As a renter, dropping thousands of dollars to renovate my roof into a field of solar panels wasn’t an option for me. A couple years ago I was inspired to attempt a more modular solution, buying a panel at a time and spreading room to room throughout the house. While easy as DIY projects go (no sawing, soldering, or even sewing), it was not without a few snags.

The first problem was parts. The initial list that I put together was lacking in some very important ones, namely all the cables that let energy flow from one component to the next. Here’s the grand list of what I ended up buying (with suggested replacements for products that have since been discontinued).

1. Photovoltaic (PV) panel. I bought a Uni-Solar US-64 (which I love) but it’s since been discontinued. I still think the wattage and price was about right for this system, so I’d replace it with a Kyocera KC65T 65-Watter for just over $300.
2. Output cables. These emerge from the panel’s junction box (or J-box) and travel to the charge controller. They’re “two strand” with both positive and negative wiring inside a single weatherproof shielding (#10 AWG). Ten feet (10′) is about $25.
3. Output terminals. You can’t connect bare wire to the J-box or charge controller, so you need terminals. Luckily, they’re super-cheap. An assorted 75-piece package is less than $5. Fitting the terminals to the cable will require a stripper/crimper.
4. Charge controller. The charge controller keeps your battery from overcharging once it’s full. The Morningstar SunSaver (20-Amp) is great and still available for $80 but the ProStar (15-Amp) is tempting with its battery indicator and covered terminals for only $20 more.
5. Charge cable. This cable connects the controller to the battery and often comes with its own terminals and a built-in fuse (so your battery doesn’t explode if your solar panel is hit by lightning). Depending on how far apart your components are, a three-footer for $20 should work.
6. Battery terminals. You might not need them, but I used some ring terminals from the assorted package above.
7. Battery. Absorptive Glass Mat (AGM) is a lot safer than gel or sealed and maintains okay health under deep-cycling. I’d stick with my choice in the 92 Amp hour MK 8A27 for $180.
8. Inverter cables. See, lots of cables! Since these are thicker and thus more expensive than the others (#4 AWG), I’d recommend keeping them short. $30 for 3 feet isn’t bad, but you could probably pick up #4 wire and add your own battery clamp terminals for cheaper.
9. Inverter. The Aims 1000W is a little bit loud and possibly overkill, but still a great catch at $75.
10. This space intentionally left blank. You really should plug something into your inverter. That’s sort of the point.

The above system was, more or less, what debuted at last year’s Burning Man camp and powered our hanging lights all week. After that, it tried to move to the roof of our apartment but was soon discovered by our landlord who followed the cable into our bedroom window (and accused us of throwing “graffiti parties” up there as well).

Now it finally has a (semi-) permanent home in our new apartment. Attached with wire (more wire!) to the back deck, the output cables run into our laundry room and the charge controller. The battery is currently in a cardboard box until it gets a more secure container.

Step 1 – Buy a softback Moleskine

Avoid this step if at all possible.

However, if you were either—like me—totally unaware that there were even such things as softback Moleskines or really desperate to buy a Moleskine right now and softbacks are the only version available, you’d start with this step.

Step 2 – Assemble your materials

For this project you’re going to need: 1) a softback Moleskine, 2) an X-acto knife, 3) a pencil, 4) white glue, and the secret ingredient: 5) matte board. Matte board is found at most office supply stores and every photo shop and should cost you less than a dollar for an 8″ x 10″. We’re using matte board because it’s hard to bend and comes in black.

Step 3 – Line up the edges

Actually. Don’t. That is to say, don’t literally line up the edges. You’re going to want the Moleskine to hang off the edge of the paper a little bit so that the hard back will be shorter than the Moleskine itself. That way, once we glue it in, the notebook can still close.

Step 4 – Trace the Moleskine

I suppose you could use math for all of this, determining the exact geometry and then rendering a congruent shape via a ruler and compass, but I just traced the Moleskine on the matte board with a pencil. Done.

Don’t forget the 2.0 rounded corners. They are but one of the many features that makes the Moleskine so popular among web designers.

Step 5 – Cut out the hard back

You’re going to want to do this on a cutting board, so your fianceé doesn’t flip out when she gets home about the knife marks on the kitchen table and you have to explain sheepishly that you were up to the very serious business of converting your softback Moleskine into a hardback and forced an innocent piece of furniture to forever bear the scars.

If you forget this step and she’s already flipping out, telling her that you’re also blogging about it will not help.

Step 6 – Glue in the hard back

The front cover is easy business, just line it up and press it in. If you want access to the back pocket, you might want to glue the back cover on the second-to-last page. That will still provide a hard surface to write on—provided you’re not writing something while it’s physically inside the pocket (which seems impossible but is not that outlandish, considering that my Fisher Space Pen can write upside-down, underwater, and in space… so why not inside pockets?).

