subject: How to Generate Electricity at Home with Homemade Solar Panels [print this page] How to Generate Electricity at Home with Homemade Solar Panels
Solar panels are now widely used to generate electricity. It is easy and environmentally-friendly. However the price of solar panels are still too high for many people. If you cannot afford, you can try to build them on your own.
To make solar panel, you will need some simple tools like saw, screw driver and drill. You will also need silicone caulk and wood glue. For the wiring, you will need wire cutters, wire strippers, a soldering iron and solder. All these tools are cheap and can be bought at your nearby stores.
The main component of a solar panel is solar cells. You can buy second-hand solar cells if you are with low budget. You can try to buy them on internet. But you better buy from famous online store with better reputation so that you would not buy cells of low quality. Buy solar cells that are pre-tabbed. The price of these cells are a bit higher but it does worth as you will do much less work on wiring.
You will need some materials to make the container. Wood is my favorite as it is cheap and easy to obtain. You can easily get it for free. Making the case is very easy. Just make sure the size is correct.
After you've completed the container, glue the cells on it and wire them together. If cells you bought are not pre-tabbed, you will have to solder them together because glue them to the container. You may need to attach a diode to the panel to prevent the loss of energy of the batteries during night. If you plan to use a charge controller then there is no need to use diode. After using some silicone caulk to glue the cells into the wood container, test it with voltmeter. If everything works right, oh you just completed a solar panel.
All the knowledge I know about diy solar panel is from a guide named "Green DIY Energy". This guide is very comprehensive and with video tutorials. I could not have completed a solar panel without the step-by-step instruction from this guide. It also gave me the idea of how to obtain cheap materials to build my solar panel with less than $200.The guide has instruction on diy wind generators too. If you have little knowledge but want to generate electricity at home, I strongly recommend this guide to you.
