Build Your Own Solar Panels

Residential Solar Panels

Martin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:13:41 +0000

I just finished watching a video interview of a professional solar panel installer. He explains the process of getting set up with residential solar panels step by step. I like the last step best:

“Watch your meter start spinning backwards.”

Some of the other steps made me uncomfortable, like the one where you give SolarDave a big chunk of money. The process of obtaining permission from your local government sounds like a bit of a hassle as well. In the future, people in the solar power industry are hoping to see some standardization of the approval process. As things stand, the time and cost involved in getting a permit to put residential solar panel on your roof is all over the map.

There is a whole other layer of bureaucracy if you want your system to be tied into the grid.

One way for do-it-yourselfers to avoid some of the bureacracy is to put the solar panels someplace other than their roof. Using them in a closed off-grid system simplifies things even more.

Thermal solar panels, the ones used to heat residental water, are said to pay for themselves in less than ten years. Heating water with electricity in one of the biggest inefficiencies in the modern home. A solar water heater will save your family $6 per month per person and reduce your carbon emissions by 3 tons per year.

Share and Enjoy:

DIY Solar Water Heater

Martin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:58:20 +0000

Photo Credit: geocam20000

Unlike PV solar panels, there is no limit to how low-tech you can go when heating water with the power of the sun. Modern systems use vacuum tubes and they are very efficient. A simple collector that uses a black surface encased in insulation and glass with copper piping running through it will work too. Very basic systems are commonly used to raise the temperature of swimming pools. They can also help reduce the cost of heating the running water that you use in your home. Even if you live far away from the equator, you can offset your water heating costs by 25% or more with a solar water heater. Sunnier places can approach a 100% savings.

If you are thinking about a DIY solar water heater there are three many things that you have to consider when comparing plans or making your own. These are COST, DURABILITY, and EFFICIENCY.

There is no point in spending more on your do it yourself project than it would cost to get a factory made, plug and play water heater. Good quality solar water heaters cost in the neighborhood of $5000. One of the cheapest looking plans that I could find on the internet used Coroplast as a collector. The designer was quite confident about the panel’s efficiency but he admitted that it may not be durable enough to install as a residential water heater. So basically his simple solar water heater excels in one of the three considerations but falls short on the other two.

I saw elsewhere that someone had a plan to convert a free supply of old fashioned cast iron radiators into solar collectors. It seems like a simple plan since these things are incredibly durable. In this case, two out of three is bad. While the plan is cheap and the end product would be durable, the efficiency of the system makes it nearly useless.

The most common type of DIY solar water heater is common because it has the best balance of durability, cost and efficiency. These plans typical involve a collector plate made from a conductive metal like copper or aluminum. This plate is coated on one side with black paint. Copper piping is attached to the back of the plate. This collector assembly is then housed in a basic frame with the coil side next to insulation and the plate side covered with glass. A panel like this can be plumbed to the hot water line for you home. Obviously, the secondary system should be between the solar panel and the outlets (faucets). It would be very inefficient to pump water that you had heated with gas or electricity up to your roof on a cold, cloudy day.

Share and Enjoy:

Cost of Solar Panels

Martin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:23:24 +0000

The cost of solar panels is quite variable. There is no upper limit to how much money you can spend on a residential solar power system. I guess you are limited to some extent by the amount of surface area at your disposal. The realistic number for a serious solar power system, one that is professionally installed and connected to the grid, is $20,000. The cost of professional installation is a pretty big portion of that round number. Retailers of solar power components are now providing extensive advice to people who want to install their own components.

Experts are predicting that the cost of solar panels will drop in the future.

A portable unit that is suitable for a boat or RV can be had for less than $1000 but these units have very limited output.

The best bang for your buck is actually solar water heating. A system can be installed for around $5000 and it can reduce your water heating costs from 50-100%. If you presently use electricity to heat your water you can expect to have the unit pay for itself in just a few years. The price for solar water heaters quite variable, I was able to find one that is made in China for $235 plus shipping. The most expensive system on the market is equipped to provide in floor radiant heating for your home as well as hot water. It costs almost $25,000.

