inches of poly iso in as many places as possible. I used an evaporative cooler in my camper, way back when, and it was adequate.There’s no question that the auto companies, with a significant shift to China, are driving cheap lithium capacity. GM says we will have battery packs at about $100 a kWh. If that is 3-5 years out, it is important to think what that means. It means a huge battery pack is $5000 or $10,000. In something like an RV or a tiny house, that amount of power puts everything in reach, and if the drivetrain is electric, the shared power source is outrageously efficient. Not enough sun? Go find a quick charge station. Right now there are discounters who sell the GM 60 kWh battery for around $200 a kWh. It’s not a huge stretch to see $100, given the huge capacity increases. Again, a lot of this is in China.You have to ask what is the best way to ride on the back of this revolution. It’s good to address alternatives. I have a geothermal heating system. It was a much better investment than solar, back in 2008. People are gaming the regulatory structures, so it is hard to make assumptions that carry forward 10 years. Ideally, cheap solar and cheap lith power bail these problems out. We just spend some reasonable amount of money and get a lot of self-sufficiency. But if you Google ‘cycle issues with Tesla Powerwall’ it’s obvious that we are still in the struggles of an infant tech.So read this book to understand the options that are around, right now. If things continue at the torrid pace, a lot of this will be irrelevant, but it’s good to understand the building blocks of the tech. With this book you can decide if lead acid still might work for you, even if lead acid is not efficient and can’t be a general solution for anything above about 2 kWh of storage, much longer. And with integrated ‘lithium generators’, the all in one approach can solve all the problems in one unit, if you can recharge it. It doesn’t hurt to think about simpler, more efficient, and smaller. The worst takeaway from cheap solar, where we are now, is that it makes big houses, big cars, and general inefficiency ‘just fine’. This is my gripe about where we are now. I can look out my kitchen window and see 3 huge solar farms. It’s cool, but what has it really done? I guess it is enabling maximalism, if that is the opposite of minimalism. That is a bit ironic.It just seems like Toll is too attached to the old super positive vision of solar. He knows how to put together a system. It may not matter, these building blocks, with lithium generators, and Tesla Power Walls, and rapidly lower prices for lithium. The harder questions may be how to prevent solar from becoming another driver of social inequality, people in big electric SUV’s or huge solar McMansions. So Toll may be living in the past, or running from the future.Toll is someone who ‘grew up’ with Endless Sphere. ES spawned a lot of practical solutions for electric bikes. People thought electric bikes were an answer, and they seem to have worked in Israel. In the US, not so much. With cheap lithium you can have a very advanced electric bike, but you can also build electric motorcycles, and then you can build cars. Everyone on Endless Sphere seems to have fudged the limits of the ebikes. They all sell something that goes way beyond the legal limits. On his websites Toll rather arrogantly tosses out designs that are patently illegal. Toll was part of a tech that reached maturity, the electric bike, but now what, as the tech moves along? By the same token, what does solar power represent any more? It’s not really some off grid guy with an ebike and some solar. It’s all been corporatized.A smart person should be aware that lith tech will drive solar tech because solar is now dirt cheap, but storage is not. So don’t get carried away right now. This is not the time, and lith is not that settled a technology.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Chicago John – January 28, 2018

   
   I found this work to be both comprehensive and easy to read and understand. I’ve been an electronics hobbyist for years, and I got interested in solar last year and built two panels from scratch. I spent far more time trying to research what I needed to know than I did in actually making it. I wish I’d read this book at the outset. It covers the entire subject in one reference that is best read, as the author suggests, from beginning to end. Having reached the end, one has a basic understanding of all the key concepts and how they fit together, the many different types of solar projects that can be undertaken, and at a nuts-and-bolts level needed for considering ones interests, deciding what is practical, planing a design, and getting the ball rolling.While it presents a lot of detail, it is written with the novice in mind as well, starting out, for example, with a basic explanation of electrical concepts that will be helpful in developing an intuitive understanding for the subject rather than just applying rules without knowing why. Similarly, it not only covers options for cell types, panels, and batteries, but it provides substantial understanding of how these options work and how they interact. Even though I’d researched the area pretty extensively, I still learned quite a bit that fills in the gaps, and reading it straight through as suggested served to cement a clear, overall picture of this content area enabling me to review what I’ve managed to do up to this point in contrast to alternatives I might have taken, and various paths I can take going forward to use what I’ve made. The table of contents and Kindle features like “search” and “notes” make it easy to locate specific interest areas again to go back and re-read in connection with a specific project.While it may be necessary to acquire a bit more information in some areas, for example if you decide to do your own cell tabbing frame construction as I did versus purchasing panels (which I would have done now in retrospect), you’ll be able to do that much more efficiently and effectively having the knowledge imparted by this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about a solar project and, for that matter, anyone who just wants to learn more about this amazing advance in alternative energy that is beginning to flourish worldwide.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Gregory R. Baker – May 22, 2021

