The ugly truth behind grid-tie solar systems. Part 1, FarmCraft101 solar. Watch before you buy! 

Excellent presentation. I am a retired electrical engineer who has been dabbling in solar and wind power generation for many decades. My non-grid-tie systems have been small due to the usual high costs and lack of technology. To give a point of reference, I power my garage (mechanical, welding, metal and woodworking shop equipment), outbuildings with refrigerator and freezer, and all outside electrical needs. Basically everything but the house. Now that solar grid-tie equipment is legal, feasible and cheaper by the watt than in the past, I am going to take the plunge and put a system together for my entire property. You have done exactly the same system I want for mine. I subscribed to your channel for more solar videos. Thank you.

I have been debating solar power for a while now and have been watching hundreds of videos for research. This has been HANDS DOWN the most informative video series I have seen to date. I appreciate you sharing your info with me.

I sincerely appreciate your effort putting this video together. And actually telling us how much the system costs.

2022 when I’m writing this. I want to thank you for this video. I’m designing a grid tie only system for my house and I needed to see this video. Fabulous description of how solar panel energy can overcome grid impedance and flow backwards through the meter. Nice job explaining that. Thank you. I was the student 5 years after you first published this!!! Smile.

Thank you for the clear explanation. Electricity overwhelms me at times, and most other don't explain the process sequentially like you just did, explaining each step on the way. Now, to find funding...

Really good explanation- thorough and with just enough technical terms. Perfect- many thanks for this effort! Sweet system and really nice property!

I can finally understand how the solar system (this kind) works! Very detailed, very informative, all components involved, etc. Thanks you for your time.

Thank you so much for making this video. I think I’ve watched it like four times as i mull over Whether or not to get solar for my house

Excellent video! I’ve watched a lot of videos about solar systems and none of them explain the principles behind them as well as you. I guess you put down some effort in making this. Keep up the good work!

You did an excellent job of explaining technical aspects of a solar installation.

Nice that you have the property for the array that isn’t sitting on your roof! Well produced and thoughtful presented. I’m hoping the pricing will become more affordable over time with new technologies and products entering the market.

Good to see actual outputs from the system and not just the advertising spiel. You can set up the inverter to supply the house during an outage but it adds a lot of cost to put the isolater and changeover switches in. The most cost effective way is to just live with the odd outage and buy a generator so you have backup power even at night. If you hook it up to your house supply, you will still need a grid isolator anyway.

This is one of the best videos I've watch in explaining a solar system. Great job.

Easily one of the best videos I’ve seen so far regarding solar. Thank you for posting it.

Hi there. An incredibly informative video. I felt like I was in an online class with not a wasted word. Have ever thought of being a teacher. Even if you are not or ever have been you are a natural teacher. Thank You so much! I subscribed also!

This video was very informative. it made me feel as if I was back in high school learning it all over again!

Absolutely BY FAR the best explanation of the system without extraneous information.

You have a really good way of explaining the details of this and making it easy to understand - thanks for the great video!!

Thanks this has been one of the most informative videos I have found on grif tied solar so far

The most important thing to me that makes the cost worth it is you learn how to provide power on your own. The cost for power will continue to rise even when power companies have surplus. In my area we were informed there will be brown outs implying shortage and going to raise the bill but then against people installing solar. If you are interested in doing solar but worry about cost then start with a smaller project it is rewarding and it is a good skill to learn. It is also a fun project.

Outstanding "review", for me on the basics of power and terminology. Cheers.

I learned a lot from this video...thanks for the time you took to make it. Much apprciated!

Good explanation on how Grid Tie works. I'm running Off Grid with changeover switch to Grid. Expanding setup but currently 1K4 PV with 8K7W Batteries backup. A battery system is the way to go.

Nice setup! Love your videos. This one answered several of my questions. Thanks for sharing!

of course great video .....and well built system ....i am intrerested in your battery build and notice that that has not been costed ..plus credit ......i think this is an exciting time of change and you showing that it works helps ...... Tim australia

The 'newish' SMA SB5.0-US or SMA 6.0-US are grid tie string inverters that will output 2kW emergency power direct from your array during daylight hours if the grid fails without any storage. I bought the 6kW for around $1320 2016-17. I have installed 3 units and they are very solid and well engineered with 3 MPPT channels each. BTW excellent video...one of the best I've seen... I run a small home/hotel and reduced my cost from $13000/yr to $3200/yr with a DIY 10kW system with tracking for $23000 Actual estimated return of cost

I like the ironridge racking quite a bit! It's super easy to use.

