DIY Solar Power

Today, we hear so much talk about global warming, the eroding ozone layer and depleting natural resources.  These problems concern everyone in every country.  So what can you do about it?  Plenty.

One thing you can do is minimize your contribution to the destruction of the ozone and depletion of fossil fuels.  Fossil fuels like oil and coal are processed into petroleum products and used to generate electricity.  The good news is that these days it is possible for anyone to generate electricity on a small scale through solar power.  By doing so, you minimize your use of electricity from the grid and help lessen the burning of fossil fuels. 

Click Here for the Ultimate DIY Solar Power Guide

You can generate your own electricity by utilizing solar power.  All you need to do is purchase some solar cells and wire them together.  If even a DIY novice like me can do it, then anyone can.  New solar cells are very expensive but you can get cheaper ones from eBay and places like that.  These are cheaper because they are chipped or blemished in some way.  They come in a stack called ‘bricks’. 

Sometimes the seller dips them in wax to protect them from damage during delivery.  If possible, buy those that are not waxed as it would save you the trouble of separating them.  But if you do buy bricks that are waxed together, you can separate them by putting them in a pot of water and slowly heating it to just below boiling temperature.  Do not allow the water to boil as the bubbles may cause damage to the solar cells or loosen the tab wires.  The hot water will melt the wax but you have to carefully remove each cell one by one.  Then put the solar cells into another pot of hot soapy water to clean them.  Finally soak them into a third pot of hot water to rinse of the residue wax.  Dry them with a towel till they are ready for use. 

Your solar cells may either be tabbed or untabbed ones.  Tab wires are the special flat wires that are meant to be attached to the solar cells so that they conduct the electricity that the cells generate.  If possible buy tabbed solar cells that have the tab wires already soldered on to the front of the cells along 2 lines called busbars.  With these tabbed solar cells, you can construct your own solar panel.

First, you need to build the solar panel box to contain the solar cells.  This can be made out of plywood.  I measured the size I needed for 36 of the mono crystalline solar cells I bought and made the box myself.  I had my 36 solar cells arranged in a square of 6 cells in length by 6 cells in width.  If you use chipped solar cells, they would come in different shapes and sizes.  Try to use solar cells of the same size, because the larger the piece, the more current it can produce but when they are wired in series, the current output will be limited to that of the smallest piece.  Look for solar cells of around 0.55V and 3.98Amps.  36 of them will give you a total output of about 18V, which is sufficient for charging a 12V battery body. 

My solar panel box was basically a shallow plywood box with a sheet of plywood at the base and 4 lengths of plywood screwed in to form the edges.  Don’t make your edges high otherwise they would block the sun when it shines at an angle.  You would also need a substrate base to glue your solar cells on to.  Any thin, flat, non-conductor material can be used.  I used a piece of peg board which I cut to fit into the well of my solar panel box.  Both the box and peg board had to be painted with 2 coats of weather resistant paint on both sides.  I left these to dry while I worked on my solar cells.

After my 36 tabbed solar cells were dried, I proceeded to string them.  A string of solar cells is a length of solar cells wired together in series.  If you remember your Science lessons in school, you know that a circuit wired in series means that the positive terminal of one cell is connected to the negative terminal of the next cell which is again connected to the positive terminal of the next cell and so on.  The batteries in a flashlight are usually arranged in series.  The negative terminal of a mono crystalline solar cell is in the front while the positive terminal is at its back.  The 2 tab wires soldered on to the 2 busbars are to be soldered on to the solder points at the bottom of the next solar cell. 

To string the solar cells together, you start by placing them upside down with the tab wires sticking out from underneath them.  Put some solder onto the tab wire of the first solar cell and using a flux pen, apply some flux onto the solder points of the next solar cell.  I use fine electronics rosin core solder.  This is called ‘tinning’.  When you have tinned your tab wires, solder them onto the solder points of the next cell.  This will connect the negative terminal of the first solar cell to the positive terminal of the second cell.  You have just created a string of 2 solar cells.  I repeated this process until I got a string of 6 solar cells.  Altogether I made 6 strings out of my 36 solar cells.

Now you need to glue the 6 strings onto your substrate and wire each of them together.  I put a blob of silicone caulk at the center of each solar cell and glued it onto my substrate.  To wire the strings together, I used some extra tab wire and soldered it perpendicularly to the 2 tab wires of the last solar cell of a string and then to the tab wires of the solar cell in the string next to it.  You have to make sure it connects the negative terminal (front of one solar cell) to the positive terminal (back of the solar cell) in the next string beside it. 

Now came time to test my solar panel.  If I had connected all the solar cells together correctly, I should be able to get a reading on my voltmeter connected to the cells under sunlight.  When I brought my panel out into the sun, the voltmeter immediately showed a reading of 17.8V.  It was just under 18 volts but that was fine with me. 

Once this was finished, I could put my substrate into the solar panel box that I had constructed.  This solar panel will be connected to a battery to store the electricity it produces.  One final thing to do is to wire a blocking diode in series into your circuit.  The function of this diode is to prevent the electricity being discharged from your battery when the sun is not shining.

This is how you get DIY Solar Power.

Click Here for the Ultimate DIY Solar Power Guide