Thinking of Building Solar Panels, You Don’t Need a P.H.D.
- By Gavin Dye
- Published 09/15/2009
- Home Management
- Unrated
You may be thinking of building solar panels to create power for your home, your yacht/boat or maybe even your RV. You may also be thinking that the only chance for this to ever happen you are going to have to go back to college and get a degree in Electrical Engineering. Hopefully you will be glad to know that anyone with even the simplest grasp of DIY should be able to build a solar panel, without spending a small fortune on materials, equipment and the added expense of getting someone to install them for you.
If you really want to build your panels, the best starting place would be to learn all you can about solar panels before you even think about spending your hard earned money. There are plenty of manuals that will take you through the whole process of building a solar panel, these should include detailed photographs and diagrams of what exactly you need to do, and the best ones will include detailed videos for you to watch. Working your way through the manual will save you time in the long run and give you a better chance in succeeding. Many of the products today will include a “shopping list” of exactly the materials you need to buy and where the best places to get the materials you need. You should be able to find many of the materials you need in your local hardware store, and if not th
e internet would be the next best place.
What you will be learning is how to how to connect up solar cells to create solar panels, and then how to connect these solar panels together. Your first attempt shouldn’t be to create a system that will power your house, start off small. In a day you should be able to build your first panels that would give you enough power for a couple of your small appliances. Once you have gained the knowledge and experience of building that first panel, you can start to build more panels, connect them together and power more appliances. In the end you may be able to power your entire home and then you can really start saving money.
Another important piece of knowledge, is how to store your electricity. It's no good creating electricity during the day, but then not having enough stored to power your appliances in the evening. Any decent manual will tell you how to build a system made from batteries that can store the electricity you produced during the day.
Learning to build your own solar panels, will save you money, but only if you have spent the time learning exactly what you need to do from beginning to end. You really don’t want to end up wasting more of your money than you really need to. By also taking the time to learn and build your panels, in the event of any problems you will be the best qualified person to fix anything that goes wrong.
If you really want to build your panels, the best starting place would be to learn all you can about solar panels before you even think about spending your hard earned money. There are plenty of manuals that will take you through the whole process of building a solar panel, these should include detailed photographs and diagrams of what exactly you need to do, and the best ones will include detailed videos for you to watch. Working your way through the manual will save you time in the long run and give you a better chance in succeeding. Many of the products today will include a “shopping list” of exactly the materials you need to buy and where the best places to get the materials you need. You should be able to find many of the materials you need in your local hardware store, and if not th
What you will be learning is how to how to connect up solar cells to create solar panels, and then how to connect these solar panels together. Your first attempt shouldn’t be to create a system that will power your house, start off small. In a day you should be able to build your first panels that would give you enough power for a couple of your small appliances. Once you have gained the knowledge and experience of building that first panel, you can start to build more panels, connect them together and power more appliances. In the end you may be able to power your entire home and then you can really start saving money.
Another important piece of knowledge, is how to store your electricity. It's no good creating electricity during the day, but then not having enough stored to power your appliances in the evening. Any decent manual will tell you how to build a system made from batteries that can store the electricity you produced during the day.
Learning to build your own solar panels, will save you money, but only if you have spent the time learning exactly what you need to do from beginning to end. You really don’t want to end up wasting more of your money than you really need to. By also taking the time to learn and build your panels, in the event of any problems you will be the best qualified person to fix anything that goes wrong.
Gavin Dye
Gavin Dye is the webmaster at Solar Power 4u where you can learn about solar power and solar panels. You can also find the best resources for information on building solar panels so you can start creating your own electricity.
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