the case. I'm currently walking on top of some and I weigh about 200 pounds. Now obviously

this is not something you want to do on a regular basis – they are made of glass.

But still, it can't be a Jerry Rig Everything video without a durability test.

[Music]

Jerry Rig Headquarters is currently powered by 100% renewable solar energy. And in today's

video I'm going to show you how I installed these. So there are a ton of places to buy

solar panels, but I found that I could do it myself for about half the price. I've partnered

up with a company called Solar Wholesale that actually sells DIY kits that include everything

you need in one convenient package...including the custom installation plans that you need

for your permits from your city. Also keep in mind that these solar panels will retain

80% of their energy producing ability for the next 30 years, and then continue producing

electricity far longer than that. And even though I went into this project knowing that

I was going to install solar myself, I did price out other options, and it turns out

Tesla was one of the more fairly priced out there. So if you don't want to install solar

yourself, Tesla's a good option and I'll leave a $250 discount for them also down in the

description.

Alright, there is a lot of information to go over and not a lot of time to do it, so

let's get started.

[Intro]

The biggest perk of working with Solar Wholesale is this plan set. The plan set is the instruction

booklet designed specifically for my house, with all the information I need to get the

permits and approvals from my city. Along with the plan set, they ship every single

part that I need to install my solar system in one big kit, which makes the whole project

much easier since the parts just work together right out of the box. Plus the solar panels

are made right here in the United States.

Getting someone like Tesla to come install the solar for you is still worth it of course,

it just takes a few more years to break even. But either way you're still making a positive

impact on the environment and lowering your electricity bill from the moment the panels

get connected. Remember, every house is going to have a slightly different roof line and

different energy needs which is why it's nice to have this plan set that was custom made

to my specific situation. This is the wiring diagram. All of this makes a lot more sense

when you have the parts right in front of you.

So last time I was climbing up onto my roof, I broke my wrist...so...there's that.

So we've laid out where the perimeter of the panels are going to be on the roof with a

lumber crayon and a chalk line, and this will just help us visualize where the panels are

going to be and where we're going to lay the rack that the panels rest on top of. It will

all start making sense in a minute.

So in order to attach the racking system to the roof we need to find the trusses that

are underneath the shingles and the plywood, and the easiest way to do that is with a hammer.

Listen closely. You can hear the difference between the loose area of roof and the solid

area of roof and that's where we want to drill down and attach our lag bolts. We can tell

by the resistance that the drill bit had all the way down through the wood that we hit

a stud. We hit something good to tie into.

So once you've found your first truss, all of the rest will be in the same spots, so

if you're working by yourself you can just attach the tape to the drill bit that's still

in the stud and mark two feet on center all the way down the roof.

So before we can attach the rails that hold the panels, we have to put the flashing down

and I'll explain what the flashing does in a second. Before I can put the flashing down

I do have to put some of this clear sealant in a U shape around the hole that the lag

bolt goes through, and then I'm also going to put some clear sealant into the hole because

the whole point of this is to keep water out of the roof. Then I can lift up some of the

shingles, slide the flashing underneath. And then this is the part that holds the rail.

Put the lag bolt through the opening into the holes we pre-drilled earlier and then

we'll ratchet it down into place.

So now that the flashing's in place we can visually see how it keeps water out of the

roof. You know, the water will run down the roof and it won't go into the holes we just

drilled, especially if you missed a hole and had to drill an extra one. As well as, each

of these bolts right here have a black washer around the top which also helps seal to keep

the water out.

So the reason I decided to go with the snap and rack system is because these little L

feet right here are adjustable up and down. So the rail can adjust underneath the panels

to keep the panels level. And the reason it's called a snap and lock system is because the

rail will sit right on top of these little feet and they click into place...just like,

you know, a little Lego.

The rail itself is black which makes it a little more aesthetic on top of the roof and

it can slide forward and backward inside of the channel as we're positioning it. And there's

a channel inside of the rail that hides the wires for all of the micro-inverters. So the

rails are up and it's micro-inverter time. So the micro-inverters are held in place with

these little metal pieces which can just dip into the rail and then clip up into place.

The reason we decided to go with micro-inverters over other inverters is one, they're easy

to install, and two, they are much safer. They convert the power from DC to AC right

at the panel. And if one panel does get covered by like, let's say snow or shadow from a tree,

the rest of the panels keep on working, which isn't always true of other types of inverters.

So all of our solar panels are on the roof and there has to be a way to get the power

from the roof into the house. We do that with something called a roof junction box. We have

to drill a small hole in the roof, and normally this would be where you have attic space,

but in this particular building we do not, so we're going to drill a bigger hole, fish

the wire through the wall, and pull it up through the top. The bigger hole is still

fine though because the roof junction box – once we seal it up with that clear sealant

– will make sure no water runs inside. The shingles will just fit down over the flashing

and no water will be able to get into the attic space.

So the cable that connects all the micro-inverters together is called a trunk cable. This is

what brings the power from the micro-inverters down to the roof junction box. So the trunk

cables lay down inside of the rail. We've put some electrical tape over the connection,

and then we just zip tie the whole thing to keep it secure.