Buying in bulk to save money is a strategy that we all know about. Is their such a thing as buying solar panels in bulk? Well, some suppliers have pallets packed and waiting for a buyer. If you have project that requires this many panels, you can potentially save some money.

Photo Credits: TVentano / Haversack

Share and Enjoy:

How Much Do Solar Panels Cost?

Martin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:08:29 +0000

When we talk about how much solar panels cost, the standard measure is in dollars per watt. The electricity that we buy from the grid is generally priced in dollars per kiloWatt hour. Solar panels generate at their full potential for about 5 hours per day. The average household pays for about 10,000 kWh per year. That is roughly equal to 1140 Watts 24/7 all year. If solar panels can only power for 5 hours per day (check here for Sun hours per day in your area) you need about 5000 watts worth of solar panels to meet average consumption needs.

Solar panels are presently available wholesale at a minimum of $3 per Watt. That means the cost of the panels alone will be $15,000.

I don’t have that kind of money burning a whole in my pocket, do you? There are lots of other less capital intensive ways to take advantage of solar power. You can build your own closed system that uses this alternative power for one of your needs. A small solar panel setup could easily power an LED lighting system. You could save some money by building a DC lighting system that wouldn’t require an inverter. Your laptop uses about 60 Watts. You should be able to build your own solar panels to power a laptop and some DC powered peripherals for a few hundred dollars.

Share and Enjoy:

How Do Solar Panels Work?

Martin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:41:00 +0000

So you might be wondering how solar panels work…. or you might not. I use a computer every day without having a precise understanding of how the actual processor works. I’ve looked into that briefly, but I am not going to waste my time when it would be better spent learning how to effectively use the technology. I feel the same way about solar technology, I’m happy to have just a basic idea of how it works.

This is the simplified explanation of how solar panels work. Solar energy hits the Earth as a particle that we refer to as a photon. When a solar panel is bombarded with photons, some of them are absorbed by the semi-conductor material (commonly silicon). Each photon that is absorbed can potentially shake loose an electron. An electric current is a flow of electrons. Solar cells are constructed with materials that force the free electrons to flow in one direction, thus creating an electrical current. A typical solar panel is composed of a group of solar cells joined in series and/or in parallel by a conductive material.

Share and Enjoy:

Making Solar Panels

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:02:07 +0000

If you have assumed that making solar panels is beyond your capabilities, guess what? It’s much simpler than you think. Taking the basic components and building your own solar panels that are durable and provide an adequate output of energy is not rocket science.

Solar cells were first invented in 1946. I know it’s hard to believe. They didn’t get a lot of attention then, we had fuel to burn and roads to drive. The most noteworthy early use for solar panels was when a solar powered satellite was launched by the USA in 1958. The six solar panels powered Vanguard 1’s radio transmitter for six years.

Solar cells are available from a wide variety of sources for as little as a dollar each. If your goal is to experiment on a small scale, you can even get a grab bag of damaged solar cells. If you want to make something that will actually be useful, you need to do your homework and buy cells with an appropriate output.

Making solar panels basically involves connecting several solar cells together and housing them in a structure that will protect them while still exposing them to full sunlight.

Share and Enjoy:

Free Solar Panels

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:54:35 +0000

The energy that comes from the sun is free. Free solar panels, on the other hand, are hard to find.

You might be at a loss as to where to start looking for free solar panels. Keep an eye out for solar panels that are being used to power traffic lighting and construction signage. See if you can find contact information for the suppliers in the phone directory or on the panels themselves. These businesses may have damaged solar panels taking up space in their garage. They might be happy to let someone take them off their hands for little or no money. Visiting in person is more effective than trying to convince someone over the phone. Be very friendly because you never know which contact has the potential to become a continuous source of useful free stuff. Bring a meter with you . You should buy (or borrow) a meter that can measure the volts and amps. You want to avoid wasting you time, gas and possibly money on a solar panel that does not generate any electricity.

