How to Make DIY Solar Panels At Home

Learning how to make DIY solar panels is a fun and easy process that many home owners can take advantage of. Solar power is a renewable energy source that has many advantages over grid-power which are not only good for the environment, but for the homeowner's power bills. Initially, buying a solar power system may seem very expensive, especially in the DIY solar panel installation. With a basic knowledge of where to find the materials needed and the know-how to build solar panels, you too can reap the benefits.

Home solar power systems are not as complicated as most people assume. You can find most of the materials needed at your local hardware store and the solar cells themselves can be purchased in bulk lots off eBay. Do your homework though, research a seller on eBay and find out as much as you can about the cells you buy. Typically the cells you will want to purchase are 3x6 mono-crystalline solar cells, but be aware that these cells are very fragile and paper thin so handle with care. Once you have found a good deal on some solar cells be sure to inquire about how they will be shipped, most cells are dipped in wax to provide a more secure method of shipping them.

Also, you will find, some cells are sold with metal ribbon wire already soldered onto them and some that are not. The best option is to shop around and find solar cells that come with the metal ribbon wires already attached to save some time since soldering those ribbon wires onto the cells is a tedious and painstaking process, which adds to the possibility of damaging the cells while being handled. If you're careful though, and take your time, you can certainly achieve the desired result with minimal damage done. If you purchase cells that are dipped in wax for shipping, you can heat them in water to remove the wax.

Once you have your cells, generally you will want to connect 36 of them together to produce about 18 volts in direct sunlight. This is an adequate amount when charging 12-volt batteries and ideal for home use. The metal ribbon wire is attached to the front of the cell and you attach the excess ribbon wire to the back of the next cell with solder accordingly until you have a series of 6 cells, repeat this process 6 times to have 6 series of 6 cells each, totaling 36 cells. Your may want to find out more about the interesting topic on how to build your own solar cell.

The next step is to construct a shallow box to house the cells in series to collect sunlight. With 36 cells linked together, the option is yours as to how you wish to construct the box, using them in a series of 6 and aligning them side to side in 6 rows will roughly leave you needing a 46inch x 24inch shallow box. Use a good strong silicone material to fasten the cells and braided wiring into the box and cover it with plexiglass. You will also need to have blocking diodes in the wiring to ensure there is no discharging of the energy being collected, otherwise the wiring is pretty straightforward, just attach all the ending metal ribbon wire ends together with bare braided copper wire or the like. Before you begin sealing up your shallow box with the cells in it be sure to test the solar panel in sunlight with a volt-meter to make sure everything is working properly.

Now that you have learn how to build a solar panel, the choice is yours as to how you wish to distribute the power it generates and when more power is desired just repeat the process as many times as you like. With the proper electrical components and a special meter from your utility company, any excess power your panels generate can even be sold back to the power company making the ability to make DIY solar panels a very attractive venture.

Learn how to DIY solar panels:
http://www.prlog.org/10295698-diy-solar-panel-complete-analysis-on-home-solar-power-systems.html

Useful information Home solar power systems:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Home-Solar-Power-Systems-Uses&id=3547988

Learn how to build your own solar cell:
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Build-Your-Own-Solar-Cell&id=2536419


Learn how to build a solar panel:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Learn-How-to-Build-a-Solar-Panel-to-Save-Electricity-in-Your-Home&id=2727558

History of Photovoltaic Solar Cells

A solar photovoltaic system is one which takes light from the sun and turns if into electricity. In doing so, it produces no emissions or harmful waste, and does so completely silently!

None of this would be possible if it hadn’t been for the work of French Physicist Edmund Becquerel, who in 1839, discovered the photovoltaic effect. In fact, Becquerel is a bit of an inspiration for young Evil Geniuses wanting to experiment with solar energy, as he made his discoveries when he was only 19! In 1883, Charles Fritts, an American inventor, devised the first practical solar cell, when he took some selenium and covered it with a fine coating of gold.

His cell wasn’t particularly efficient, with 1% or so conversion efficiency from light to electricity; however, his design of cell later found applications as a sensor in early cameras to detect the light level-being used to “sense” light rather than to generate power in any real quantity. Albert Einstein went on to further develop the theory of the nature of light and the mechanism through which the photoelectric effect works, the discovery was considered so important that he won the Nobel Prize in 1905.

Due to their high cost and low deficiency at that time, there were a lack of applications for photovoltaic cells. It was not until Bell Laboratories started looking at the idea again in the 1930s that Russell Ohl discovered the silicon photovoltaic cell. This device was patented as Patent no: US2402662 “Light sensitive device.” Now the efficiency of solar cells began to increase.

The first generation of practical solar cells was horrendously expensive, and this severely limited their range of applications. The advantages of using photovoltaic cells to turn sunlight into electrical power were initially appreciated for powering satellites and space-missions. With the space race of the 195s and 196s, there was suddenly a good application for solar cells-despite the cost, solar cells were suitable for generating energy in the remote reaches of space. Vanguard I was launched on March 17, 1958, and was the first artificial satellite to employ solar photovoltaic cells.