So remember, every house is going to be a little bit different, but this is the exterior

roof junction box. And we have the yellow wire running through inside the attic space.

All of these wires were provided in my kit, but we need a switch from the yellow insulated

wire, which is indoor wire, to exterior wire when we're running it through the conduit.

This gray stuff down along the side of the house. This junction box is where we're going

to start feeding the exterior wire down through there and then into the breaker panel. So

since these trunk cables are generic, they are probably not cut to length just yet and

so we're just going to chop it where we need it and remove the extra plugs. Then we can

take these two trunk cables inside of this junction box and connect it to the insulated

yellow wires down to our exterior junction box on the wall.

So we're just about to start laying panels, and because of how many panels are on this

roof, I have to have two arrays which means that there's two trunk cables coming into

this junction box. You might be wondering what we've done down here on this section

of roof, and it's because we can fit more panels if we run them horizontally. So we've

laid the rails out in a different way. And that just shows that no matter what your roof

looks like, we can always orient the panels to most utilize the space.

So this copper wire right here, it's called a system ground, and it's tied into each one

of these rails with little spikes and clips, so if any electrical anomalies like faulting

or lightning happens, it'll just transfer the electricity right into the ground heading

down to the junction box.

So let's talk about setting the solar panels and wire management for a second. Right now

we have three panels in place and a 4th one right here ready to snap in. Each solar panel

has two wires on the back that plug into the micro-inverter. The micro-inverter can hold

4 panels at a time. Then it runs down the trunk cable all the way down to the roof junction

box down there at the end. The DC wires are at one end of the panel so we're running the

wire in down those center lines so it can easily plug into the micro-inverters that

we have placed on the rail. Remember that none of these wires can be touching the roof,

so there are little eyelets at the bottom that we can zip tie the wires to. We can also

twist them together a little bit to make sure that nothing is touching the shingles before

we plug them in.

So this little guy right here is called a mid-clamp. This is what clips into the rail

and holds a panel on either side.

There's a myth going around that solar panels aren't very green because of how much energy

it takes to produce them in the first place. And that's also not necessarily true. Depending

on where the solar panels are manufactured, it takes anywhere from 6 months to three years

for a solar panel to off-set the carbon it took to make it in the first place. Which

isn't very much time considering how long it's lifespan is. Another perk of the panels

that came in my Solar Wholesale kit, is that they are black on black - no silver frames.

It's something to think about when you're picking out panels. I got the black ones so

they blend into the roof a bit more.

Another perk of having the micro-inverters is that the system is totally modular. We

can add panels or take away panels as much as we want and we don't have to worry about

the junction box or limiting our system to a certain size when we set it up the first

time. It can always be expanded.

The nice thing about the snap and rack system is that every fastener on this project is

either a Phillips head screw or a half inch sprocket which makes the installation pretty

quick because you're not looking for all kinds of tools.

So now we have our solar panels installed, we left our rails a bit long to give ourselves

a bit of leeway, and now we can just cut them off. So these end clamps basically slide into

the channel, and then when we tighten this bolt right here at the end, it's snugs it

up tight and holds the panel in place. Then these plastic end caps snap on to keep everything

looking aesthetic from the ground.

Alright so let me tell you what's going on electrically here for a second. We actually

haven't connected the wires yet. This is the panel that's powering the house we're in right

now and we've drilled a hole through the panel to the outside. And then these two boxes out

here that we just installed are going to take the power from the solar panels on the roof,

bring them into this box, combine all the panels, and then head over here to the solar

disconnect which can actually disconnect all of the power from the solar panels heading

into the house. It's a safety thing. When working with the wires and the electrical

part of the solar system remember to one, follow local code, and b, follow your plan

set. It'll explain everything you need to know.

So we have the larger array up here, the smaller array down here at the bottom, and they are

all connected in this joiner box in the center. All the wires from the roof and this side

panel over here feed into this and you can see these ground wires, these copper wires

that were attached to the rails, all of those are heading down to the breaker box which

I'll show you in a second. Now we can tuck all these wires inside the box and close it

up.

So down here in the breaker box, this is what's accepting the two strings that I have. Each

of the strings has their own 20 amp breaker. Black and red go on the bottom and the ground

goes over here on the side.

Remember there are two kinds of solar systems. There are grid-tied and off-grid. We installed

a grid-tied system here which means that the solar panels need to sense the grid before

they start supplying power to my house. If those micro-inverters up top don't sense power

from the grid, they are going to stay off. So I can touch these wires all I want because

we're not attached to the grid yet. If you want an off-grid system, there's a few other

components you need to install and maybe I'll make a video about that later, but this is

all about grid-tied. If you do want to use your solar panels when the city power goes

out, you would need a battery or a generator. It's pretty cool that all of those solar panels

just come down into these 6 wires. Makes it pretty simple.

And now we're going to connect that breaker panel to the solar disconnect with this thicker

gauge wire, and it should just go through the hole and we can wire it up. Now we're

going to take the same thickness of wire and push it through to the breaker panel on the