Question: DIY Solar panels? From scratch?
I have seen a lot of DIY information on making your own solar panels. I have even purchased a couple of them. However, they have not been very helpful in the fact that they either call for buying tons of broken peices and putting them together, or buying each cell and building the frame, and wiring it together. I have a 14′X60′ Mobile home with the flat roof on it. It is in full sunlight 3/4 of every day. I am looking for an inexpensive way to build my own solar panel using the entire roof. I am not looking for the most efficient, because I have plenty of size to work with. I do not have a lot of electrical needs. I am on some medical machines though, if it werent for them I would probably just let the electric go and buy a propane fridge and stove and call it good. I do not want to spend a bunch of money on books either so please no advertisements on where to buy books on this subject. I have very little resources in the way of money or else I would just pay the electric bill, my electric company is 1/4 renewable energy anyway. So if anyone knows of a way to build this, or knows where I can get a book or website for free. please let me know. Thank you,
I guess I should have put this in to begin with. I already have the regulators, the inverter and the batteries. I use to have a wind and solar hybrid power plant in Montana when I was 6 miles from the nearest utility pole. I moved to Oregon, and I still have the wind generator, which does little good where I live, it would sit up there for days before I got enough wind to produce enough electricity to run a light bulb for a few minutes. What I do not have is the solar panels. I know the new ones use crystals and a lot of things you can not get readily, what I do not know is how they made the older ones before the crystals, back in the 50′s when all this started out. They were only 6 to 8% efficient. (in most cases less) but the materials for them must be available somewhere relatively cheap, and since I have a large area to put it in. I would rather try to save a few dollars, and use the entire roof. I also have the wiring I would need as well I just need to find out how it was done
Answer:
Answer by ioerr
Photovoltaic cells are expensive, even if you buy salvaged ones in bulk and wire them together yourself.
That’s why people do that- it’s the cheapest way to make photovoltaic panels. But it’s still not worth it, money wise. For what electricity costs, it would take you literally decades to recover the cost of the panels (and the banks of deep cycle batteries you would need. And the power inverters, wiring and labor costs).
I don’t really know what you’re asking for. Actual photovoltaic cells are made out of huge, solid silicon crystals, grown in clean room conditions using high tech and very expensive machinery. You’re not going to make them in your basement.
You’d be better off looking at a solar water heating system, or a solar space heating system. Those are relatively simple, and can even be built cheaply out of scrap materials if necessary. The only real technical hitch is that a solar water heater that circulates water through the collector might freeze up at night in the winter. The commercial ones use antifreeze to transfer heat from the collector to an internal tank.
But in any case, if you want to save actual mony using solar, you need to look at water or space heating. Photovoltaics are neat, but on a practical basis they’re still just a rich man’s toy.
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