Are Homemade Solar Panels Possible, Economical, and Useful?
With energy prices rising steadily during the last few decades and no reason to consider they’ll fall any time soon. Many homeowners are exploring the possibility of powering their homes with renewable, or “green”, power systems. The 2 most frequent home green energy systems are wind turbines and solar panels. Of both of these, solar energy panels have emerged as typically the most popular, because of their solid-state nature. Thus with fewer moving parts, they might require less maintenance over the years.
Unfortunately, installing a solar energy system in your house may be prohibitively expensive. Having pre-made solar energy panels professionally installed costs at the very least ₦2,250,000 ($3000) – and the high cost only rises quickly from there. To lessen this huge cost, many homeowners are exploring the likelihood of building and installing their particular homemade solar panels. Maybe you are certainly one of them.
In that case, you almost certainly have plenty of questions. Can the typical average person really build a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) solar energy system inside their garage or basement? If they may, wouldn’t it really be significantly cheaper than having it professionally installed? And finally, would homemade solar power provide enough electricity to be worth constant effort? This short article will seek to answer these questions.
What Will be the Advantages of a Home Solar Power System?
You are able to reduce as well as eliminate your power bill.
In the event that you generate surplus electricity, you are able to sell it to your neighborhood power company.
The ability to boost the property value of one’s home.
One may get tax deductions for using eco-friendly home power systems.
So long as need certainly to be worried about power outages.
You help protect the environmental surroundings – solar energy produces no greenhouse gasses.
What Will be the Advantages of Building Homemade Solar Panels?
Money. Over fifty per cent of a contractor’s installation fee is time and labour. In the event that you provide this yourself, you are able to drastically reduce the price of building. Installing your own personal home solar energy system.
Time. You are able to build your homemade solar panels in stages, adding new panels and producing more electricity at your own personal pace.
Education. By creating a home solar energy system yourself, you’ll understand how solar electrical technology works. You’ll have the ability to perform your own personal maintenance and repairs, further reducing your costs.
Where Can I Get the Materials to Build a Homemade Panel?
Nearly all the materials you’ll need to construct a DIY solar panel (such as copper wire, plywood, glass, silicone, etc.) are found at either your neighborhood hardware store (such as Home Depot) or an electronics store (such as Radio Shack). Exactly the same goes for the equipment and equipment you’ll need to construct your homemade solar panels. Any tool you don’t have in your garage or basement (such as a voltage meter), you should buy at your neighborhood hardware or electronics store.
The lone exception to the rule may be the photovoltaic solar panels that you’ll need to construct together into DIY solar energy panels. Until you live in an exceedingly large city with a specialized solar hardware store. You’ll probably have to order these online or you possibly can make it on your own.
Where Should I Place My Solar Panels?
The 2 most frequent places to place DIY solar panels are either on the roof of your property or on the floor in your yard.
The roof has emerged as typically the most popular area for two reasons. First, to be able to convert sunlight into electricity, solar energy panels require a direct type of sight between them and the sun. Trees, other buildings, or some other obstacle that delivers shade or elsewhere gets in the manner that will block sunlight from your own homemade solar panels. The simplest way to resolve this dilemma would be to enhance the solar energy panels higher compared to the obstacles. To accomplish this, obviously, you need to place the DIY solar panels on the roof.
Second, solar energy panels are big and occupy plenty of space. Furthermore, you will most likely need several to power your whole home. In the event that you mount your homemade solar panels on the floor, you might quickly fill your whole yard. Mounting DIY solar panels on the roof instead has the main advantage of keeping them from the way and freeing up your yard.
Ground-mounted solar energy panels, however, do have one big advantage: accessibility. It’s easier and safer to go out into your yard than on the roof of your property to execute maintenance. Also to make repairs to your homemade solar panels. If you reside in the main country where you can find few trees, including the Great Plains or the Southwest, and if you have enough property (like a farm) to mount several DIY solar panels and have room to spare, perhaps ground-mounted solar energy panels are how you can go.
In what Direction Should I Point My Homemade Solar Panels?
Placing your DIY solar panels perfectly flat, facing upright, is the better option. In this manner, irrespective of where sunlight is in the sky or at what angle, sunlight continues to be hitting the solar panel somewhere. Unfortunately, however, many homes have angled roofs in place of flat ones, making the “pointing straight up” option impractical. In cases like this, mount your DIY solar panels on the south-facing side of one’s roof to gather probably the most sunlight. In the continental United States, sunlight is in the southern and the main sky for probably the most part.
How Can I Build Solar Panels?
The solution compared to that question goes way beyond the scope of this brief article. What we could do, however, is point you in the proper direction. The simplest and most efficient route for you really to go is to purchase a detailed guide on how best to build DIY solar panels on one of many websites that sell them. They are usually $50 or less, and worth the money.
Not totally all instruction manuals for DIY solar energy panels are equal, however. Here are a few things to find when shopping on the internet for a great guide:
Clear, Step-by-Step Instructions (instead of just overviews)
Simple, Plain English (instead of confusing technical terms and slang)
Multiple, Clear Illustrations (instead of just text)
Demonstration Videos (although not necessary, they’re very, very helpful)
Shopping Tips (for solar panels, deep-cycle batteries, and other hard-to-find items)
Good Reviews (from past customers)
Price (more than $60 is too much)
If you will find a supreme quality manual, you’ll start enjoying the advantages of DIY solar panels within 2 weeks, since the manual should have the ability to show you to construct homemade solar energy panels in merely a weekend.