Build Your Own Solar Panel
As solar panels become cheaper and more accessible to the public, more and more people are turning to DIY solar installations. This article briefly describes how to build your own solar panels.
You can find all of the parts you will need either on the internet or at your local hardware store. You can build your own small solar panel installation with a budget of less than $200 and many people have done it just for fun. It makes an excellent weekend project. Such small setups are ideal for powering small devices and DC powered appliances, lights etc.
Initial Steps
Firstly, you need to buy yourself some solar cells. Building a solar panel that outputs about 18V is a good first project. This will require 36 standard solar cells each of which will normally output around 0.5V and a maximum current of 3.5A. Make sure the cells you buy are not broken or fragmented.
When you have all of your solar cells, you’ll need to mount them in a mounting box and connect them all together so that you get the maximum voltage out of your solar panel. You’ll need to make your own mounting box usually from wood cut to appropriate dimensions for your solar panel. Make sure to test all of the cells with a multimeter so that you can check that they are all outputting the correct voltage (usually ~0.5V)
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Next Steps
Each cell will have a series of small lines and two big lines, with some spot-like connections on the back of the cell. What you need to do is attach the front of one cell, to the back of the next using tabbing wire and a soldering iron. After doing this a few times, you should have a ladder of solar cells, joined front to back by the tabbing wire. You can join one ladder of cells to another in a similar manner to give you a rectangular array of perhaps 4 x 9 cells to fit into your mounting box. You’re now well on your way to building your own solar panel.
When your cells are mounted and affixed to your mounting box (silicone is a good way to affix the cells), you need to go about making your solar panel water-tight. The first thing to do is put a sheet of plexiglass as a ‘lid’ for your mounting box, and make it water tight. Before your solar panel is completely encased, make sure you remember to drill a hole in the back of the box, so that you can connect your ‘load’ to the solar cells using the remaining two wires from your solar cell array.
Don’t forget to make this hole watertight as well. Its very important that the cells don’t get contaminated with water or other substances.
You’re array will now be outputting approximately 100W at a voltage of 18V. This could be used to charge a battery or run a DC device requiring this electrical output.
If you would like to power an AC appliance, you would need an inverter which converts the stored DC power in the battery right into the AC power normally used by household appliances. Cheap inverters of various sizes can be purchased online too.