How To Make Solar System

Update: The Complete System Diagram

How to Make a Model Solar System | Hobbycraft

After many comments I have made this drawing to try and clarify why I have two charge controllers. The 10 watt panel I built now runs some basic DC things by the garden . The 15 watt panel is connected to the C12 and is the “photocell” for the lighting control. During the day, however, it regulates the power to the battery just like any other charge controller would. At night, it stops sending power to the battery and begins doing just the opposite. The 100 watt panel is connected to the C35 due to its higher capacity. In the picture, all the red dots indicate a fuse. There are a few more for the inverter and elsewhere, but these are the basics.

Mounting The Solar Panel

After designing the solar system, buy all the components with appropriate rating as per the previous steps.

Now it is time to mount the solar panel. First choose a suitable location on the roof top, or on the ground, where there is no obstruction of sunlight.

Prepare the mounting stand: You can make it by your own or buy one. In my case I have taken the drawing from the solar panel company and made it at a near by welding shop. The tilt of the stand is nearly equal to the latitude angle of your location.

The stand for my big solar panel

I made a small wooden mounting stand for my 10 Watt solar panel. I have attached the pictures, so that any one can make it easily.

The DIY stand for my 10 watt solar panel

My 10 watt solar panel mounted on the stand

Tilting : To get the most from solar panels, you need to point them in the direction that captures the maximum sun light, i.e. south if youre in the northern hemisphere or north if youre in the southern hemisphere. You also have to optimize the angle relative to the ground. Use one of these formulas to find the best angle from the horizontal at which the panel should be tilted:

If your latitude is below 25°, use the latitude times 0.87.

If your latitude is between 25° and 50°, use the latitude, times 0.76, plus 3.1 degrees.

For more details on tilting click here

First, place the stand in such a way that the face is directed towards south (or north if youre in the southern hemisphere. Mark the leg position over the roof.

What Are Other Benefits Of Professional Installations

The cost of a solar system installation can be intimidating – however, there are many financing options like solar loans, as well as incentives for homeowners that can drastically reduce the price.

While solar system installation costs are expensive, installers have decades of hands-on experience something no amount of research or instructions can duplicate.

At the end of 2020, the federal tax credit was extended, so you can get a tax credit of 26% on your solar system until 2023. To reiterate, you would not be eligible for this incentive if you built and installed the panels yourself.

DIY solar panels and solar systems are possible but are best left for science projects or small-scale use. Professional installations might not give you the satisfaction of completing a project, but they can give you peace of mind.

Find out how much it will cost to install solar panels on your specific roof

Also Check: How Do Solar Pool Covers Work

What Is 3d Solar System Model

A solar system model for school is a simple astronomy science experiment. It is the perfect demo working model of solar system. We can view form any angle and learn.

Working model of 3d solar system model for school helps us to answers many questions like :

How To Make A Solar System Model For School ?
What is Solar system ? What are its planets ?
How does solar system works ?

What happens in Solar system ?
It can be great science fair ideas for kids.

Working model of solar system for school is best way to teach students about solar system. From this school science project we can learn about different members of solar system. Basically we can get knowledge about different planets, sun moon and lot more. Now let us make this science project.

This Page Shows You Step

http://letitbemontessori.typepad.com/let

Introduction

Solar photovoltaic systems are renewable energy providers system. They are installed in both grid-connected and off-grid houses. In grid-connected systems, many install solar power to try and save on energy cost from the utility company.

It is advised that to get most of the solar energy and still want to install a less costly system, please select the appliances with the lowest power ratings.

And if possible unless you have the money to install a huge system, avoid some of the power guzzlers such as instant showers, house heaters, air conditioners etc.

Electrical appliances

In our case we will build up a system that will power a house with the following electrical appliances:

Television set
Radio

Light bulbs

Next step after noting all the appliances that will depend on your system power, you calculate in watt-hours the power consumption of each appliance on daily basis. This is done by estimating the number of hours each appliance is used. I.e. mostly a television set is used mostly in the evening and morning.

Lets say in the evening you use your television set from 4 pm to 12 pm and in the morning you use it from 6 am to 12 am. In total, you use your television for 8 hours in the evening and 6 hours in the morning which adds up to 14 hours daily.

To get the consumption in watt-hours you multiply the number of hours with the television power rating.

I.e. 14 x 80 watts = 1120 watt-hours.

Appliances power consumption in watt-hours

Daily power consumption

Main Types Of Solar Power Systems

You have three choices for solar energy systems to power your homes and property:

Grid-tied Your solar array is directly connected to the public electric utility which you pull from when energy demand is higher than your system output. Any excess is sent to the grid. In most places, the electric company credits your bill.

