If you are reasonably clever with your hands and resourceful here is a project which can save you money and help the environment.
Building your own solar panels is not time consuming and is very inexpensive.
The basic process of building a solar panel involves:
a. Laying out a sheet of plywood and aligning the photovoltaic cells in rows and columns.
b. Drill holes in the plywood and connect each cell with copper wire so that all the cells are connected. A glass sheet is placed in front of the cells and an extra sheet of plywood behind the copper wiring.
c. A frame is put around the sheets of glass and plywood to hold the whole thing together. This is sealed to protect the cells from rain, hail, snow, wind, dust particles etc.
Tools Required
The tools you will need a pretty straight forward.
a. Basic woodworking tools like a saw, plane, chisel, drill, some screwdrivers and pliers.
b. Silicone caulk and wood glue.
c. Basic wiring tools like wire cutters, wire strippers, a soldering iron and solder and a voltmeter.
What About the Solar Cells?
Here's where you can save a lot of money. Don't rush out and buy top quality new photovoltaic cells.
Search the Web and eBay looking for "solar cells" and look for good quality cells, preferably "pre-tabbed" as this simplifies your wiring.
Try and avoid lesser quality cells - there is plenty around which have some damage and generally avoided. But, we have heard of many people who have taken the risk and produced well performing solar panels. If they are cheap enough it is worth the risk. The risk is they won't produce the same level of electricity as quality cells.
We'll leave the detail of how to construct your solar panels to our free newsletter which is obtainable from our website - see details below.
How Do You Test the Panel?
This is surprisingly simple. Just take the panel out into direct sunlight, hook up a voltmeter to the panel and hey, presto! If it reads somewhere around 0.5 volts for each cell you should congratulate yourself. (Ie, if you have 24 cells you should read somewhere around 10 - 14 volts dc). If not, check the wiring and generally following the tips in the instruction material we recommend in our free newsletters.
It's a Win-Win
You don't have to be a tradesman to undertake a DIY solar panel project. But you do need to want to save money on your energy costs and in the process do something for the Planet.
Solar energy is a smart use of a resource which is FREE and infinitely renewable. Its clean, efficient, renewable and available to anyone who wants to tap into it.
Building your own solar panels is a sensible, smart way to contribute to increasing our reliance on renewable resources..
So there you have it. We have done the homework on solar panels.
Building your own solar panels is not time consuming and is very inexpensive.
The basic process of building a solar panel involves:
a. Laying out a sheet of plywood and aligning the photovoltaic cells in rows and columns.
b. Drill holes in the plywood and connect each cell with copper wire so that all the cells are connected. A glass sheet is placed in front of the cells and an extra sheet of plywood behind the copper wiring.
c. A frame is put around the sheets of glass and plywood to hold the whole thing together. This is sealed to protect the cells from rain, hail, snow, wind, dust particles etc.
Tools Required
The tools you will need a pretty straight forward.
a. Basic woodworking tools like a saw, plane, chisel, drill, some screwdrivers and pliers.
b. Silicone caulk and wood glue.
c. Basic wiring tools like wire cutters, wire strippers, a soldering iron and solder and a voltmeter.
What About the Solar Cells?
Here's where you can save a lot of money. Don't rush out and buy top quality new photovoltaic cells.
Search the Web and eBay looking for "solar cells" and look for good quality cells, preferably "pre-tabbed" as this simplifies your wiring.
Try and avoid lesser quality cells - there is plenty around which have some damage and generally avoided. But, we have heard of many people who have taken the risk and produced well performing solar panels. If they are cheap enough it is worth the risk. The risk is they won't produce the same level of electricity as quality cells.
We'll leave the detail of how to construct your solar panels to our free newsletter which is obtainable from our website - see details below.
How Do You Test the Panel?
This is surprisingly simple. Just take the panel out into direct sunlight, hook up a voltmeter to the panel and hey, presto! If it reads somewhere around 0.5 volts for each cell you should congratulate yourself. (Ie, if you have 24 cells you should read somewhere around 10 - 14 volts dc). If not, check the wiring and generally following the tips in the instruction material we recommend in our free newsletters.
It's a Win-Win
You don't have to be a tradesman to undertake a DIY solar panel project. But you do need to want to save money on your energy costs and in the process do something for the Planet.
Solar energy is a smart use of a resource which is FREE and infinitely renewable. Its clean, efficient, renewable and available to anyone who wants to tap into it.
Building your own solar panels is a sensible, smart way to contribute to increasing our reliance on renewable resources..
So there you have it. We have done the homework on solar panels.
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