With the injection of funding and research that came with the space race, solar photovoltaic cells began to come into their own. Over the years that followed, solar photovoltaic technologies have been refined and developed and new techniques, and we will explore these now.

If you are interested to learn more on how to build solar power systems, visit:
http://www.greenearth4energy.com

You may also want to get your DIY installation guide here:
http://www.earthenergyguide.com

Useful information solar photovoltaic:
http://www.greenearth4energy.com/solar_photovoltaic.html

Useful information photovoltaic system:
http://www.greenearth4energy.com/photovoltaic_systems.html

How To Make Thin Film Solar Cells

To get started with making thin film solar cells, you'll need to prepare some essential items. These items include the following:

• Copper Sheeting
• Clear Plexiglass/Perpex/Acrylic Sheeting

• Some Thin Wood Strip
• copper Wire
• Duct Tape
• Metal Guillotine
• Bandsaw
• Electric Ring Hob

To get started, cut a square of the copper sheeting so that it is about 6-8 in. square in size. It is much easier to do with a metal guillotine, however, if you haven't got access to this sort of equipment, tin snips will work just fine.

After you've done this, wash your hands thoroughly and dry them. You need to remove any grease or oil from your hands that could cause problems with the next step of the process. Remove any grease or detritus from the copper sheeting. Next, take a piece of emery cloth and thoroughly sand down the piece of copper on both sides to remove the top layer of oxidized copper. This will leave you with nice bright shiny red copper underneath.

You now need to heat treat the copper, in order to form an oxide coating on top. It may sound counter intuitive that we have just removed all the oxide and now we are going to put oxide back on, but the oxide coating we will be applying will be a film of "cuprous oxide".

You need to turn the burner to the highest setting, with the sheet of copper just placed on top. Observe the changes to the copper carefully, they are very interesting. As you heat the copper, it takes on a lovely vivid patina of different colours.

If you have access to nitric acid, you can use this as a superior method for removing the upper cupric oxide layer.

You will see a black crusty oxide from on top of the copper plate. If you leave the plate to cool slowly, the crusty layer should become fairly fragile and separate easily from the underlying copper. When you have allowed the plate to cool thoroughly, give the plate a firm bang edge-on to a hard surface. Some of the oxide will pop off. Rub the oxide gently with your fingers under a tap, and you will find most of the black layer od oxide comes off easily. If any bits are stubborn, do not under any circumstances scour them, as we do not want to damage the fragile surface.

Under this black layer of oxide, you will find another layer of a reddish orange rust colour. This is the layer which is "photosensitive" and will make out thin-film solar cell work.

Make a spacer now from some thin strips of wood. Use duct tape to join your pieces of wood together. Do not use metal fixings as they could react electrolytically with the other components of the cell.

We are now going to make another electrode. It has to have the property that it does not touch the other piece of the solar cell, and allows light to hit the surface. We are going to use salt water as our other electrode, making contact with the whole surface of the thin film cell, yet conducting electricity. We are then going to immerse another copper wire to make the connection. You could equally use another piece of copper plate around the outside of the thin-film cell, but not touching our oxidized copper.

In a commercial thin-film cell, tin oxide is commonly used as the other electrode, as it is clear and yet conducts electricity.

Now take a piece of Perspex to act as a cover plate, and stick a strip of duct tape on either side.

We are going to stick our other electrode wire to this piece of Perspex.

Use thickish wire for clarity, with few actual zigzags so that you can clearly see what is going on. To optimize the performance of your solar cell, you want to make the conductor large. To this end , you are better using lots of thinner gauge wire in a much finer zigzag pattern - this will still allow the light to get through, but at the same time gives a large conductor area.

You can experiment with different types of wire and copper - the trick is to try and maximize the surface area of the copper, while trying to block as little light as possible from reaching the solar cell.

Fold the duct tape over and stick the wire to the plate.

We are now going to combine the electrode plate with the space. Again, duct tape makes this a nice easy job.

Next, we are going to take the copper plate, and stick duct tape to one side, with the sticky side of the tape facing the same direction as the layer of red copper oxide.

Combine the plate and the front module to make the finished solar cell.

Now, take a little salt water, and fill the void between the Perspex front section and the copper plate. Seal the module with duct tape all round to prevent leakage.

Lastly, connect your module to a multimeter, find a bright light source, and explore some of the electrical properties of your solar cell.

At this stage, you should have realized that making thin film solar cells isn't really a difficult task. How about moving on to learn how to build a solar panel for yourself.

If you are interested to learn how to make a solar panel, visit us at:
http://www.greenearth4energy.com

You may want to get your solar panel installation guide here:
http://www.earthenergyguide.com

Source From: Homemade Solar Cells - How To Make a Solar Cell

Learn Homemade Solar Cells - How To Make a Solar Cell:
http://www.prlog.org/10270892-homemade-solar-cells-how-to-make-solar-cell.html