Creating a solar panel at home is pretty a challenging task and something that shouldn’t be tried without fully committing personally towards a great deal of work. It may not be rocket science but it is certainly a tricky and laborious procedure. In case you are the kind of person who thinks a hammer is nothing but an odd-shaped door stop, it might be in your best interest to leave the solar panel structure to specialists.
Never the less, making your very own solar panels can definitely be considered a fulfilling home project by dealing with this type of project yourself you can significantly reduce your costs - by 50 to 80% - over a commercially ready solar panel.
Since the prohibitive worth of solar panels is within large part due to the high cost of solar cells, you will achieve most of your cost reduction when you purchase damaged and used solar cells from sites for instance eBay. Thereafter, with your ingenuity plus some handy DIY skills, the thing between you and a working solar panel is time and effort.
For the time being however, let’s undertake a much more simpler task and make a single solar cell. This project is extremely good fun and will show the basic and simple concept behind solar power.
What You Will Need:
1. Copper sheeting.
2. A couple of alligator clip lead cables.
3. A sensitive micro-ammeter (you can get this at Radio Shack).
4. An electric stove or maybe a one burner hot plate should you have a gas range. In case you are purchasing a hot plate ensure that it’s at least 1100 watts.
5. A big clear plastic bottle. Think 2 Liter Coke or Mineral Water bottles with all the top cut off.
6. Just a few tablespoons of salt.
7. Water.
8. Sand paper, steel wool or a wire brush attachment for the electric drill.
9. Metal sheers.
The way it is done:
1. Cut a piece of copper sheeting at approximately the size of the stove burner. (Be sure to clean up the copper sheet making use of sandpaper or steel wool to remove any sulfide and/or light corrosion.
2. Heat the copper sheet to the burner (on the highest heat setting)
As the copper increases its’ temperature the color will turn black having a layer of cupric oxide. This is normal. Allow the copper “cook” approximately half an hour.
3. After 30 minutes turn off the burner and let the copper cool. It'll shrink - also quite common. The black cupric oxide will start to flake and detach as the two oxides and copper shrink. It may need approximately 20 minutes for the copper for cooling, at which point you will need to remove any excess cupric oxide black film left in the copper. You possibly can scrub lightly together with your hands below your tap.
At this point cut another bit of copper at exactly the same size and dimensions as the “cooked” copper.
4. Place both copper sheets to the plastic bottle, bending them thoroughly to suit and ensuring they do not touch.
5. Attach both alligator clips to each sheet, connecting the positive lead (from the “Clean copper sheet”) to the positive terminal of the meter, and also the negative lead (the “cooked” copper sheet) on the negative terminal of the meter.
6. Combine your 2 tablespoons of salt together with some hot water. Stir until the salt is dissolved.
7. Carefully pour the salt water within the plastic bottle being careful in order to avoid pouring onto the leads. A good guideline is to leave at least an inch between the water and the leads so you're able to keep moving around the device with relative ease.
A solar cell is a battery, so that you can expect that even in the dark your meter will show a few micro amps of current. Don’t expect that it's going to light a baseball field though, plus it would take acres of those (literally) to power your house. I sincerely doubt there'd be sufficient power generated with this to power a light bulb. Nonetheless, as soon as you put this device in the sunlight you will see the meter jump to 30+ microamps of current - which will be enough to use your new solar cell as a light meter or light detector.
Creating a home solar panel is surely an entirely different beast from this, and you now have a basic thought of how a single solar cell will work. To create a solar panel you will want to purchase a lot of prefabricated solar cells - second-hand (as outlined above) if you would like lower your expenses. When you have the cells, you will require a water-tight and robust enclosure to help keep the elements from damaging your solar panels. Solar cells are quite delicate. The process of making the panels work within your panel enclosure is really a simple process.
So there you have it, Solar Power 101. Just for fun, give this a try some day when you’re bored. There’s anything satisfying than creating power from none other than sunlight.
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