Solar Panels For Your Home

Solar panels for your home are a great way to cut the cost of a high electric bill. If you have been thinking of going to solar power you have found that having the panels installed is very expensive, $35,000 and up. Common people (not rich) have found that you can build them yourself much cheaper. All you need is the right information to get started.

History of solar panels

Photovoltaic technology was first introduced in 1839. However, the first solar panel was not invented until 1883 by Charles Fritz. Fritz used a thin layer of gold to cover the semiconductor selenium to form the junction. This cell was only one percent effective. The solar panel cells we use today were invented in 1954.

Solar applications

You must first choose if you want to power you entire house with solar panels for your home or just a few major appliances. Some people use solar energy for heat and air or hot water only. Depending on what you decide to run with your solar power will determine how many kilowatts your panels will have to produce.

On Grid or Off?

The next decision you must make is whether you will be on the grid or not. This simply means whether or not you will stay connected to a power company. If you stay connected to the power company, you will still have an electric bill it will just be drastically reduced. However, you will not have to purchase storage devices or have reduced power on cloudy days and at night.

Off grid means, you will be totally self sufficient, the only power you will have is what you generate yourself. This can be very freeing until you realize that the only place you can really achieve this is the extreme southwest United States.

Solar cells

A solar cell is a device that changes sunlight into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. You can build your own cell with many complicated steps. You will have to use things like Titanium Dioxide, electrolytes and metals. The result will work but the power produced will be very small. Your best bet is to purchase the latest cell technology and assemble the rest of the solar panel.

Building your first panel

First create your box or panel, the size and configuration will be largely determined by the above figures, if you only need one panel to power your air in the summer the size will be much different from what you need for an entire home. Basically, it should be solid wood bottom, 1.5 inch rails for the side and possible the middle of a large panel.

Once you have determined the size and number of panels you will need you must build an array. This is simply several solar cells linked together with tabs. You must be very careful with your solar cells as they are rather fragile.

Place them upside down on a ready made pattern or jig, quarter-inch plywood is sufficient, and solder the tabs to each cell (cells commonly come with the tabs you need). Once the tabs are in place, you can solder each tab to the next cell, creating a panel of cells. Flip them carefully for placement in the solar panel.

The biggest problem with homemade solar panels is moisture getting inside the unit and degrading connections or cells. To prevent this you can use a layer of foam tape available at any hardware store around the edges, and then affix your Plexiglas over this with a screw every six inches.

This is a very basic outline for the procedure. To be completely successful you may need battery storage and regulators as well as an assessment of the best placement for your panels. You will also need to add a junction box and some other key components, but this is a basic outline for creating solar panels for your home.





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