Upcycled Solar Cells Panels Idea
If youre looking to save money, consider making a solar panel out of broken solar cell pieces. These can easily be reused and cost only a few dollars for a whole bag of them.
To complete this DIY project, youll also need a multimeter, hot glue gun, conductive copper mesh, and a conductive pen. Simply link the cells together and youre good to go.
You can also apply a silicone coating to this for added structural integrity.
To harness the power from this, youll need to attach it to a battery or power source.
Create The Solar Panel Housing
The solar panel housing is simply a box that will hold the solar cells. The bottom of the box is made with plywood and the sides are made with 3/4″ x 3/4″ wood. The top of the box will be covered with plexi-glass.
If you are using 3″ x 6″ solar cells, the plywood will need to be cut to about 44″ x 21″ in size. This will fit two sub-panels of 18 solar cells each. The 3/4″ wood should be cut to size and joined to the plywood with screws to create a border for the panel.
At this point, you can cut the non-conductive backing and plexi-glass to size as well. You should also paint the solar panel housing and backing material with the UV protector.
Make Your Own Solar Panels Any Size You Want
Special Note About The Size of Your Solar CellsThe solar cells we use to build solar panels are rated: 1.75 watts each. This is just one size you can use to make your own solar panels but you don’t have to settle with this. If you want to, you can use bigger solar cells and make way more powerful solar panels.
If you really want to build solar panels that are much bigger with the materials available today, I would suggest substituting the solar cells used in the examples on this page with mono crystalline solar cells rated at 41 Volts and 5.49 Amps. If you use 72 of these solar cells to make one panel, your one finished panel will be able to deliver 225 Watts of power maximum in optimal sunlight.
So keep in mind that you can buy any sized solar cell you want and substitute the new cell’s volts, amps and watt ratings in the examples below to create a more powerful solar panel.
Don’t Miss: Can You Put Solar On A Metal Roof
What Is Solar Power For The Home
Homeowners who install photovoltaic power systems receive numerous benefits: lower electric bills, lower carbon footprints, and potentially higher home values. But these benefits typically come with significant installation and maintenance costs, and the magnitude of the gains can vary widely from one house to another. This article will help homeowners make the financial calculations required to determine the viability of solar power in their homes.
Diode Solar Panel Idea
Diodes are inexpensive and easy to use semiconductors. This designer played around with using these instead of solar cells. Although cheaper, you will need to use many more of them to achieve the same power output.
If you need a small amount of power to charge your phone or wireless headphones, for example, you can use this blueprint to create a cheap and efficient power source. This will not work for powering your whole home, however. This is a fun DIY idea that requires less than $30 in materials and is relatively easy to follow.
You May Like: How To Feed Solid Food To Baby
Connecting The Array Of Solar Panels
Once you have your stanchions and rails installed properly, have the solar panels mounted, its time to connect the solar panels together.
What we will be doing here is connecting the solar panels you installed in PARALLEL. This will help to keep voltage the same while at the same time, increase amperage. As mentioned earlier, it is VERY important your entire array of solar panels are exactly the same in size and WATT output.
Also, when you wire everything together use as little wire as possible because long wires lose energy due to resistance.
Lets say you have 4X 100 watt solar panels and you want to connect them all together in parallel, all positive cables are connected together and all negative cables are connected together. What you get in the end is just two cables which represent all inputs from our solar panels.
Side Note: To connect all solar panels together, since most use the MC4 connections, we recommend you get the appropriate MC4 Y adapters found here.
Calculating The Number Of Cells You Need
You need to calculate how many cells that will add to the voltage you need for your solar panel. For this project, I am going to use 32 solar cells, each will produce .89 watt and will be 4 square size.
This will make my solar panel to produce 16 volts at 2 amp which will be enough to charge a 12-volt car battery.
Recommended Reading: How To Start A Solar Farm Business
Connect The Solar Panels To The Racking Equipment
To secure solar panels to the racking equipment, you will need clamps, or connectors, that are made for the racking you choose. Buying them together and from the same distributor is a good way to make sure they are built for each other. Solar panel kits generally come with racking but if you buy everything separately, make sure you do the research to build a fully functioning solar power system.
Crimp The Tab Ribbon:
To crimp the tab ribbon, you need to use needle-nose pliers or a small BBQ stick. The crimp should not be more than 1/8 high, positioned in the middle, and do not touch each other. See the picture above for reference.
The reason for crimping tab ribbon is, when the temperature of the solar panel rises or decreases, it will contract or expand tab ribbon. When crimping is there, it will reduce stress on solder connection that keeps connections intact, and prolong panel life.
Recommended Reading: How Is Solo Stove Smokeless
Finding And Choosing Cells For Solar Panels
Each solar cell has its own characteristics and I recommend you to dont mix cell type. Each panel should contain only one type of cell.
Different supplier offers the same cell at different prices. If you are looking for the best price then remember, the quality of the cell and good customer service is more valuable than low price alone.
Solar cells are fragile, and it is important to know about the replacement policy if cells arrive broken from shipping. Do not buy from a supplier if shipping is not insured, or they are not providing a replacement for cells broken in shipping.
Dc To Ac Inverter Connected To Charge Controller
For this setup, we recommend a Sine Wave power inverter . Youll connect the positive and negative terminals of the inverter, directly into the load section of the charge controller. Once this entire system is setup, youll have a complete solar power system ready to go.
To run your entire home, youll need to scale this up GREATLY. Regardless of the size, the setup will be mostly the same with exception of more expensive hardware due to increased power and load.
Don’t Miss: What To Look For In Solar Panels
By Step Instructions On How To Make Solar Panels
Safety First
When making solar panels, always wear a mask and safety glasses during soldering to protect from the inhalation of fumes and from flicking solder.
Also when you build solar panels, always make sure, you wear gloves during the handling of solar cells so you don’t get oil on the cells and reduce their effectiveness.
Step : A Net Meter Measures Usage
On cloudy days and overnight, your solar shingles or panels may not be able to capture enough sunlight to use for energy conversely, in the middle of the day when nobody is home, they may collect surplus energymore than you need to operate your home. Thats why a meter is used to measure the electricity flowing in both directionsto and from your home.Your utility company will often provide credits for any surplus power you send back to the grid. This is known as net metering.
Read Also: Can You Clean Walls With Pine Sol
Step : The Electrical Energy Is Converted
You now have solar panels working efficiently to transform sunlight into electricity, but the electricity generated is called direct current electricity, which is not the type of electricity that powers most homes, which is alternating current electricity. Fortunately, DC electricity can easily be changed into AC electricity by a gadget called an inverter. In modern solar systems, these inverters can be configured as one inverter for the entire system or as individual microinverters attached behind the panels.
What Is Maximum Power Point Solar Tracking
For a layman this would be something too complex and sophisticated to grasp and a system involving extreme electronics.
In a way it may be true and surely MPPTs are sophisticated high end devices which are meant for optimizing the charging of the battery without altering the solar panel V/I curve.
In simple words an MPPT tracks the instantaneous maximum available voltage from the solar panel and adjusts the charging rate of the battery such that the panel voltage remains unaffected or away from loading.
Put simply, a solar panel would work most efficiently if its maximum instantaneous voltage is not dragged down close to the connected battery voltage, which is being charged.
For example, if the open circuit voltage of your solar panel is 20V and the battery to be charged is rated at 12V, and if you connect the two directly would cause the panel voltage to drop to the battery voltage, which would make things too inefficient.
Conversely if you could keep the panel voltage unaltered yet extract the best possible charging option from it, would make the system work with MPPT principle.
So it’s all about charging the battery optimally without affecting or dropping the panel voltage.
There’s one simple and zero cost method of implementing the above conditions.
Choose a solar panel whose open circuit voltage matches the battery charging voltage. Meaning for a 12V battery you may choose a panel with 15V and that would produce maximum optimization of both the parameters.
Also Check: Are Renogy Solar Panels Any Good
Why Are Solar Panels Bad
Solar panels are bad for the environment because toxic chemicals are used in their manufacture. The fabrication processes have waste products which can be harmful to human health and the ecology. Old solar panels may become toxic waste due to the heavy metal content of the solar cells and other contaminants.
How Do You Build Your Own Solar Panel System With A Kit
While building solar panels from scratch and then retrofitting an entire solar system is possible, most people usually want to build a solar system from pre-made equipment and then install the system.
