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Is A DIY Solar Panel Really Possible?

By: John Richards Click author's name for more of his/her articles

If you fit solar panels to your domestic electricity or hot water system then you’ve found a great way of saving money while making a contribution towards reducing our reliance on fossil fuel for our power generation. After all, we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Any responsible householder needs to consider their environmental responsibilities and, if the action we take means we can save money too then so much the better.

If you have doen a bit of research n this you may well have found that purpose-built solar panels run out at roughly four thousand dollars. Now, I don't care how much of a green energy enthusiast you are, four grand is a lot of money to spend on a piece of kit that might take upto 20 years to recoup its cost. Of course, the earth will benefit from the day you install it but if we're honest, many of us would find that sort of expenditure beyond us. But, of course, it only has such a low ROI because it is so expensive in the first place.

However, if th caost of a solar panel was two hundred instead of four thousand dollars, that would put a very different complexion on it. So, is it possible to get a fully functional solar panel for this sort of money? It sure is! There are people out there who have dedicated their lives to finding low-cost solutions to our energy problems and now details of everything they have learned, designed, built and tested is now available to the rest of us.

To be realistic, for most householders, the only way they are going to get a solar panel is to build it themselves. So is it possible to build you own solar panel? Well, if you are competent do it yourself-er, can follow simple instructions and can use a bit of imagination and initiative when it comes to sourcing components, then you could have your first DIY solar panel up and running in a few days. There are of course two types of solar panel. I referred to these above.

A) There is the flat plate solar collector that is essentially a matt black box containing a network of (also matt black) copper pipes. As water from your hot water system passes through the pipes it is heated by the sun’s rays. If the sun is strong then a system of this sort can heat water to well over 140 degrees F. And the beauty of these systems is that they even absorb indirect solar radiation on cloudy days, so they are very effective. If you want to construct a solar panel like this you need to have the ability to make a glass fronted wooded case and fit a netwrok of bent copper pies inside it. Nothing too taxing. There’s not much more to it than that.

B) The photovoltaic array. These are arrays of plastic or glass panels coated with a semiconducting material. The semiconductor material varies, and new types are becoming available all the time. The DIY process usually involves securing a supply of used, broken or imperfect solar cells and effectively recycling them into a working solar panel. It is really quite simple and it can be exremely cost-effective too.

So you can see, if you have basic DIY skills, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to build your own solar panel. And if you do, then both your wallet and the planet will thank you for it.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Find out a lot more about building your own solar panel and get free design instructions for a flat plate collector panel at www.diyalternativeenergy.org