How I Installed DIY Solar Power and Started Running My House on Batteries

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

For years, I'd debated whether residential solar would make sense for my home. The math never quite clicked, and I refused to go into debt by signing a $30,000 contract or leasing agreement with a door-to-door solar sales company. It wasn't until the end of 2025 that the market finally forced my hand.

Planning my solar battery system

Traditional grid-tied solar systems use electricity generated by solar panels and feed it back into the public electrical grid. Customers are then paid a rebate rate by their electricity provider for the excess power their solar system generates. More recently, though, providers stopped paying customers back at the rates the company itself charges, and instead began offering energy credits worth only a fraction of what they are turning around and selling your energy for.

The current model of generation-reimbursement is, frankly, absurd. Imagine you're an apple farmer who sells your apples to the supermarket at harvest time, and they provide you with a 1:1 credit so you have apples available from their suppliers when your orchard isn't producing. Only now, they charge you as a consumer, not a producer. Those 1:1 apple credits will now only get you 1/3rd of the apples you supplied the supermarket with. They're also doing this to every apple farmer in the area, making their money as a middleman. No consumer enterprise should operate this way, but energy providers do.

Instead of giving my generated power away at a discount, I wanted to keep as much as I could and put it to use, so my first step towards building my power system was to choose a battery. A battery system stores excess energy generated throughout the day for later use when the system isn't actively generating power. After extensive Reddit scrolling and YouTube watching, I landed on the EcoFlow Smart Panel 2 + Delta Pro Ultra system. Reviews were decent enough, and Costco had a great package sale priced lower than similar bundles from competitors.

The majority of my total project budget went to this battery, inverter, and panel system: I spent just over $8,000 on the package, before rebates. (Considering that I only spent about 20% of that on the actual panel array, you have to wonder how solar dealers come up with their pricing. A traditional grid-tied system would have cost more than three times what I'd spent on the battery system and would have offered no way for me to store power.) I wanted no part of paying a lease or making payments to a solar company for electricity I couldn't even use.

How I chose my energy inverter

If the solar panels in your system are the muscle generating all the energy, the system inverter(s) are the brain, providing access to all that generated electricity. Inverters convert the generated direct current (DC) electricity from your panels into the alternating current (AC) used by your home and the appliances inside it. Without an inverter, your system will be dead in the water. There are three major types of inverters used in solar projects:

String Inverter: The cheapest solution, where a string of panels is wired together and fed into a single inverter unit. This is best suited for rooftop arrays with minimal shading.

Microinverters: Each solar panel (or group of panels) is connected to a small microinverter, which ensures that each panel's production is maximized and unaffected by shade elsewhere in the array.

Hybrid: This is the most common solution for battery-backed solutions like mine. The Delta Pro Ultra has both a high-voltage and low-voltage inverter system built in. The dual inverters convert the DC electricity directly from the panels and then direct it where it needs to go. Energy is either routed into the batteries for storage or to the house for immediate distribution. More often than not, the system is doing both at the same time.

Matching your solar array to an inverter setup with the correct voltage tolerances is a crucial step in planning your system. I chose the EcoFlow system for the simplicity offered in a packaged system, but you can go as far down the DIY hole as your confidence will take you. Just know that if you accidentally deliver too much amperage to an inverter that isn't rated for that level of juice, you're likely in for a bad time. At best, the system will shut itself down to protect its internal components from being zapped; at worst, you could end up with fried internals, a melted inverter, or even a fire. Don't assume anything to be plug-and-play.

How I chose my solar panels

I chose Signature Solar for my solar panels and accessories because they're one of the few vendors I found willing to ship pallets of solar equipment to residential addresses. Almost everyone else in the solar game wants to sell you an installed system, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I had been watching their sales and clearance sections for a few weeks when I came across a deal for URE Peach 390W solar panels for $99 each. They aren't the latest or greatest in solar technology, but they're miles ahead of the folding, portable 100W panels I'd been messing around with up until that point. I bought 10.

I decided to start by ground-mounting the array. Maybe one day I could spend the money to have professionals install the panels on my roof, but for the time being, I wanted to get things working as a proof of concept before diving into any additional labor expenses. The array still sits on the ground now, and I'm not sure I'll be moving it any time soon. It's likely I'd get a good chunk more production from a roof-mounted system, but for now, I'm keeping things grounded. It just works.

If I had it to do over again, though, I would have chosen metal-frame racking instead of the PowerField PowerRack bins I grabbed from Signature Solar. The PowerRack bins I chose are molded plastic bins designed to be universal for all solar panels and to make it the easiest way to get them ground-mounted in a hurry. The "one size fits all" promise was fair in that my panels do fit—just not particularly well. Racking is a much cheaper and simpler option. At $75 each, my bins are a bit of an awkward eyesore.

Check your local regulations before buying solar panels

If you've decided that you want in on the solar revolution, your first step should be checking with your local government on rules, permits, and any regulations there may be on backyard solar. Some locales have very few regulations when it comes to systems that aren't tied to the power grid, while others have rules about where you're allowed to keep panels on your property and how they need to be installed. The only major hurdle that I had to clear was electrical permitting for the sub-panel installation, but it's worth double-checking what the rules may be in your area before clicking "buy now" on a pallet of panels. You can also take the opportunity to ask if any local and state incentives still exist for installing solar. Start by checking with:

Your local municipal building department: They will handle any needed permitting for electrical work.

Your state's Department of Energy or Public Services Commission: They track consumer incentive programs and connection requirements. These offices can tell you which programs might be available for your home, as well as what local regulations you may be limited by.

Your electrical provider's interconnection policy: If you plan to grid-tie your system, you'll need to contact your local supplier to work within their guidelines.

Understanding how my power system works

One of the most daunting parts about DIY solar is the rapid pace at which you need to adopt electrical and wiring knowledge. Solar panels are often seen as benign, but it's important to remember that these systems carry significant electrical loads, and improper setup can damage your inverters, batteries, home electrical systems, or even start a fire. Electrical safety isn't something you want to figure out later.

My high-voltage inverter consists of seven panels wired in series, producing approximately 339V. While more panels would mean greater potential voltage, my focus here was on operating within my inverter's operating range of 80-450V. Being in the Midwest, I have to account for winter voltage spikes, as cold weather can cause panels to send a high-voltage zap to the inverter. When outside temperatures are at or near freezing, it lowers the electrical resistance in silicon, which in turn causes the panels to push a higher voltage. If that voltage spike exceeds the 450V maximum of my inverter, it could fry my battery system. Using only seven of the 10 panels keeps me in the ideal operating range.

My low-voltage inverter consists of two panels also wired in series, producing approximately 82V, which is well within the 150V rating of the low-voltage inverter, even on frosty mornings.

Given that I had to be mindful of voltage overages, I was left with one extra panel from the original 10 that I bought. Earlier in my solar adventure, I had picked up another, smaller EcoFlow Delta 3 battery with a capacity of 1,500 Wh. A 390W panel wired directly to the Delta 3 powers the entire addition in my home (a covered-porch room, approximately 500 square feet), including a 65" TV, soundbar, and the PC from which this article is being written. It's probably supply overkill, but it uses an extra panel that would otherwise be leaning against the wall in my garage. The next project will be to install a 120V mini-split HVAC system that can heat or cool the space while feeding off excess sun-juice.

Wiring my solar array

This is where things can get a little overwhelming. I'd advise anyone who is considering doing a project like this to figure out their planned setup first. Determine your daily energy needs, calculate the number of watt-hours required, and then design a system that best fits your needs. Don't do what I did, which was order everything and figure it out later. It took some trial and error to determine what would be the most efficient use of my panels and how to best configure them in either parallel or series wiring, or more likely, a combination of the two.

Series circuits

Series circuits connect a positive terminal from one panel to the negative of the next panel. This creates a daisy chain similar to stringing up outdoor Christmas lights. Voltage adds up, but the amperage stays the same. So if you had 4x400W panels wired together in series, you'd be making as much as 160V. This setup is preferable for inverter systems with a high-voltage range and tolerance. Series ensures maximum delivery over long runs but comes at a cost—if one panel in a series system is shaded, it drags down the production of the entire wired string.

Parallel wiring

The other wiring standard, parallel, connects all positive and negative panel terminals together as logic would suggest (e.g. red cable from panel 1 plugs into red cable from panel 2). In parallel wiring, amperage adds up, while voltage stays the same. This is ideal for inverters with a lower voltage resistance or solar arrays that can fall victim to partial shade.

Hybrid (series-parallel) wiring

A hybrid wiring setup between series and parallel is where I landed, and probably where most folks with residential systems end up. By using a hybrid setup, homeowners can group together solar panels in series, and then connect those groups in parallel. This method balances the trade-offs of the above two methods by combining them. You get maximum electrical delivery within the established range of your inverter, and if one portion of the array becomes shaded, the other series panel groups remain unaffected.

Then there's grounding. If you're just using a battery station and a panel or two, proper grounding isn't always something you might think of, and might get away without. Whereas with a full array, we're now talking about very serious levels of power that must be distributed, or even mitigated, safely. I was fortunate that the previous owner of my home had already sunk an eight-foot copper grounding rod into the earth and tied it back to the house. A copper wire is channeled along all of the panels and then fed back into the main ground. Any over-voltages or incidents like lightning should be safe from frying my whole system. Just to be extra cautious, I installed a 40A DC circuit breaker box between the outdoor runs and the indoor connections. That way, if something does happen to spike through the main lines, the box takes the hit before my expensive system. They're only about $40 online and well worth the peace of mind. They also offer an instant shutoff switch should you not have access to the main inverter in an emergency.

