The average cost of a solar power system in the U.S. is between $11,214 and $14,406, a price that’s come down dramatically over the last few years.

Most homeowners can probably pay for this out of pocket, with a credit card, an equity line of credit or a low-interest loan.

But it’s still a hefty initial investment for many. According to Magnify Money, the average household’s savings account balance is $17,930, yet 29% of households have less than $1,000 in savings.

Those in the latter category might be tempted to go piecemeal when switching to solar. They might buy a few solar panels here, wait for some special offer and buy others panels there, take advantage of a last minute clearance sale to buy an inverter somewhere else, until they can get enough equipment to complete a solar array.

Those “frankenstein” solar power systems might save you some money, but they could be costly later on, when trying to piece together what seems like a solar puzzle. 

When faced with a question regarding this situation on an Internet message board, Jim Murphy, former Product Engineer/Verification Engineer at Nortel Networks (2000-2004) cautioned against it.

He recommended that it was better to buy the complete array in one purchase for a number of reasons, including that “if you are using a standard grid-tied inverter, your PV panels are put into a series string (or 2 string depending on on the size of array and whether the inverter has a single or dual MPPT). 

“The whole string is only as efficient as the worst panel, so it pays to have panels that are as closely matched as possible. They will normally be within a 3% tolerance or within 5W of each other depending in the PV manufacturer,” he wrote

This isn’t as important if you are fitting panels with a microinveter at the back of each panel or using a SolarEdge set-up as each panel is individually optimized. But still, you will be trying to fit in mistmatched solar panels that could give you some troubles down the line. 

Murphy also talked about future needs.

“Assuming you are using standard silicon poly or mono panels, they will be 60 or 72 module panels. The 60 module panels used to produce around 215W a few years ago but are now producing 250–280W now. The 72 cell panels were producing under 300W and are now producing 320–340W. With the efficiency of panels continuously improving, soon manufacturers will not bother producing 60 cell panels with ‘only’ 250W, so matching existing panels in a few years will prove tricky,” he said

And lastly, he noted that “panels degrade every year, typically by around 0.5% so even if you sourced identical panels the new ones would produce slightly more output than the existing ones. This output would be ‘wasted’ if they are then added into an existing string of older panels!”

Leave the procurement to your solar installer

Unless you’re doing the solar project on your own, you’re likely to hire a solar installer to work on it and he should be the one doing all the procurement for you - solar panels, inverter, the mountain equipment and racking, and wiring. 

If money is an issue, you can do the calculations for the size of solar system you need and buy a “solar kit” that includes all the pieces necessary for a solar array. Fortune Energy offers solar kits available in sizes from 1 kW to 1 MW. They’ll design it, configure it, pack it and ship it.

If you don’t know the size of equipment you need to satisfy your energy needs, don’t worry. You can find out in a matter of seconds with the Hahasmart price checker. All you have to do is put in your address and average monthly bill and, in a matter of seconds, it will provide you with an estimate of equipment and installation costs. They’ll even help you contact a reputable solar installer in your area to do the project. 

If you have a contractor, that company will probably get a better deal on equipment than an individual buyer will. They usually work with a wholesaler for all their projects and get a discount. 

Buying all the equipment in a single transaction also helps to amortize the labor and transaction costs much better, and probably results in lower cost if you can pay for it all at once. 
If you can’t pay it out of pocket, you can also consider a loan, since you still get the tax credit, incentives and rebates, as well as the monthly savings on your electricity bill, which can help you pay off that debt earlier. 

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