One of the best explanations out there of how a solar system works, and the positive financial impact of residential solar systems.

We have a 3.5 kw system that I installed almost 5 years ago. This system cost about $15,000. I saved about $3500 by installing it myself. After the Federal rebate it cost about $8,500. In talking to a property appraiser, solar systems are somewhat like swimming pools and you get about 50% return if you sell. Our system produces almost all the power we need. We saved approximately $900 the first year. Instead of having $8,000 in the bank making 1% ours is on the roof making about 11% tax free. Our electric rates are increasing almost 6% per year. So is solar a good technology? I think it is.

So nice to hear someone who actually knows what he's talking about. Interesting vid

This video had excellent analogies with the water.

Better explained than my college professor. This fella is smart and articulate

I was listening the whole video for the "ugly truth" and didn't hear it. Maybe you need to re-title this video to Solar Basics or something like that. And thank you for doing this.

Wait a minute. Geeky solar panels? Perfectly describing parallel/series? Cheesy cutaway attempts at jokes? Masterfully using water flow to describe voltage and current??? You are a fellow EE, aren't you? :-) Excellent video. I particularly enjoyed that you showed the structural components of your array. Nice in-focus, steady and clear shots of the undercarriage stuff. Great job at describing the complex setup in easy to understand terms.

This is my first time enjoying your RU-vid channel. Great work! I’m looking forward to more great content from you. Thank you so much!

Thanks for your explanation ... good work. That high voltage might be something to really consider.

Nice system. I'm leaning toward a 10.2 kw micro-inverter system.

Hi Being on the grid there are monthly cost you would have to add. Here in Alberta are monthly charge for electricity is cheap it’s the monthly fees just to be hooked to the grid. Example out of a $200.00 bill 50.00 to 60.00 is the electricity charge the rest is fees. So in my case without money conversion 17,000.00/60.00= 23 years to pay for it self. On grid you could use no power and you would still have a ton of fees depending on where you live. Thanks for listening.

Really informative video. I learned a lot from your examples and simplifications of the process. Thank you

You gave a good, no-nonsense insight. As I expect from a farmer(!).

Perhaps not Ugly truth more of this is how it works :) good video! I have 17kW on my roof with 100kWh battery bank and can work all year now. I cover 100% 10/12 months if power goes out. Last 2 months i will survive but not without lowering consumption. Its worth mentioning that we have not changed our useage and during winter we only get 10% compare to summer..... Solar is very interesting but there are so many systems out there so its easy to get fooled if you dont know what you are working with.

Great video! Anyone else notice that at 4:14 his house windows look like a standard 110v outlet?

Finally, someone who knows what they are talking about. In New York, my neighbor just had a "free" roof-top solar system installed by a company who claimed the government was offering this amazing deal. They even did her roof over before installing the panels. I suspect she's in for a rude awakening when she starts looking at her Con Edison and solar energy invoices.

great video, thank you very much for such a simplistic straight to the point personal experience and knowledge.

I have a 3.2K grid-tied system, which works perfectly fine when the grid is down. I have a switch box which disconnects the system from the grid when I throw the lever. This is one of the reasons I chose a grid-tied system, after experiencing quite a few down-times from our rural electric co-op.

oh man..wish my teacher had told me about water hose idea to explain Volts and amps. I'm 37 and now i get it!

WOW !!! This is so wonderfully explained !!!! Fantastic job Sir !!!

