Solar reviews: Making your own solar panels diy solar panels

Learning how to make solar panels was something that we decided to do as soon as we investigated the price of new solar panels. It would literally cost us thousands of dollars to buy enough solar panels to run our off grid home. There had to be a better way to equip our home with solar panels we figured.

Most everything that you can buy from someone you can probably make yourself- why not learn how to make solar panels.

It turned out that it wasn't as difficult as we thought it might be. Solar panels are manufactured in high tech facilities with very expensive equipment but most of that technology goes into the making of the individual cells that make up the solar panels.

If we could find a source of small solar cells that were already manufactured at a reasonable price and perhaps some decent instructions we could definitely make our own solar panels.

What did we need?

· Guide book on how to make solar panels

· Inexpensive solar cells

· 1 sheet of plywood

· Copper wire

· Sheets of glass

Solar reviews: Making your own solar panels diy solar panelsWe first located a book on the subject so that all of the fine details could be accomplished. It cost us under $20, but the very first solar panels that we made more than paid for it. We figured we saved nearly $400 just on the first solar panel we made.

The guide book contained mostly information on how to install solar panels (which was very helpful too) but along with that was detailed instructions on how to make our own solar panels.

There were pictures and step by step instructions which really helped a lot. We located a source of inexpensive solar cells and we were off to the races.

You first start out with a sheet of plywood and arrange the cells in rows along the sheet of plywood.

You can make any reasonable size that you want, but the cells must maintain spacing that are consistent as outlined in the book. It really is not tat difficult, just a bit time consuming to set up.

The next step is to drill holes in the plywood so wires can be drawn threw and all of the cells connected together. After the wires are secured a backer board is placed over the back of the plywood to seal the wires in.

A small framing piece is placed on the outside of the plywood that is higher than the cells and in this way you can seal the cells with glass. After that step the whole affair begins to look very professional.

It looks like a commercial grade solar panel all because you followed the right steps. A little bit of trim will spruce it up nicely.

How much will you save by learning how to make solar panels? We routinely make our own 100 watt solar panels for around $150, with prices always fluctuating depending on the price of solar cells.

Commercial bought new 100 watt solar panels run in the $500 range or more so you can see you will save a lot of money.