How To Build Solar Panels

Im looking into building my own solar panels for my home, anyone know of a good place to start looking?
Thank you!

It is not easy. I would stick to heating for home made solar.
"Because solar cells are semiconductor devices, they share many of the same processing and manufacturing techniques as other semiconductor devices such as computer and memory chips. However, the stringent requirements for cleanliness and quality control of semiconductor fabrication are a little more relaxed for solar cells.
Making solar panels is still a delicate process, and it is for this reason that major solar advances did not come into play until the last quarter of the century, when advances in semiconductors and photovoltaic design allowed increasingly efficient and affordable solar cells to be developed."

How much money does it need to build SOLAR PANEL (solar energy system)?
I read this article on good things about solar energy.
and it said ‘Solar panel construction has advanced significantly in the last 20 years and can withstand almost any weather condition. It is not even that expensive since technology has advanced so much that panel cost has been reduced significantly.’

So i was wondering how much does it actually cost now thnxxx

It depends.
A small one is $10 and one to keep a big house supplied with power can be more than $50000

i really need to know how
because im building a solar powered car for science fair :]
thank you!

Hehe, if you want to build your own solar panel that looks like what you see on buildings, etc, you will probably need to be a multi-millionaire. Here is a quote from the first link in my sources list:

"The high-efficiency solar cells you can buy at Radio Shack and other stores are made from highly processed silicon, and require huge factories, high temperatures, vacuum equipment, and lots of money."

But fortunately for you, there is a cheap way to make a solar panel yourself (see first link). I love the scitoys website, but I am not quite familiar with this particular experiment. It looks like a science fair project in itself! It also doesn’t appear to put out nearly enough power to run even a small solar car.

What I would recommend is buying a compact solar panel from Radio Shack or some other electronics store that you may know of.

Type in "solar" in to the Radio Shack search box. The first item on the list may be useful to you (the solar panel & battery combo). I am just guessing, though, since I don’t know any of your requirements (voltage output, power output, size, etc). Also, buyer beware. This particular product has a pretty bad customer review… but then again, I find that people are more inclined to leave a bad review than a good one.

Good luck…
-Ubi

It’s a bit more complicated than seeking advice from us, but these links should get you started in the right direction:

http://www.solarkits.com/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Build-Your-Own-Solar-Panel-Kit-For-Less-Than-$-200&id=1641142

http://off-grid-wind-solar.com/off-grid-living/tag/residential-solar-panel/

http://www.squidoo.com/homemade-solar-power-kits

http://www.articlesbase.com/article-tags/solar-panel-kit

Good luck…

I’m looking for some advice on hot water solar panels. I’m trying to save some money on electricity. A neighbor has been suggesting solar powered equipment for some time now, and I think he’s right. It does save quite a bit of money in the long run. They’re kind of expensive though, so I’m looking for cheaper alternatives.

Solar Power is great. I installed it myself about 2 years ago, and you really do notice the change within the first couple months. Building it yourself is actually pretty tricky without the right resources. Some of the guides don’t have enough detailed information that you need when you start putting the project together.

I was having a lot of trouble until I stumbled upon a site that was offering some great resources for solar DIY projects. I went ahead and added it to the sources section below. It’s great and has everything you would need for putting your own solar projects together, including hot water solar panels. Hope this helps!

As little as four hours of direct sun on this flashlight’s built-in solar panel provide all the power its three ultra-bright lifetime LEDs need to shine for more than eight hours. Shock- and water-resistant housing has a momentary blink switch that can be used instead of the steady-on setting whenever you need to preserve your night vision. 7″”L x 1″”D. China.

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I am looking at building my own solar panels to at least help cut down the rising energy bill. I know its expensive. I already have the solar cells so no need to worry about listing that. But i am looking at wiring it directly into the house. Is there any parts that you could list for me, that would be great. thanks

Most likely, your local power utility will prohibit you from connecting homemade panels to their grid, but if you had a commercial panel, you would use a grid-tied inverter such as shown here http://www.enphaseenergy.com/ . If you had an array of 10 or more panels, it would usually be cheaper to get a single, large inverter.

The usual path taken with homemade panels seems to be using them to charge a battery, then running things of the battery. And it’s usually a fun thing to do, but not a way to save money. Just so you know.

I want to build the professional sort of solar panels the kind that you’d find at radioshack/ amazon.com. Where exactly can I find the materials to build those pro solar panels.

the size of the panel i plan to build will be 6×4 or 4×6 inches

Edmund Scientific: http://scientificsonline.com/

i found plenty of information on how to builbuild solar panels and use batteries but i cant find any information on how to hook up with out batteries.

you need to purchase an Inverter which converts the DC from the panels to AC. The inverters are fairly pricey so check around. A good inverter will have a 10 year warranty. The panels have a 25 year warranty, but should last 40 years with no problem. Just make sure you clean them on a regular basis and if you live in an area with hard water, make sure you squeegee the water off, or the minerals will build up on the panels and lessen their efficiency.

Learn how to build your own at home:

http://renewable-living.freehostia.com/earth4energy.html

Read My Blog:

http://renewable-living.freehostia.com/ Distributed by Tubemogul.

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