I used a little bit too much glue, but only a little bit. If the glue squirts out the sides during placement, a damp rag can pretty easily wipe it off and let you, once again, turn the pages. If you’re into that.

Step 7 – Put on the pressure

Like in the creation of metamorphic rocks, pressure and heat (except, uh, not heat) are the key to getting the glue to do its magic and stick the pages together in a non-temporary manner. Put the Moleskine under something very heavy and let it sit for a few hours. I find vegetarian cookbooks to work really well for some reason, perhaps because all that ideology is a pretty heavy burden.

Soon your new hardback Moleskine will be ready and you can take it to SXSW and take very important notes in it.

A few years ago, I read an inspiring article on Treehugger that changed my whole attitude toward solar-powered homes. I had been thinking that solar was a multi-thousand dollar commitment that required complicated wiring and hard-to-understand deals with power companies. It turns out solar is (like marriage) something you can transition to slowly as your means permit.

The original Treehugger set-up (which is based on a post from Off-Grid.net) promises to keep the initial set-up at under $600 and indeed it does:

However, when I set out to purchase all of those items, I found the reality to look more like this:

Maybe the professionals have a line on super-cheap (and discontinued?) solar products, but it was clear that their recommended gear was not going to work for me at the price suggested. I’m the kind of guy who likes to let other people make my mistakes for me (which is why I love libraries) so I became nervous when the exact system they mentioned wasn’t available. I considered getting an all-in-one kit like those from Sunwize, but for $600 I would end up with a 5 watt panel and a 19 amp hour battery. If I wanted to get ripped off, I’d buy ridiculously expensive Chuck Taylor knock-offs.

Eventually, I had to bite the bullet and learn me about some solar. I bought a Kill-a-Watt monitor and went from plug to plug measuring my appliances. Then I did some reading about solar systems in general and what I could expect from the sun in my area (San Francisco). Finally, I did a lot of online research and came up with my own shopping list:

Close enough! There are some definite improvements to my own list, if I do say so myself. The obvious ones are the bigger inverter and charge controller—the latter especially important, as it will allow me to support up several more panels and batteries when I’m ready to grow. The battery is AGM (Absorption Glass Mat) which is safer and can take more punishment than the slightly old school gel batteries. Finally, the size of the panel doubled and is a size that’s not discontinued. The Uni-Solar panels from the original plan are definitely the way to go, as they’re light-weight, glass-free, shade-tolerant, graffiti-proof, and lots of other hyphenated descriptors.

Still on my list is a digital multimeter, because not knowing the precise number of volts here or amps there is going to drive a number-obsessed fellow like me crazy. Oh, and I need to talk to my landlord about all this… you don’t think he’ll mind, do you?

Update (1/20/10): It’s up-and-running!

Saturday was the Second Annual Maker Faire, where people show off stuff they’ve made themselves. Yes, themselves. Everything from wallets made from recycled bike tubes to fire engines that spit flames instead of water, these are people who have an obviously different relationship with their “stuff” than a lot of us. How much of what we own is completely pre-fabricated (probably by sweatshop workers who are shocked that we want holes in our brand new jeans)? How many of us smile with satisfaction at merely putting something together from Ikea, according to their instructions? Maker Faire people eat people like us for breakfast.

Despite my girlfriend’s frustration that countless hours manufacturing a steam-powered car could maybe be better spent, I believe there is something inherently political about creating something that no one else in the world but you thinks is a good idea. At a minimum, it’s mechanical expressionism. Optimally, it’s providing the necessary noise that culture needs to evolve.

The very next day was an exercise in noise if ever there was one. San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers 12k run. Of course, this being San Francisco, people do a lot more than just run. They dress up in ridiculous costumes (or go nekkid) get exceedingly intoxicated (sometimes even running behind a shopping cart with a keg in it) and then run. I’ve been a participant before (and finished in the Top 10%) but was only a spectator this year.

Bay to Breakers was almost as inspiring from a DIY standpoint as Maker Faire. The costumes range from low-tech but creative to painstakingly accurate. What surprised me the most was how many groups dressed in what they had to assume were extremely innovative ways, only to find that a lot of others dressed the same. There were more bull-runners than you could keep track of, multiple Double Dare teams, and scores of Spartans (my favorites were the flamingly gay Asian Spartans, for which I cannot find a picture).

The weekend left my girlfriend and I very excited to leave the sidelines and get into the DIY game. After listing all of the projects that we might be interested in pursuing, I compiled them all into one mega-project just for fun. Don’t be surprised if you get invited to our fancy DIY dinner party, featuring homebrewed liquor from our hydroponic grapes complete with hand-pressed labels printed on recycled paper—oh, and make sure to sew your own formalwear to match the slipcovers in our solar-powered mock pre-fab backyard chateau.