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How to build solar panels at home

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Why build Solar Panels?

Learning how to build solar panels at home is an efficient way to generate clean-green electricity while saving a large amount of your saving that you would spend if they were to adopt any other method. Most who initiate a home made electricity project start off with building their very own solar panel. Solar power is considered as the most reliable and a widely available source of energy.
In this Page we will look at the basics of building solar panels at home

The Basics

Following are general basics when considering to build solar panels at home. They have been put in an order that's ideal for beginners.

1) Identifying the geographical location of your house.
2) Purchasing your cells if you don't have any
3) Gathering all the necessary parts & Equipment.
4) Building your panel
5) Connecting your cells
6) Wiring and Putting your panel into test

1a) Choosing a DIY electricity guide

It is quite important to understand the full benefits of DIY solar panels before you actually step into your own solar project.
Check this page on the benefits of homemade solar panels for more info.

Identifying the geographical location of your house

This steps involves identifying whether your house belongs to the northern hemisphere or the southern. If you're house is located on the northern then your panels should be facing the southern hemisphere and vice versa. This will allow your panels to absorb as much sunlight as it can throughout the course of the day. In case your roof does not face either side, you can create a grid to mount the panels in a suitable location.

Purchasing solar cells

Shop around for solar cells

picture of tabbed solar cellsPurchasing quality solar cells is an important step when opting to build solar panels at home. Ebay is a good place to find many vendors of such solar cells, most cost around $2 or less. Buy tabbed cells as these will save a lot of time-consuming soldering. The size that is most common is the 3x6 type although bigger cells can be purchased to produce more electricity per unit of cell. Normally they are sold in blocks of 36 pieces. Each of these cells have the capacity of producing around 0.5 Volts. 36 cells cells put together would have an output of 18 Volts.(enough power to charge a 12 volt battery)

Solar cells are very fragile in nature, make sure the seller uses extra protection while shipping them. Most sellers are aware of this issue, hence they mention the type of shipping and packaging in the sales page. Generally the cells are sold in stacks of 18, if you are purchasing 36 then you would have two stacks.

Gathering all the necessary parts & equipment

The Equipment:
A saw,Soldering iron.Soldering gun,Paint brush,Rosin flux pen,Wires.cutters,Screwdriver,Caulking gun,Volt meter,Plexiglass cutter,Drill

Next lets look at the Parts you will need
Plywood sheeting, masonite peg board, Plexiglass, diodes, Tinwire, Silicone caulk,
UV-ray protective varnish or paint

A complete list of the equipment, parts and other materials needed are covered with specific details in DIY solar panel building guides.
To view the best guide available today Click Here!

Buliding your Panel

Start building a shallow box that will hold the cells together

THE BASE OF THE PANELCut the ply wood in a rectangular measurement to withhold 36(optional but preferred number) solar cells together.
What you essentially need is a shallow rectangular box to place the connected cells. Note that wood is chosen here as it is much easier to build solar panels at home with such materials.
An example of this is shown in these pics======>>>
Once you've made the base of the panel, which is the rectangular box, take the masonite pegboard, cut into two so that it fits inside the panel. If you do not have a peg board there's nothing to worry about, Just about any rigid, non-conducting material should work.

The wooden box and the pegboard should be painted in varnish or a weather proof lacquer/paint to avoid curling that may damage the cells. Paint all sides of the boards carefully, including all the edges, making sure that moisture does not enter the inside of the boards.

Next its time to connect all the solar cells in a sequence that will fit into the newly built solar panel. If things seems confusing by now, It is normal
The popular guide that i recommend will cover each and every step of building your panel

Connecting the cells together

building solar panels at homeConnecting solar panels together is not complicated as it may sound. It is a process that needs to be done with patience and concentration, though it may seem easy. Lots of soldering is involved in this process. If you do not have experience in soldering it is best to practice until you are confident enough to apply it on solar cells. Soldering is a skill that's easy and worth mastering if you are planning to build solar panels at home.

The pictures give you an idea of how the cells should be connected ====================>>>

in order to connect the cells they should be turned so that the rear faces up. The negative tabs from the top of one cell are soldered to the positive pads on the bottom of the next. Continue this sequence until you have connected all the cells together.

Now that you've connected all the cells place them carefully while using silicone blubs and placed them carefully on the pegboard, make sure to apply silicone in the center of the each cell and not on the edges.

Wiring & putting the panel into test

Once the cells have been connected and caulked to the peg board it's time to put them into test. By now you should have connected all the cells together and also attached Diodes to them cells so that the energy absorbed by the cells doesn't go a waste. The connected cells will have two ends, one positive and the other, negative. You would connect the wires respective ends so that the panel can now be put into test.

there are quite a few methods to put your panels to test when you build solar panels at home, but i will briefly discuss just one method.
Add a polarized two-pin jones plug to the wires that come off the panel wires. A mating female plug should be connected to the charge controller. once its plugged place the panel in area where you would get maximum sunlight. The charge controller should now show you around 18+ volts when the panels are exposed to direct sunlight

Once you have tested and successfully produced the desired result its time to place the connected cells onto the shallow box that was built earlier. Seal the panel with the plexi glass you've bought. make sure you do this as directed by your guide, you do not want to risk anything at this point.
These are the basics steps involved if you were to build solar panels at home.

Choosing the Right guide When building your Solar Panel

Unless you are an expert electrician or even if you are one the necessity of a guide is vital.
Not only do these guides cover the basics and all the steps involved, but they also cover information on solar rebates for different countries, since the rebates are quite different from one country to another.
So even if you are an expert electrician, a guide will always be helpful in terms of other aspects involved when you choose to build solar panels at home.
Also, most of these guides do contain extras such a complete guide on building your own windmill in addition to various other bonuses.

Among hundreds of DIY guides out there, I've chosen the top three.
This a brief review on each of these guides.a detailed review can be found here.

among these I would rate Earth4Energy as number one, not only because of it's popularity, but also because of the quality materials they provide, containing videos, images, sketches, and a 70 page! pdf file.

Here is the link to the close second


The third most popular DIY Guide homemadeenergy.org

These equipment may come in handy when mounting the panels

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Comments and feedback highly appreciated

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