Getting Started
You don’t buy a solar system the way you’d buy a dishwasher — pick one, have it delivered, slide it in. I wish it was that easy, but it’s not.
You’re designing and building something. That means research, decisions, tradeoffs, and a plan. The good news: once you’ve done the homework, a working system is a few weekends of work. The homework is the real work.
This is a project, not a purchase
The closest analogy is a home renovation. You wouldn’t tear out your kitchen without knowing what cabinets you want, what fits the space, and what order things need to happen. Solar is the same.
You need a plan, you need to understand the sequence, and changing your mind halfway through costs time and money — like a change-order on a contractor job. The thinking you do upfront is free. The rework you do later isn’t.
The order matters
There’s a natural sequence to designing a solar system, and skipping steps is how people waste money.
It starts with your load — what are you actually trying to power, and how much energy does it take? That answer drives everything else. From there, you move to panels and your inverter together. These two inform each other: the panels you choose affect what inverter you need, and the inverter constrains your panel options. After those decisions come battery storage, then wiring and safety.
If you buy panels before understanding your load, you’ll have too many or too few. If you buy a battery before choosing an inverter, you might find out they’re not compatible. The sequence exists for a reason.
Follow the sequence, and each decision gets easier because the previous one already narrowed your options. Iteration at this stage is free — if you don’t like where you land, go back and reassess.
Step zero: why solar?
Before anything else, ask yourself what problem you’re trying to solve.
- Offset your power bill?
- Have backup power during outages?
- Run something specific off-grid?
- Reduce dependence on the grid?
The answer changes what you build. We’ll dig into this on the Define Your Goals page — that’s the right next stop after this one.
Insulate before you generate
Here’s something most solar tutorials skip: solar should be the last thing you do, not the first.
Before you spend a dollar on panels, spend your time on efficiency. Insulate your attic. Seal your windows and doors. Put blinds on south- and west-facing windows. Pre-cool your house before a hot afternoon. Think about whether a couple of window AC units would do the job more cheaply than central air.
None of this is glamorous. But every kilowatt-hour you eliminate through efficiency is a kilowatt-hour you don’t have to generate or store.
The math is real: reduce your load by 20% and you might need two fewer panels, a smaller battery, and a less expensive inverter. That’s hundreds of dollars saved on equipment because you spent an afternoon with a caulk gun and some weatherstripping.
Now is the time
If you’ve been watching solar prices and waiting for them to drop further — they’re not going to. Not meaningfully. Panels and batteries fell dramatically over the past decade, but that curve has flattened. We’re past the steep part. (This is called Swanson’s Law — the solar equivalent of Moore’s Law — and it’s tapering off as the technology matures.)
What will keep changing is your electricity rate. That’s going in one direction: up.
The bigger risk isn’t buying too early — it’s getting stuck in research mode. There’s an enormous amount of information out there, and a lot of conflicting advice. You can spend months comparing options and never break ground.
You can do this
If you can wire a light switch, mount something to a wall, and follow a wiring diagram, you have the skills to build a solar system. That’s not hype — the equipment is standardized. Panels use MC4 connectors. Inverters have clearly labeled terminals. Batteries are either plug-and-play or close to it.
The hard part isn’t the physical build. It’s the planning — understanding what you need, why, and in what order. Once you have a solid plan, the installation is a series of straightforward steps: mount panels, run wire, connect components, double-check everything, flip the switch.
You’ll want a second pair of hands for some of it. Panels are bulky, batteries are heavy, and pulling wire through conduit alone is a pain. But none of it requires a specialist. It requires patience and attention to detail.
It should be boring when it’s done
A well-designed solar system just runs. Sun comes up, panels generate, battery charges, your circuits draw power, you go about your day.
I want to be clear about this because the DIY solar forums can make it seem like you’re signing up for a project you’ll be forever tinkering with. You’re not — unless you want to be. When someone tells me their system has been running for three months and they barely think about it, that’s a success.
And beyond
Once your system is running, there are rabbit holes — and they’re genuinely interesting if you like understanding how things work.
You can monitor generation patterns and learn when your real peak sun hours are. Track savings and watch the payback math in real numbers. Game time-of-use rates, charging from the grid at off-peak prices and drawing on stored power during peak hours. Automate things with Home Assistant so the system makes smart decisions without you.
None of this is required. Your system works without any of it. But the doors are there if you’re curious.
What’s next
Head to Define Your Goals — the page that turns this mindset into a concrete direction for your system.
If you want to see what your electricity actually costs and where the money goes, the Rate Calculator is a useful first stop.
Want to see a real build? The 200W starter system is a concrete example of what planning through installation looks like in practice.
DATA SOURCED FROM: Solar panel cost trend data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Tracking the Sun). Electricity rate trends from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Swanson’s Law via Wikipedia.