Making Your Own Solar Panel

One thing is clear, powering your home with solar energy can be a great money saver. Not to mention being environmentally friendly, which can give you a sense of pride by doing your part to preserve the environment.

So if solar power is free and environmentally friendly then why isn't every one using solar panels on their homes?

Well one reason is the initial cost of buying and installing solar power systems can be a huge disincentive.

Let me give you an example:

Let us say that your electric bill, on average, runs you about $125 a month. This means you are spending roughly $1,500 a year in electricity. So you decide that using solar power to reduce this cost would be a great idea, that is until you see the average cost of most solar power systems on the market today.

In most cases you are going to be spending several thousand dollars (basic solar energy system) up to $16,000 thousand dollars or more to buy a system and have it professionally installed. These systems can significantly reduce your electric bill but in most cases it will take you 5 to 10 years, depending on the cost, to pay off the initial investment before you start seeing any savings.

But what if there was a cheaper way to achieve the same results?

There are a lot of diy solar power systems floating around, some of them are very good while others leave a lot to be desired. The fact is that it is not nearly as hard or expensive as you think to make your own Home Solar Panels, and at nearly a fraction of the price of the professionally installed panels.

A solar cell is device for changing light rays from the sun directly into electricity, also called photovoltaic cell.

A full explanation can be found here.

A solar panel is a group of solar cells arranged into a panel that can be installed onto a flat surface. The panel captures sunlight and converts it into DC power.

A more detailed description can be found here

A typical example of what a 100-watt panel will run in a week. The panel will generate approximately 3,500 watts hours of energy per week (100 watts x 7 days x 5 hours), which can be used to run several appliances and electrical devices.

To estimate how much energy you need, just add up all the electrical drains (lights, pumps, electronics, appliances, etc.) that you typically use in a day. To do this, multiply the nominal power rating of each device (ex: 60-watt light bulb) by the amount of time you expect to use it in a day. Add up all these and divide by 5 (the number of hours per day you have to recharge your batteries using solar panels). This should give you a good idea as to the size of the solar system you need to keep your batteries from draining.

100-Watt Solar Panel

Typical Output/Week= 3,500 Watt Hours

In a Typical Week You Can Run:

19” color TV (70-watts) for 7 hours
Watts-490

VCR (40-watt) for 4 hours
Watts -160

Furnace fan (400-watt) for 3 hours
Watts-1,200

Satellite dish (40-watts)for 7 hours
Watts-280

2 Compact fluorescent lights (16-watts each) for 14 hours
Watts-448

Cassette player (30-watts)for 7 hours
Watts-210

Laptop (40-watt) for 7 hours
Watts-280

Coffee maker (900-watts)for 20 minutes
Watts-300

Total 3,476 Watt Hours

Source