Starting from scratch

[Clonus]

Hi, need some advice on starter system.

I don't have the money for a fullblown 5kw system and these free home systems are not the kind of thing I want. I've been waiting for years to get a nice lump of money to be able to afford this and at the same time im wasting time waiting.

I figure I could start with a 200-300 watt panel and add 1-2 per year instead of waiting all this time.

However, I just want to use it to offset the power consumption in the home instead of applying for some government payback deal.

I can buy Canadian Panels but they are expensive, or I can buy foreign panels much cheaper.

the problem is, where do I start with an Inverter?

Can I use one or multiple direct wall plugin inverters or do I need to buy a $1k plus inverter.

I have 3 roves, 1 is flat and faces south/east/west, so good exposure and I can probably build flat roof mounts from wood/PVC.

I just want to get it going, I'm tired of waiting now, but, I'm just not that educated on the whole direct plugin/offset model...

thanks in advance to anyone who responds!!

[inetdog]

Hello Clonus and welcome to Solar Panel Talk!

Please do not even consider the plug in grid tie inverters which you see on flea-bay.
They are not legal for use in the US, Canada, and much of the rest of the world. They are also poorly designed, inefficient and likely to fail spectacularly in a short time.

To do grid tie you will need an agreement with your power company (POCO) and in almost every state a permit and sign-off by a licensed electrician. There is a lot of the preparation and mechanical work you can do yourself if you can find an electrician or PV installer willing to work with you on that basis.

One hard reality of the permit process is that you will have to go through the whole thing again each time you add to the system, so incremental small upgrades can be a pain.