How to build your own solar panel?
E.Mike asked:
Okay extra questions…
Can you really build one on your own? Or do I need a technician or someone qualified to help me install the panel?
I would love to make one myself coz I love diy stuff but so far the instructions I found online are pretty confusing…
Oh, and please don’t tell me to go to inane ‘how to’ sites like ehow for instance. Sites with detailed step by step instructions would help greatly!
Thanks!
Related posts:
instructables.com
will give you detailed instructions
No you cannot build solar panels. The ads that claim you can are scams in my opinion.
Generally speaking, solar panels create an electrical current when the wafer-based crystalline silicon is exposed to electromagnetic radiation (aka the sun).
The silicon wafer process requires special equipment and a qualified technician as you correctly assumed.
Check wikipedia’s article on solar panels to confirm my assertion that the production process of PV modules is complex and intricate.
When it comes to using solar panels, buy some even small ones, and the rest is a fun DIY experiment to see how to efficiently use the power in various electronic gadgets. Have fun!
And you are so right—ehow sucks!
depends on where you live here in fla. a black pipe on top of the roof will heat the water that is one solar powered water heater.Dont need no panel.
You can NOT cheaply build the solar cell itself, BUT you can buy the cells and combine them into a panel.
HOWEVER, you will find that it is usually cheaper to buy a panel than the separate cells to MAKE a panel. (Companies that build panels buy them in the thousands,or more, and get a “bulk” discount!)
IF you have a little BASIC knowledge of electricity, connecting them isn’t hard.
BUT, for “practical” use, you also need several other items that are NOT so easily built.
Assume 1v per cell, and you want 12v. That is 12 cells in series.
Assume each puts out 1 watt and you need 10 watts. That is 10 cells in parallel.
ETC.
Step one: Buy photovoltaic cells. They usually come in 4″x 6″ size or something close, and each one produces maybe 1.5 volts DC and however many watts. The common use of a solar panel is to charge a battery, and then feed an inverter.
So you need to produce a voltage higher than a battery for it to charge. Most batteries are 12 volts, so you want 14 or so. SO you figure out how many cells to link IN SERIES to produce the desired voltage. Then you figure out how many of these panels you want to link IN PARALLEL to produce the desired wattage. This is how you figure out how many cells you need to buy.
2. You need a low watt soldering iron. 15 is ideal but it takes a while, 50 watts would be fine. I think 75 watts would be the max for an iron, but you need to know what you’re doing so you don’t wreck cells from overheating.
3. You need flux (ideally in pen form) to dispense onto the cell contact points prior to soldering.
4. You need a low heat solder (ideally they make a roll of thin tin strip for this purpose)
5. Cut the solder strip into lengths just over 2 cells wide.
The front of the cell is the positive, the back is the negative. You start by soldering two strips to the back of a few cells, across the contact points, leaving the extra length hanging over one side to connect to the front of the next cell.
First you wet the surface being bonded with the flux pen, (make sure the iron has had time to heat) Use it with the widest blade type tip you can. With only mild pressure, heat the tin strip to bond it onto the cell.
Test each cell as you go. It is very difficult to replace a bad cell once it’s all together.
Use a sensitive voltmeter and place it in the sun (or under a bright lamp) and see that you get appropriate voltage.
Cells are easy to break so use a solid surface, and very mild pressure with the soldering tip.
6. They also sell larger gauge tin for linking across long chains. Read the limitations of your solder strip for how much wattage it can handle, then divide that by the individual cell watts to know how many cells the tin strip can support. The larger tin should support a multiple set of those linked cells.
You should end up with a chain of maybe 10 cells (at 1.5 volts a piece, making 15 volts from the chain) and probably 6 cells wide, (connected across the backs and fronts at the top with a little extra off the top corner to make your connections. Stagger them so they don’t accidentally touch later on.
Some people encase these cells in a framed box with Plexiglas in front, and sealed tight from weather. Others encase the entire cell in epoxy. Once the cell is complete, you would wire it directly to a car battery, (a good one hopefully, though you can find cheap used ones) then you would need an inverter to convert your DC voltage at 12 volts into AC house current at 120 volts. Then you can supplement your electricity, and maybe even turn your meter backwards. (some will not go backwards so you would need to contact your service provider to find out about getting a special meter to read your production so they can pay you for excess).
I hope this helps.
A great do it yourself video on Youtube by GreenPowerScience will show you how it’s done just as I described.