Dude super educational and straight to the point no selfi fluff

Well done video. As a master electrician with a background in physics and engineering I have however chosen to not become involved with any system that does not include on site storage. Having been involved with co-generation in various forms from small rural windmills to industrial heat reclamation projects since the early eighties I have seen the mandated beginnings of ‘net metering’ all the way to the current phase out of that model. That mandate occurred during the era of mechanical metering and the added cost of dual metering made most small installations unfeasible at that time. I disagree, as a matter of principle, that taking advantage of modern electronic metering which makes possible grid ties feasible, and thus using the grid as ‘storage’ is not a fair and equitable system under net metering. Obviously the courts and regulators agree with my position as net metering is now on the way out. The proper analysis in my position is always grid tied for reliability, net zero draw from the grid under normal operations, and on site storage for management of the differential between electrical generation and load times. This of course comes at a significantly higher initial investment and longer payback. As examples of my rational I offer disagreement about your statement regarding selling excess production to your neighbor. If that is your goal then you should route your own cables to your neighbor’s property. Using the grid instead takes unfair advantage of the utility company’s infrastructure and is also an unfair usurpation of the company’s business model of producing electricity at wholesale and selling at retail like all other free market capitalized businesses. Plus utilities may be monopolies, but they are very much regulated monopolies. They, like all other businesses, are entitled to charge for their services and make a profit for the shareholders albeit regulated under government oversight. One very big fallacy of solar is hidden in that need to store that energy. We are making it when it is not needed. Dumping it to the grid is actually a very poor choice for a myriad of reasons besides the unfairness of the net metering issue. It is a logistical night mare for grid operations on a system that was engineered and constructed to transport power from a centralized source to distributed loads. Things were ok when only a handful of installations were involved and thus net metering made some sense. But with more widespread adoption of the technology these points I am raising have become critical issues. In addition your description regarding the inverter’s ability to manage the direction of power flow is a very good analog of what is occurring but not technically accurate. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the concept of power factor in electrical circuits. You very clearly have the basic understanding of electricity to grasp and add this concept to your tool kit. Once so you will realize that the electronics management utilizes phase angle to perform its management of power flow. Again, we’ll done and thank you for consideration of my position.

Enjoyed this walk around...we're getting ready to build our home and have space for solar setup...this was helpful

Great video, clear/easy to follow your explanations. I watched it because I'm trying to understand why too much solar power could destabilize the grid system(that's what we are told). So far I have not found any sound technical reason. But I can see that it impacts the economics of power companies.

Very nice job explaining grid tied solar, one of the best! FYI, my (8k) hybrid, off grid system will payback in 12 years. The number one reason to have an off grid system is for self reliance. I will have power even if there is a zombie apocalypse.

Thanks for the informative video. I like the way the panels are mounted away from the bldgs, but I've seen some stones thrown by mowers and even vandals break glass and panels. I think I would have the panels mounted higher, and be able to used underneath as shelter from the elements. I'm not sure where all the pop-up suggestions were coming from but they were too numerous and obnoxious.

With the new inverters, they simply disconnect from the grid during power outages, but you still get power until the sun goes down, unless you also have batteries, then it never goes out, but batteries are expensive, a generator is much cheaper than batteries.

FC101, You sir, are a damn genius!!! Thank you for the video!!!!

Very informative video and thanks of all of your efforts. For those of you hating on the cost of solar try to think of all the money you have wasted over the years, if you purchased a new vehicle the value dropped as soon as you drove off the lot, and yes I see lots of people driving shiny new pickup truck and they are not all for work. What he is doing is not only good for the environment but also good for our country, less money to the middle east, The cost of electricity is only going up, my power company ups its rates every November 40 percent for the winter months. My neighbor is putting in a big system and using the Tesla batteries and is cutting the cord off the grid, he said he has had enough. In my part of the country houses are very expensive and 20 to 30 grand in the big picture is not that bad and unlike the grid solar is coming down in cost. Again thanks for your great video.

Great video, thanks! Awesome setup, just what I would have if I ever decided take the plunge. It appears you have a water tank under your panels to rinse them. Many people don't realize that even a light haze of dust can rob you of 10-20% of your panel's output, so they must be cleaned often and endlessly.

This video was absolutely perfect for what I wanted to know. Thank you for this

So much great info, thank you for all the explainations

I like your video. You had a ground mount installed, trenching, inspection, installation, racking, wire and battery storage for $2.52/W? ($23,000/9,100W) That is the best deal I have every heard in my life! Awesome.

Great video thank you!

At any rate, you're helping save natural gas coal for future use! Side note- America should rid of 120 v, yes America uses a split 120/120 v power box, and go strictly 240 v to all outlets! You don't need to bring three wires into a house you would only need two, that's a cost-saving right there!!! We could have double power with 240 v. On the same outlets that you have now! 120 v is plain stupid wasteful... Just curious but why are the panels so far away from your house?

most of the inverters on the market today have a single outlet feature that will have power during a blackout from the grid. They are not designed to supply enough power for your whole house, but enough to run a fridge, medical equipment etc. These have been around for a while now, I don't know when your system was installed, but video was uploaded October 2017, these inverters have been around since 2016. I do know it's hard for the average person to know whats available, mainly because the industry moves so quickly, also the agent selling the system doesn't bother learning what the options are for every component.

I'm getting a system of the same size as you put in here in South Australia but I'm getting a 12KwH battery too and we can run it during a blackout. It comes with blackout protection and we can nominate two rooms in the house to keep live in a blackout. Handy feature really.

They have some grid tie inverters out now that one can plug into and still get power in a black out as long as the sun is up. Great video!

A few months ago, we put in a SMA 5.3 Kw system. We bought the secure power option. Instead of shutting down the system to avoid the anti-islanding situation, the system diverts the power to one outlet with 2000w available. We just had hurricane Irma blow through and lost power for 4 days. The secure power system worked like having a 2K generator that worked from 9am-6. This might be a half-way solution. It's much cheaper than putting in the battery backup but obviously we had to use a generator at night.

Awesome I'm ready to start working my hobbies back at home as well..

Wow solar sure is getting better great video

So, sorry I know its minor details but there is a very common misnomer that annoys the hell out of most Electrical Engineers... power dose 'not', just "flow in the path of least resistance". Where the misnomer comes from is it is true that 'more' power will flow along the path of least resistance. But unless the circuit is designed correctly with the correct controllers and/or limiting Diodes to conduct the electricity where you want it to go, electricity will always flow through all available paths... A better analogy would be, if you had a 5 gallon bucket and you drilled a 2" hole in the bottom and a 1" hole next to in on the bottom, then you plug the holes, then fill with water; If you could pull both plugs simultaneously the 2" hole would obviously have a larger flow/volume then the 1" hole. But its VERY important to notate that you will still have flow out both holes unless circuit/inverter is properly designed/set up... Considering your giving advice to the potential "shade tree", "DIY'er", "sudo-Electrical engineers" that could be handling an out-put of even a fraction of the amount you are describing is easily in the range of being a potentially lethal power flow....

There are many grid tied systems that have battery backup as well so one can continue to use the solar even when the power company is down.

Very good presentation. Very simple language so any one without engineering background can understand it.

Great Info! My grid supplier takes 64 kWh/mo. as their service fee, which is a large % of my small 2.5 KW system's output.

We are about to purchase a solar array kit (12 panels, I believe? 3.6kW) and your video is very instructive and helpful! I understand amperage, wattage and inverters much better now. Thank you for posting it.

Interesting, thanks! Would you consider experimenting with covering panels to see how much the optimizers help? You seemed uncertain of the improvement they claim to provide.

Thanks for this nice video. I would like to mention that many meters today will not run backwards wth this system and you need an agreement with your electric company to get credit back and they credit you back with a pathetically small fraction of what they charge for their electricity, so be sure to get all those details from your electric company before taking this plunge. Also remember that rates may change over the years.

Very good information - thank you for putting this together.

:-) your power meter is in the witness protection program...

If you do some homework, and do most of the install yourself and paying someone to do the plans ($300), and the certified wiring/permit ($1000), I did my 4KW solar system this way for $3200 and should break even in 3.2 years, now 6 months in and I am still on track to break even. Most quotes I got was for $9K~$11K with rebate of $3K and break even at 9.5 years. Knowing this, your paying the solar company a lot of money for your lack of knowledge.

Great video!!! Thanks for the detail ,, and in depth explaination

Man you're good at teaching -thank you!

nice video, however, grid-tie is only effective if the electric company you associate buys back the electricity at a reasonable rate which most do not give competitive pricing for they will charge you more for using their electric than clearly what you sell them. also if you place your grid close to the usage area the cost of wire digging and etc is greatly reduced. when buying complete systems many times the companies will include a tax incentive package but increase the price of their system so they make a greater profit at your expense using part of the tax break as a selling point but profiting from it themselves.

I liked the explanation right up to the discussion of optimizers, where I disagree. My take on optimizers, is that they are good for when there is an under-performing panel, also optimizers and microinverters, can give you information via apps. I didn't see any trees or anything else to block the sun and your system is accessible. Your panels already get the same amount of sun and you can visually inspect for and clean, dirt and snow. If you see poor system performance, you can test circuits to find a bad panel. 3 string-disconnects may help with that too. At 50-$70 each, plus the installation, you may have paid as much as $3000 for an unnecessary component, especially since you seem to be a hands-on person. The max residential voltage is 600v, so you could have done 2 strings.

I really love your channel, the simple explanations and entertaining demonstrations.

I also plan to set up one. Thank you

I found this video to be quite interesting, and some of the comments as well. My problem with going to a solar system, would be with warranty and getting anything out of said warranty. One viewer/commenter (before me) stated that the company that made his inverter was bought out by another company, and is refusing to honor the warranty or even share the schematic diagrams so that someone else could attempt to fix it. Having gone thru ordeals involving roofing, automobiles, snowblowers, etc., and seeing how many "warranties" aren't worth the paper they are written on, leaves me sort of gun-shy to take a leap into such a venture as power generation. Don't get me wrong... Kudos to those who do commit, and best wishes for a trouble-free operation.... But....

Technical accuracy of this video is superb, except the "Optimizers" are (as far as I know) simply bypass diodes.

A configuration I was planning was to run my main circuit panel off a battery bank where the float charge would be set a couple of volts above the average grid voltage. The solar panels and wind turbines would charge the battery bank and when my usage exceeds my generating capacity the grid would provide the extra current by feeding the battery charger or rectifier. A CT or voltage sensor would be connected to the grid source and if the grid goes down an auto-disconnect switch would open and separate us from the grid until it went live again. This would allow us to run off the batteries during outages and if the outage went on for too long and the battery dropped below an assigned voltage the generator would kick in and start charging the batteries until the grid power was restored. This setup would allow you run free of the grid during outages and also be able to backfeed the grid when the power being created exceeds your usage. An auto-disconnect switch & battery bank with the appropriate AC & DC chargers is expensive but I think the benefits would be worth it. The trick is to determine how long the average outage lasts, what your home needs in regards to minimum wattage or amps during an outage, and then size your storage battery and generating capacity to meet those needs. Since I have a couple of generators we'll probably start with only as many batteries as we can afford and then add 2 batteries at a time until we reach our storage capacity goal. Keep in mind that if you need 2 phase or 220v power for A/C, heat, or cooking, you'll need to run 2 sets of batteries in your battery bank to provide the two 110v phases for your 220v appliances. So if you absolutely need 220v power then expect to pay twice the amount for the number of batteries you'll need for a 2 phase battery bank than if you only required single-phase 110v service.

Thanks for your production of this informative video. You can make your own lithium battery packs. That will be old tech in about a year. Old , but obsolete. Prices will be about a 1/4 to compete with the new stuff. Can you say Carboneze.

You can reduce numbers and diameters of DC wires, if you place the inverter directly under the solar Panels, make a little weather proof housing. Like this, the DC lines with bigger loss are short and the AC Transmission from the House (to operate the inverter) and to the house with the inverted current are cheap and with little loss.

If you still have more questions, see my follow up video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gPycyuVJ_Cg.html Many questions will be answered!

Great video, very informative, keep up the good work

Where I live, the utility company re-scheduled the rates such that the power during peak sun hours in the summer is worth about 1/50th of the power at night, per KWh. So, if you produce a surplus of 100 KW per hour during the 8 peak daylight hours, but use 2.5 KW per hour during the other 16 hours, that's a net, "break even," as far as KWh usage.

Very good one.. But wonder why you captioned it as 'Ugly' truth ! It is safety which it provides and yes it is meant for areas where Grid power is considered to be available during day time without much interruptions ! There is some inconvenience that when Grid power is not available (due to outage or load-shading), your solar panel in a sunny whether are of no help to provide you power.. That got be lived with and that is truth !

It appears that the panels could have been installed much closer to the house, therefore using a smaller length of wire (cheaper and less voltage drop). I'm guessing these were placed farther away for aesthetics.

As one who has taught himself to design electronic circuits....I would design a grid simulator to trick the inverter to continue to work when the grid goes down. I would add a redundant relay system to protect line workers with an auto safety lock-out extra protection to disconnect from the grid. Basicallt...No grid means that there is no way that my power can get on the grid.

Great video. However, I have a SMA grid tied system that provides 1500W during an outage. As I have had this for two years, I am sure that there are even more options out there.

could you show a breakdown of the cost of the $17,000 system?

to test this optimizer thing, cover a panel and see how the system reacts

Over 8 years you are bound to have failures and maintenance, extending the pay for itself time. Off grid is way more convenient. It's really all about the actual voltage you truly need. Great video.

Best explanation yet! Thank you…