Grid-tied with battery backup This alternative allows you to store excess electricity produced from your solar panels at your home in a battery backup. If your batteries become fully charged, surplus electricity is sent to the grid and you get paid for it in most cases. To meet your household needs, the battery pack is activated and extinguished before the utility takes over in peak demand times.

Off-grid In this solar setup, you are completely independent from the public utility supply. Whatever your solar array outputs is all you have. You may attach a battery backup to avoid outages.

During the research and planning phase of your DIY solar project, youll have to ask yourself:

Solar System Facts For Kids

Impress your kids with your space knowledge by sharing these fun facts & interesting facts to share:

MERCURY is the smallest planet in the solar system.
VENUS is the hottest planet of the solar system and URANUS is the coldest planet.
About 71% of EARTHs surface is covered by water.

is called the red planet. Why? The planet appears red because of the rust in the Martin rocks.
JUPITER is the biggest planet of the solar system. As the largest planet, it is the easiest to identify in the planets of our solar system model.
SATURN is called the jewel of the solar system because of its beautiful rings. Even though other planets have rings, Saturns rings can be seen from the eart with a small telescope.

NEPTUNE is the most distant planet in the solar system.

Check out these awesome books about our solar system, available on Amazon!

Read Also: How To Create Solar Power At Home

Make A Hanging Frame For Your Planet Mobile

At this point, you could hang your planets and sun from the ceiling of your bedroom or classroom or use in another way. If you want to create a mobile for your planets like we did, we need to make a frame!

Make two pieces of cardstock to connect in the middle for a hanging frame to hang the planets.

Step 1

Cut two pieces of cardstock measuring 7.5 inches by 1 inch.

Step 2

Make a 1/2 inch cut in the center of each piece, at the 3.75-inch mark. Punch 4 holes using a hole punch with an equal distance in both the piece of cardstock.

Use this X shaped hanging frame with holes to hang the planets.

Step 3

Connect the two pieces of cardstock in the middle with the 1/2 inch cut facing up for one and 1/2 inch cut facing down for the other. This will form the frame for your solar system project model.

Hang planets around the sun using thread for a simple solar system project.

Step 4

Attach the sun in the center by wrapping the thread around in the center point of the X shaped hanging frame and tying a knot. You can also use a piece of tape for extra security.

This DIY Solar System mobile project is a fun space craft for kids.

Step 5

Loop the thread through each hole to attach the planets. Start by threading the inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars in the holes near the sun. Then add the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus in the outer holes of the hanging frame.

Introduction: Home Built Solar Power System

How to make a 3D Solar System model for Kids | Planets’ School Project | Time 4 Kids TV

Hi. I’ve been interested in renewables for a while now. Our society can’t continue to work on oil, and with rising gas prices and more frequent power outages, solar energy seems to be the way to go. The main problem that inspired me to make this system comes from my love of technology. When my iPhone and laptop run out of juice, my life becomes very primitive. With the goal of keeping all my electronics up and running no matter what the weather and grid status is the main reason I made this system and instructable. This is my system and how it functions. I’ll start with the original setup and show how it has evolved over time.

Read Also: How To Calculate Solar Needs

Am I Eligible For Any Tax Breaks As An Independent Homeowner Doing The Solar Installation

In the U.S., the federal solar tax credit, also called the investment tax credit , allows you to deduct 26% of the cost of your solar install with no cap. You may do this as the installer or if you hire a company to do the work.

At this point, there is no plan to extend this tax credit past 2021 to homeowners under the current Administration, although a newly elected executive branch and Congress could do so.

Solar Renewable Energy Certificates are another incentive homeowners have. With this program, you sell energy certificates to your utility and get cash back. The system works like the stock exchange. SREC values vary from state to state and month to month.

You must check with your state and local authorities to find out about any other incentives or rebates. These may be conditional on your hiring an approved solar company to perform the installation.

How To Reduce Your Solar Energy System Cost

Above we have seen the different factors and points which influence different costs and budgets of solar energy. Below we are going to look at how to reduce your solar energy system cost.

Use your appliances minimally daily

The less number of hours you use your appliances the huge the difference of your solar energy system and this means you will need small size of solar Components.

Use of solar-friendly appliances

Use of solar-friendly appliances such as LED bulbs and solar refrigerators lowers you system cost by a significant amount of dollars.

Use of direct current

Though it is not that common, using dc current eliminates the inverter budgets.Connecting your system to the grid. It can be worth to mention that this is the most common way to reduce your solar energy cost or pay back the cost of your system.

This is because you feed your energy to the utility grid rather than in the batteries. More so if you dont use all the energy you feed to the grid, the utility company pays you for the remaining energy. This is also regarded as the investment aspect of solar energy.