Solar cells are easily damaged, but they can be used to build less than perfect looking solar panels. If you can’t find a source of free damaged solar cells, look to some of the bigger retailers for cheap grab bags of damaged cells. These kits can be useful for practicing the basic skills that you need to build you own solar panels.

Share and Enjoy:

Portable Solar Panels

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:43:42 +0000

Photo credit: docentjoyce

Portable panels practically shout the word FREEDOM. Whether your an outdoors type of guy like the one in the above photo or a traveling business person, you have to recognize the advantages of being able to plug into the sun rather than search for an electrical outlet in a place that is strange and new.

There are many products that claim to provide a solution for people who want to power their portable electronics using solar power. Whenever a new one comes on the market, the popular technology bloggers are quick ot review them. They are almost always found wanting. They can fail in three different ways. They can be too expensive. They can be too big to be portable in any practical way. They can fall short on the amount of power that they generate. Some products that are aggressively marketed actually fail on all three counts. Different reviewers will always have different standards by which they measure portable solar panels. I have seen a review where the blogger was quite happy to have a gadget that would just barely charge an iPod over the course of a full day of bright sunlight. I think it would be great to have a serviceable solar panel as part of the emergency kit in you car. Even if it was only good enough to partially charge your mobile phone, it could potentially save your life.

Building your own portable solution allows you to set and meet your own standards for cost, portability and power output. You may have to consider some compromises. A common strategy to maximize portability is to attach the solar panels to storage items that you would be taking with you anyway. Backpacks, laptop cases, handbags and more can be retrofitted with today’s flexible solar cells. If you want more power, you can build a purpose specific bike trailer.

If you are planning to use the panels to charge one or more DC powered devices, your system may not require a battery or an inverter.

Share and Enjoy:

The Difference Between Series and Parallel Circuits

Martin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:11:26 +0000

I think that AA batteries might be a helpful example to use when explaining The Difference Between Series and Parallel Circuits. You may have noticed that the traditional flashlight comes in various sizes to accommodate a varying number of batteries stacked end to end. These batteries are in a series. The longer the series, the more Volts you have running through the bulb. Three 1.5 Volt batteries provide 4.5 Volts.

The second picture shows three batteries set up in parallel. Devices that require more current are typically designed to use larger cells because the larger cells are capable of delivering a proportionally larger current. The battery cells in a laptop are set up in a combination of series and parallel to provide the correct current and voltage. 4S2P means four cells in a series and two parallel.

An individual solar cell can provide about 0.5 Volts. That’s not very useful on its own but once you grasp the basic math involved in assembling series and parallel circuits you can design a panel to match your requirement for voltage and amperage. The number of cells in each series should should be twice as high as the voltage required by your system. The number of series wired together in parallel should will be determined by the current required.

If you plan to build you own solar panels, it makes a lot of sense to source things like inverters before planning the layout of your cells. For a very basic application such as charging a 12 volt battery, a single series of 36 solar cells is adequate. 18 volts are required for this purpose.

It is common practice for solar cells within a panel to be arranged in series and solar panels to be connected in series.

Share and Enjoy:

Solar Panels for Sale

Martin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:06:53 +0000

If you are looking for solar panels for sale online, you have a lot to look at. Prices range from over $30,000 for a pallet of Sanyo 200 Watt solar panels all the way down to $19.50 for a kinda crappy looking solar panel on eBay. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, there may be something that suits your requirements and your budget. If you are planning to build your own solar panels, a set of 150 solar cells might sound appealing. Some come with conductive tabs attached and some do not.

The disadvantage of buying solar panels for sale online is that you cannot verify that they work. There might be some local sources for new and used solar panels in your area. Government surplus auctions, craigslist and local classified ads are all good places to start looking. Purchasing or borrowing an appropriate volt/amp meter before personally inspecting prospective purchases is a must. Be sure to set the meter to the expected output range before attaching it to a solar panel that is in full sun.

Solar panels have recently been added to the stock in many big box stores. These kits have been tailored to meet a carefully researched price point rather than engineered to meet a specific need. That being said, they might make economic sense for people with off grid cottages who are satisfied with adapting their usage to meet the output of the kit.

Share and Enjoy: