Over the last couple of years solar power generators have become more and more popular due to our hard economical times. Thousands of solar power systems are being installed domestically every day.
Not only can people lower their energy bills but solar panels are also safe for the environment. Read on if you’re interested in making your own solar panels that can drastically reduce your energy bills month after month.
Normally a readymade solar panel costs up to a few thousand and I’m sure not everyone wants to make such an investment. This is the reason why more and more people are deciding to build their own solar panels right in their own backyard.
All the parts that you need to build a solar panels system don’t cost you more than $200 dollars depending on where you buy the parts from (We’ve researched the Internet for a while and noticed that the solar cells for example are the cheapest to buy online — as low as $1 per cell).
The photovoltaic cell is the most important part of the system. Each panel contains a set of solar cells that are wired up with copper in a series. Even a 200 watt solar panel produces enough energy to either charge a battery for further use or to be converted directly into AC voltage for domestic use.
If you decide to start building you own solar panels you need to have all the required parts such as photovoltaic cells, copper wire, boards, glass and all the other required tools including a soldering iron that heats up fast.
Depending on the size of your house and how much energy you need, you might want to make more than one solar panel. A charge controller will be required in order to regulate the amount of energy that each panel sends into the charging batteries. For those people that don’t know, the battery’s life is being shortened when you over charge them and that’s why a charge controller is a ‘must have’.
No matter how many solar panels you need to make, building them on your own will drastically reduce the costs compared to what you would pay for a few ready-made ones. We’re now building our fifth panel and so far and we haven’t spent more than nine hundred dollars altogether.
If you’re a bit lucky you might be able to get some of the materials at a local garage sale. Even if it’s hard to believe, you can save more than 80% on your energy bills each year by making your own solar panels.
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