Read Also: How To Use Sole E25 Elliptical

Make A Scale Model Of The Solar System And Learn The Real Definition Of Space

Fill in the diameter of the Sun you want your model to be scaled by. You can fill in either the red bordered inches box or the green bordered millimeters box. Important: Only fill in one box. If both are filled in you will get a dialog box asking you to clear one of the boxes. Use the Clear button to clear the entire form.

Notice that the distances and sizes of the planets will automatically fill in. I’ve also provided some other interesting scale comparisons at the bottom of the chart.

You can now build your scale model. You can do this with a long tape measure, or you can measure the size of your pace and walk it off counting the number of steps you take. To mark a planet’s place you can use a piece of paper on a post that you stick into the ground, or you can use a flag, or even a person. Be prepared for a long walk!

If you build your solar system on a roll of toilet paper, you can make the Sun about .4 inches across and still fit the entire solar system on the roll. A standard roll of toilet paper has about 450 sheets that are about 4.375 inches long, hence the roll is about 164 feet long. You should check your toilet paper for length. Some are longer.

You can click on the names of the planets and satellites to go the the Nine Planets web site page about them. LOTS of info there!

I’ve only given you the sizes and distances to the planets. If you’d like to see the satellites of the planets as well, for a much more extensive page

Assemble The Solar Panels

The next step is building the solar panel support and setting up the solar array. Please note that solar panels are way more efficient when they face the sun directly, and they last longer when theyre well cooled and rigid. Choose quality solar panels here.

A solar support framework can be established in several methods, depending on the materials you have, and of course, your skill level. Establishing a south-facing A-frame framework using metal or wood is the best.

Its also beneficial if you can manually adjust the tilt of your solar panels during winter and summer. This way, you could bolster your power output by up to 40 percent with nearly no extra cost. Alternatively, you could make your DIY one-axis or two-axis tracking system.

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Video: Battery Capacity And Efficiency

Note: Before going to choose the components decide your system voltage, 12/24 V or 48 V. The higher the voltage, the lesser the current and the lesser the copper loss will be in the conductor. This will also reduce your conductor size. Most of the small home solar systems will have 12 V or 24 V.

In this project Ive selected the 12 V system.

Order The Suitable Components For Your Solar System

The moment you have selected the placement of your panels, youll obtain an idea of the power potential of your location. Hence, you can select and order the right components for your solar system.

You have lots of choices to consider, such as:

The size and type of your charge controller
The size and number of your solar cells
The battery type and the capacity of the battery bank

The overall voltage of each leg and which loads should be DC or AC
Inverter rating, if any

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Learn How To Make Your Own Solar Panels

Making your own solar panel is a time-consuming process and requires some electrical skills. However, it can also be very rewarding learning to build your own PV panel is a great way to understand how solar electricity is generated.

Before you can build your own solar panels, you first need to understand how solar cells generate electricity. The vast majority of solar panels in use today are made of crystalline silicon wafers, which typically measure six inches square. When the sun shines on those wafers, the electrons in them start to move. This flow of electrons is an electrical current.

A single full-sized solar panel, like the kind used in rooftop solar power systems, will have 60 silicon wafers. You can also make smaller panels if your electricity needs are low. Once youve bought individual solar cells , the basic process for building your own solar panel goes like this:

Prepare the backing for your panel. Many DIY solar panel builders use a wooden board as the base for their solar cells. Youll need to drill holes in the board so that the wires for each cell can pass through.

Wire your solar cells together. This requires some experience with electrical work. Use a soldering iron to attach wire to the solar cells and then link each of the cells together.

Attach cells to your backing. If possible, affix each solar cell to the backing individually. This makes it easier to replace a single cell in the event that becomes damaged or is not operating properly.

Ok Lets Connect And Install

Build Your First Solar Power System! Beginner Tutorial Easily Explained, Budget Friendly

Here I will try explaining in a lay mans language the best and easiest way to install your components and how to connect each component to another step by step and the type and size of cables you should use.

Also, it is good to not that connection of a solar component depends on the nominal voltage of the component that comes before it in the circuit, the ie connection of solar panels will depend on solar charge controllers nominal voltage.

We will start our connection from the solar panels to the loads .

Step 1: Solar panels connection

First, we need to determine the type and size of cables to use.The type of cable to use is the same cable and that comes connected to our solar panels for array interconnection.

But you will need to buy extension cables to run from the solar panel array to the solar charge controller.

You will need to determine the installation area of your array and the installation area of the solar charge controller and then buy cables equivalent to that distant.

For the interconnection of the solar panels to form an array, there are two ways to do that, you can connect either in parallel or series.

For our array, it should have an output 24v which is the nominal voltage of our solar charge controller and the solar panel.

If they were connected in series, the output current would be equivalent to that of one solar panel and the output voltage would add up 12v x3=36v. In series, voltage adds up.

For more illustration watch video below: