Sharing a series of very good videos about setting up your own solar panels
Complete Beginner Video Tutorial Series on setting up your own DIY Off Grid Solar Power from Start to finish
(of course there is advertisement here and there for Renogy / renogy.com/
Thanks to Brendon
I found this thread again
Update: we moved out of the house in 2017
The reason why I did not install the installation is
the fact you need one power inverter per circuit breaker
power inverter = a device to ‘mix’ the solar power with the house grid
I keep the solar panels and still use them… 300 W/good day
They are attached to a car battery. They work great
I also bought some simple all-included solar powered lights
with powerful spotlight, small solar panel, and a remote!
I have this one. It works great
And I am planning to buy that one
It looks like a small portable battery
I am now really looking forward to know more about those ‘Tesla PowerWall’ stuff, able to collect energy from different sources, store the electricity and power different devices
That needs another thread
Sharing here a Google translation of a tutorial about power
…
Design your system according to your needs.
For this, nothing like a concrete example:
Suppose that on average, you use an 11W fan for 5 hours everyday.
Your consumption is therefore: 11W x 5 hr = 55 Wh.
You then calculate in the same way for all your used devices
regularly. Example:
Total Watt hour = 55 + 150 + 160 = 365
Considering 30% loss in a system:
365 x 1.3 = 474.5 Wh that can be rounded up to 475 Wh.
The next thing to do is to choose the components compared
to this consumption.
In a “day” of 12 hours, there will be (depending on where you live), that
4 hours of real exposure to the sun (it will be necessary to see in relation to your region).
But let’s take this value which is a value “refuge” 
The necessary power (We) that we must have in our example is therefore:
475Wh / 4 = 118.75 W! By taking a margin, we must choose a panel
120 Watt (12V).
N.B: I say 120W 12V panel because we will charge 12V batteries.
In reality (as I say in the videos), the panel will release something
like 17 volts or more …
Power = Voltage x Intensity
Watt-hour = Voltage (Volts) x Intensity (Amps) x Time (Hours)
Battery voltage = 12V (we use a 12V system)
Battery capacity = Consumption / Voltage = 475/12 = 39.58 Ah
(Ampere-hour)
But the batteries are not perfect, so we have to consider a loss
15%. The battery must therefore have a capacity of: 39.58 / 0.85 = 46.56 Ah.
NB: It should not be unloaded 100%. For long cycle batteries
for example, a maximum discharge of 60% can be accepted.
Which means that the actual capacity of the battery must be:
46.56 / 0.6 = 77.61 Ah
So in this example you can choose a deep cycle battery
with a capacity greater than 77.61 Ah.
We will opt for a commercial battery at 80Ah.
Here we have a homogeneous system because:
We have a daily conso of 475Wh, so we take:
Here! It’s simple and fun to do.
We have a homogeneous system: no component is overused or underused.