solar energy

Whooooooooooooooooooooooa down rio!

Let me welcome you to our humble abode! Here you will find all walks of life! Some people wanting all the facts, some people will just rip into you talking the piss! mickey piss and some friendly people too! It's up to you, join us and be part of the most amazing free for all ever, or be cast out into the darkness with your tail between your legs! The next move is yours!

Anyway, back to your question! How could you make a solar panel!

It all depends on what technology you have at hand! By this I mean, do you live in a village in the middle of nowhere with only basic resources, or in or near a large city with industrial access? The idea of building a solar panel is a just question, but we really need to know a whole lot more like:-

1. Where do you come from? How much sun?

2. Your technical ability? ( We can cater for all, if you don't fully understand, say so!)

3. Houses and panels come in a multitude of sizes! Help us out! How much electric do you use!

4. What do you know about Solar panels?

5. Your thoughts on how you could build one?

6. And possibly the most important question for you is.................How could I write a question which would be interesting, factual, and if I wished, entertaining to the reader?

I hope you get the idea!

Any way just to show you what total faith I have in you, I've given you a Good answer vote in anticipation of your next 'Grabbing the bull by the horns, action packed full of info and double on-taunts' post!

Good luck, And welcome

^{Thank you for the humble welcome,}

^{Well I live in Mexico, not New Mexico USA, and yes in a City and it very sunny here . I do not know anything about solar energy, what I do know is that it's there for us to use it! I need to know if there's anyway i could get a the material to build one or two. As to how much energy we use???????? good question thats the whole idea of making the solar panels to save save save. The high cost of feul has made everything expencive!! So if you have any ideas pitch them my way.}

Like ya style rio!

I'm on a bit of a save, save, save too! In my house, Anything with a heating element (electric water heater, washing machine etc) uses the most electric! I'm in the process of building a solar hot water heater (check out joebath) and collecting the materials for another solar water heater (check out del the cat) I'm hoping to pre-heat the water for my everyday needs, thus reducing my monthly bill!

I think it would be quite difficult to produce a home made solar PV panel that could produce anything near to your homes usage! Panels, batteries, inverters, and the conversion would be costly, so my thought was to reduce my bill to the bare minimum, ie, low wattage lights, solar garden lights, Just to try and see what I can live without! I pay 55 euros every 2 months now! When I started my mission, I was paying about 160 euros so it can be done if you are a bit brutal!

The only home made solar panel I've seen on the net was on you-tube! It could make an LED glow! Like wow!

Check out the DIY creations blog, There's some good ideas floating about on it!

Rioborjas,

Making Solar PV collectors is best left to boy and girls with the big factories.

Some of the materials, techniques and chemicals are pretty nasty and better left alone.

Thats the bad news...The good is that there are other Solar (Collectors) panels that you could use more cost effectively.

Have alook at http://www.solartube.com.au/ for ideas on how you could save on lighting on interior rooms etc. These things are basically shiney tubes that collect the light and bring it indoors without the associated heat..

Or as Truemanbrain said, use solar collectors to heat your hot water (In Mehico this should not be a problem).

For a small power requirement a small solar powered steam tubine may be a viable option.

Not all solar options need to make electricity and offsetting the requirement for electricity can sometimes be more satisfying.

Regards,
Sapper

To build a solar water heater panel take some copper tubing and snake it between two steel plates and paint the plates with black paint (black lead paint) is best but lead is harnful if kids get it into thier blood stream.

Order the solar panels there are many distrubiters who will ship them to you on the internet.

Welcome rioborjas. I would NOT advise building your own electrical solar panel because of numerous reasons (the biggest is that it is a waste of time and effort for what little power you can get out of them). Far to complicated.

However, building your own solar hot water heating system is much easier and is a MUCH better idea if you want to save power and money. Plenty of links and step-by-step constructon details can be found on the internet. Google search "DIY solar hot water heater construction" or similar. I have provided two example links below.

http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/solar.htm

http://www.thesietch.org/projects/solarthermalpanel2/index.htm

OK, OK ... I think that our Mexican friend is not interested in Making Solar Cells. I guess he (and also me!) is interested in buying cells and install them.
So let me rephrase the question : Where can I find cheap solar cells, and who knows where I can find instructions for mounting and connect to a battery and an electric load ...

I would love to set up a small solar cell system. At first I want to use it to power my DSL modem + router + Voip interface. I get so frustrated that I can call cheap, but I need so much (expensive) electric power, 24/7 ... I haven't checked yet how much power (Watts) those three things need, but I guess there's not gonna be a need for inverters etc, 'cause they all run on DC. I even guess that one or two(*) "normal" car batteries could store enough energy to keep that threesome going overnight...

So any info is more than welcome, and highly appreciated.

(*) my modem needs 20VDC input, so to start, I need 2 12V batteries in series. The other two devices need lower voltages.

You probably want to buy solar modules not the individual cells. Let the manufacturer worry about wiring the cells together and keeping the package weather-tight. There are lots of places on the web to buy modules down to 20W or so.

Don't use car batteries, they are designed for short bursts of high current output. Look for golf cart batteries. You want something designed for deep dischage.

Don't consider solar electricity until you have done all you can to lower your loads i.e. increase efficiency. You get much more bang for your $buck$. Solar how water is easy & practical.

Thank youn for you thoughts and sujestions, you are right it sounds to be a big project i think i'll let the big boys and girls play with the solar panel idea,

I think im going with the h2o heating panel

dear

i life in jakarta hope it can helpyou

simpel solar panel made by copper cuprox and salt water

if you want to energies your home you must have solar panel, controler,battre,and inverter

sory my english is bad

you cant find some information in wikipedia or with distributor as evergreen