   
   This is the second book I have read from Micah Toll. He has a talent for presenting information in a style which is clear, instructive and concise. The book requires no prior knowledge on the reader’s part of solar power, electricity or electronics. It equips the reader with a solid foundation (including safety issues) for building useful solar projects.One of my relatives is considering construction of a new home with solar PVs — either grid-tied or off-grid. This book has equipped me to understand the equipment, materials, design tradeoffs, safety issues and calculations for planning out my first projects.One surprise was the chapter on passive solar projects. I did not know it is possible to make a solar water heater that circulates water without any electricity whatsoever — even for pumps!One small improvement would be to provide a few more recommendations and resources for finding parts which meet the requirements of those discussed in the book. I am still searching for a reliable way to locate parts on the internet without weeding through vast numbers of vague sites which turn out to not supply anything close to the desired component. I just joined Mr. Toll’s Twitter feed — @MicahToll — and am hoping to learn more from it.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   GramCracker – August 16, 2019

   
   i’ve have a career of forty + years as a Diesel Mechanic. i handyman everything I do at home. I’ve wired all my homes I built including routers and all sorts of data carrying projects. i can get by on my own very well but I also have had a lust for technical knowledge all my life. i used libraries constantly when there was no internet. What a blessing the internet can be if used properly. I am very thankful for Micah’s book and books, I always want to learn fro the best especially when it comes to electricity. SAFETY I worked around 70,000 volts everyday, we lost one electrician from something that happened that wasn’t supposed to happen. The price for these books is a lunch ticked price for most people, you cant get enough knowledge on electricity from 1 volt to 70,000 volts in solar setups or building your own storage source . This book will definitely make you safer and get you on the right step to competing a solar system. Thanks Micah for sharing your knowledge I have learned a lot. And yes I have tinkered with solar for quite awhile, I just wanted more knowledge to add to my resources and wasn’t disappointed .

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Clarke F. – January 27, 2018

   
   But misses on more advanced topics like Battery Management for Li-ion batteries (author is a big proponent of Li-Ion). Also clearly more familiar with 12 & 24. Volt systems than the larger 48V setups. Regular mentions of needing circuit protection (fuses or breakers) which is good common sense.Racking and mounting panels is only very lightly touched on. Mentions of wire gauge concerns vs amperage – but no tables or details that would help people correctly size runs distances vs voltage and current. No mention of Li-Ion batteries and their low temperature or overcharging concerns. No mention of days of autonomy – maybe not an issue where the author lives, but certainly is elsewhere where the sun doesnt shine every day.As a DIY off-grid solar user who built and installed his own system with Li-Ion batteries, i didn’t learn anything new – but i could see someone who is new to solar and interested in small to medium scale solar this would be a good book to start with. For the price its a good deal, with some minor additions it would be excellent.Also a table of contents is not available in the Kindle edition.

6. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   GENESIS – October 14, 2022

   
   Great info

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   C. Goins – August 10, 2021

   
   In quest to install an off-grid PV system, this was my 1st book in understanding that technology. I’m up and running a very professional 24V system with 360Ah batteries and 3000watt inverter with 4 solar panels 120 feet from house. I re-read it after my installation was complete and it was obvious I followed Micah Toll’s 2018 “DIY Solar Power – How to power Everything from the Sun” to the tee. Extremely informative at the basics.

8. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   FooBlah – September 20, 2022

   
   If you are completely new to the topic of solar, the this is the book for you.Otherwise you might not find it that helpful.

9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – March 6, 2022

   
   I feel like I’m much better prepared for DIYing my own solar system and I learned a lot about the options that are available for solar systems and safety with the solar systems as well.

10. 

    Rated 5 out of 5

    michael o. – September 14, 2021

    
    I wish I had bought this book before my Electrical Engineering senior design class. This book breaks solar power generation down to the basics with very detailed steps. Thanks to the author for sharing his experience and knowledge. This book is totally worth the price!