How easy would it be to make and assemble your own solar panels?

Question

I want to make a small panel that would collect heat for my house to help on saving electricity. Where is the best place to get plans and parts at? Is it expensive to build a panel?

Answer 1

It's easy but you may need to be aware of building regulations.
http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/solar_hot_water.htm
is a good book but costs money - you may be able to get similar from a lending library.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/green_home_building/1985_May_June/A_Homemade__Factory__Solar_Collector
http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/frameindex.htm

Answer 2

Is this for photovoltaic (generating electricity)? You are better off buying the assembled panels and installing them yourself. The panels would have better efficiencies than what you are going to build - seriously.

The tricky part is what you're going to be hooking the panels up to. To your electrical panel to supply electricity? You would need to buy a transformer to take the electricity from DC to AC. Or to charge a battery for night lighting or powering a fan? The costs can vary widely depending on the components involved.

Answer 3

Since you say heat, can we assume you mean some sort of solar hot water system?

The simplest form of this is just some kind of tank, painted black to maximize absorption of radiation. Refinements include insulating the sides and bottom, adding a "greenhouse" enclosure to better trap heat, and adding reflectors. It's often the downstream plumbing and controls that require more ingenuity. You can easily Google around for plans and ideas.

Components can be as inexpensive as you like. Some people have built systems from salvaged parts. Do consider, though, that if you are putting a large quantity of water up on your roof, a modest investment in preventing and protecting against leaks is worthwhile.

Answer 4

Not quite sure what your asking here Chuck. You want to collect heat you say/ If you mean the type of panel in a solar hot water system, that is really only high diffision polarized glass for efficiently collecting solar UV radiation to heat water in a tank by means of conection, conduction .
If you are refering to PV solar cells I have only ever seen very rudimentry low efficiency kits, mainly for kids models etc. To actually manufacture a high grade solar cell you need some pretty sophisticated machinery & the cost of setting this all up for a few solar panels would be very cost prohibitive, hence why they are manufactured in bulk. They are fairly expensive as the oil companies own the rights to them & dont wish to really market re=newable energy sources if they can still sell oil at ungodly prices. You can buy cheaper small low wattage designs from hobby shops , but by the sounds of it you want ways to run your household . For this you need to calculate your total household power requirements , times that figure by 1.75 (remember at night you do not generate any power, no sun), then that will give you the number of panels you require deoending upon what configuration you decide. 6,12,24,120,240 Volt arrays & number of "banks" , through a decent PLC or solar controller , then battery bank/s of suitable deep cycle design & capacity ,then invertor to convert DC to AC power. If you generate surplus power you can have an interactive grid invertor & meter that actually sells your excess power back to the local power company. many government bodies now also offer rebates to the consumer for initial setup costs.

Answer 5

Build Home Solar Power : http://SolarPower.siopu.com/?iRC