The main advantage of buying a packaged solar kit, like one from Grape Solar versus buying all of the material separately, is that the equipment within the kit is guaranteed to work together. That is not necessarily the case if you buy each item ad hoc. For example, certain solar panels and inverters can only work with each other within defined electrical specifications.
Solar panel kits come with most of the parts you will need to complete your small-scale solar project. Image source:
Unless you’re determined to build a system from the ground up, a solar panel kit is a better option and will be less expensive and confusing.
Also Check: How Much Do Solar Panels Cost In Oklahoma
Solar Basics: How Do Solar Panels Work
Solar energy works by capturing the suns energy and quietly and effectively turning it into electricity for your home or business.
Our sun is a natural nuclear reactor. It releases tiny packets of energy called photons, which travel the 149.6 million kilometres from the sun to Earth in about 8.5 minutes. Every hour, enough photons impact our planet to generate enough solar energy to theoretically satisfy global energy needs for an entire year.
Solar doesnt generate electricity all the time, but it does generate electricity when it is needed most. This includes during the daytime and during hot sunny periods when demand for electricity is at its highest.
Australia is one of the sunniest countries in the world and is the perfect place for the sun to be put to work, especially during these peak times.
Making It Even Simpler
If you are looking for an even simpler solar charger, then probably there cannot be anything more straightforward than connecting an appropriately rated solar panel directly with the matching battery via a blocking diode, as shown below:
Although, the above design does not incorporate a regulator, it will still work since the panel current output is nominal, and this value will only show a deterioration as the sun changes its position.
However, for a battery that is not fully discharged, the above simple set up may cause some harm to the battery, since the battery will tend to get charged quickly, and will continue to get charged to unsafe levels and for longer periods of time.
Recommended Reading: Is There A Solar Powered Car
Setup Stands For Inverter And Battery
Your residential solar unit is incomplete without stands for the battery and inverter. Again, you have the option of building the stands or getting them. Once the allocated positions for the inverter and battery are ready, you can start working on the wiring. Start with wiring the controller. The first connection from the left is for connecting the controller with the solar panels. The second connection is for pairing the battery with the controller. The last connection is for connecting the controller to the direct DC load connection.
For connecting the solar panel with the charge controller, you will need a separate connector called an MC4 connector. Once the controller is connected to the battery, its LED lights should light up. Similarly, you will have to connect the inverter terminal with the batterys terminal.
Following these steps can guide you to set up a solar power unit at your home. The high costs incurred in installing one can be reaped later on as solar energy is not only clean but also a cost-effective investment.
Maximum Efficiency Solar Panel Idea
This designer sought to create something that would harness the suns power but also the thermal energy also received. This gets a bit complicated and might be better for those more experienced.
To build, you will need an aluminum backplate, glass, copper pipe, silicone caulk, a water pump, aluminum flux paste, and a soldering tool. After testing this over a couple of weeks, the builder was happy with the results but realized he spent a lot more money than anticipated.
However, this is a fun project and a great way to experiment with solar panels.
You May Like: Does Pine Sol Repel Ants
How Does It Do That
Cuprous oxide is a type of material called a semiconductor.A semiconductor is in between a conductor, where electricity canflow freely, and an insulator, where electrons are bound tightlyto their atoms and do not flow freely.
In a semiconductor, there is a gap, called a bandgap betweenthe electrons that are bound tightly to the atom, and the electronsthat are farther from the atom, which can move freely and conductelectricity.
Electrons cannot stay inside the bandgap. An electron cannot gainjust a little bit of energy and move away from the atom’s nucleusinto the bandgap. An electron must gain enough energy to movefarther away from the nucleus, outside of the bandgap.
Similarly, an electron outside the bandgap cannot lose a littlebit of energy and fall just a little bit closer to the nucleus.It must lose enough energy to fall past the bandgap into thearea where electrons are allowed.
When sunlight hits the electrons in the cuprous oxide, some of theelectrons gain enough energy from the sunlight to jump past the bandgapand become free to conduct electricity.
The free electrons move into the saltwater, then into the clean copper plate,into the wire, through the meter, and back to the cuprous oxide plate.
As the electrons move through the meter, they perform the work needed tomove the needle. When a shadow falls on the solar cell, fewer electronsmove through the meter, and the needle dips back down.
Testing The Solar Cell
Don’t Miss: How Many Solar Panels For 5000 Watts
