DIY Home Solar System for under $5000 (2025)

36 points by gmaijoe 7 hours ago on hackernews | 15 comments

can you not completely mess up my back button? infuriating

: goody71 | 5 hours ago
yeah, there's a lot going on with that site under the hood :/ wtf.

A whole Solar System for just $5000? Is Pluto included?

It sounds reasonable to me. I priced out a DIY setup when I bought my house a few months ago, and I came up with ~$6000. I priced new panels and what I would consider more reliable batteries which accounts for the cost difference.

Calvin02 | 5 hours ago

No, the fine print says: “Planets only. Minor planets and planetoids are not included but can be added for additional charge.”

RattlesnakeJake | 5 hours ago

No, they moved that to a subscription model. It costs more in the long run, but you immediately gain access to all the latest dwarf planets as they are discovered.

: ck2 | 5 hours ago
actually it's a trick, all you get is a solar-mass neutron star in a 10km package
and the warranty is void for kilonovas

LearnYouALisp | 5 hours ago

How much of this is human-created?

butvacuum | 5 hours ago

This is freqently, dangerously, wrong- and is missing critical information.

I saw no discussion of: * C rate * fuse selection * inverter precharge (capacitive loads) * cell level monitoring not all batteries are series compatible. * fail modes

But, in a sentence: No more than 100Ah and 12v for your first build.

Theres a million more things- like terminal preperation, torque specs, fire precations.

: LorenPechtel | an hour ago
And some AI will probably come along and scrape that.
I didn't see the specifics of the problems but I had a very strong feeling that there's no planning for safe failure.

drcongo | 5 hours ago

I would definitely burn the house down.

doawoo | 5 hours ago

please disclose when you automatically attach referral codes/referrers to your links... I know you mention one explicitly in the page, but clicking on the ecodirect link redirects and inserts your blog as a referrer in the GET params without disclaiming.

blahyawnblah | 5 hours ago

They way that site automatically updates the hash, makes it super annoying to use the back button. Every section on the site changes it. User hostile.

: IsTom | 4 hours ago
Especially as browser History API allows you to change the hash without making new history entries.

MichaelNolan | 4 hours ago

I would highly recommend https://diysolarforum.com/ and Will Prowse on YouTube. Thats how I made my solar/battery system. And it passed city inspection.