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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
The flexible panels along the fence are a different project, but they're suprisingly efficient Credit: Nick IndgeIf 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.
Your local municipal building department: They will handle any needed permitting for electrical work.
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
Imagine filling a bucket of water with a garden hose. The solar panels gather sunlight and produce voltage (water pressure) and amps (current water flow). Together they combine to create your wattage output, or the speed at which water is delivered from the hose and used to fill the bucket. The total amount of water that ends up stored in the bucket is your energy, which is measured in kWh (kilowatt-hours). It can be a lot to get your head around as someone new to the space, but I promise it all starts to make sense once you get into it a little deeper. Of the 10 390W panels I ordered, I used nine for the main array. The EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra that I bought has both high and low-voltage inverters built in.
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.
Delta 3 1500 Credit: Nick IndgeSeries 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
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.
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.
This is where you need a pro Credit: Nick IndgeI 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.
The conduit feeding my new smart sub-panel Credit: Nick IndgeHow much energy solar power creates (and how much money I save)
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.
Charging batteries and powering the house all at once Credit: Nick IndgeOn 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.
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.
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.
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.
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