Where I chose to hire a professional

Why hire a professional to install the Smart Home Panel 2 and not the array? Connecting a battery stack to your main electrical panel involves working with 240V lines and amperage exceeding 100A. To put it simply: If you don't know what you're doing, it can be very dangerous. Most local governments will require sub-panel installation to be completed by a licensed electrician. Array wiring, grounding, and racking are all generally going to be permissible DIY projects as far as your local municipality is concerned (you should double check), but the final connection to your home's existing electrical infrastructure requires the knowledge and safety of a professional.

I already had an electrical guy, and he'd recently done one of these systems for a nearby neighbor, so I figured that was good enough for me, but EcoFlow did offer to put me in touch with certified installers they could vouch for in my area. It's a nice option if you don't already have a trusted electrician.

I needed a trained electrician to install the EcoFlow Smart Home Panel 2 I bought. The smart panel receives energy from the inverter/battery stack and distributes it around the house as needed, supplying dedicated circuits that have been moved over from the original panel and using grid electricity from the main panel if it's needed. It's a brilliant system, but when I saw the work required to install it, I was glad I hadn't convinced myself that I could pull it off by watching YouTube videos. Seriously, call a pro for this part; it's dangerous. My electrician connected the new smart sub-panel, and we discussed which circuits were most important to move to dedicated solar power.

How much energy solar power creates (and how much money I save)

I didn't get my solar power system running until November 2025, and if you know anything about solar production, you'll know that isn't the greatest time of year for generating energy. Having said that, even in the lower light conditions of autumn and winter, my system has consistently exceeded my expectations.

In the heart of summer, I'm especially enthused by how much of our home consumption is entirely solar-generated. The daytime load is split between charging the batteries and powering our home's direct needs during the day. Once we hit about 6 or 7pm, the house starts pulling some of its needs from the battery system and eventually entirely from the battery overnight.

While it will take a full year of operation before I have any hard data to compare, I do know that my electric bill went from scolding us with that cruel bar graph for using 60% more electricity than our most efficient neighbors, to receiving a letter of congratulations for being in the top 1% of most efficient customers. There was a rush of pride when that letter arrived in the mail.

On a standard day in June or July, with the AC running, we'll generally consume about 20-22kWh per day. I've been generating about 15-17kWh per day, so there is still some small grid usage from about 5-8am when the batteries are down to emergency reserve levels (my batteries hold onto the last 10% of power in case of an outage), but I can expand the system any time I want. I can't wait to see where things might be next year.

Using solar as backup power during an outage

Twice so far this year we've been hit with large thunderstorms and strong winds that have knocked down trees throughout the area and caused power outages. Both times I wasn't aware that we ever lost grid power until I was texted by a neighbor asking how we still had lights. Admittedly, getting those texts feels good. EcoFlow advertises that the inverter can switch to or from grid power in 10 milliseconds, with no connected devices ever losing power. I've never seen so much as a brownout, so I'm going to say their claims are on the level.

My final advice before diving into DIY solar power

If you've been toying with the idea of finally making the jump into solar, do some testing first. Prior to picking up a whole-house system, I'd bought a refurbished 1,500Wh EcoFlow Delta 3 unit on eBay for about $400, which is certainly a lot less than investing in a whole house setup. I used the Delta 3 to power the addition in my house. It was powerful enough to run my office PC setup, a TV, and a floor fan in a covered porch with no AC, and doing that allowed me to test out various sections of the property and figure out where I might want to install a more permanent solution.

Whenever I wasn't using the addition as an office, the Delta 3 turned into my solar device charging station. Even if we only used this small battery as a dedicated charger for a house full of phones, tablets, handhelds, and landscaping equipment, we'd still see savings. It adds up quickly over time when nearly every device we use these days has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Especially when you factor in things like electric scooters and lawnmowers becoming regular additions to suburban garages.

Ultimately, I've been happy with the EcoFlow system I installed and would feel comfortable recommending it as a solution to others who might be in the market, but that isn't to say that similar options from companies like Anker or others aren't just as valid. This isn't meant to advocate for any one product over another, but is a recap of my experiences going my own route.

If I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't change a whole lot. There was some head-banging and "how could I be so dumb?" lessons learned along the way, but that's the joy of a project for me: I get to learn something new while also improving my home and saving money. Of course, it's understandable if not everyone wants to feel their way around in the dark learning and installing a system at the same time, especially given the upfront investment involved. But for others, I'd just recommend researching your wants, needs, and expectations before going whole hog.

Contractors that will work with solar are few and far between. I found plenty of companies willing to sell me a ready-made grid system, but most general contractors didn't want any part of installing hardware onto my roof that I'd already purchased. My hope is that as time moves on, more professionals will get in on the game. GCs should realize that homeowners want a path to energy independence without signing a long-term contract.

In the meantime, I feel like I successfully got away with one hell of an accomplishment. I get to wake up in the morning and look over my panels while I drink coffee, knowing that free electricity is powering my life. It wasn't just a hobby project; it was a step in the path towards energy efficiency, reliability, and independence.