Domestic Solar Power

How would you like to save up to 70% on your electricity bill?  Just produce your own electricity! 

Before you think I’m talking crap, let me tell you I know what I’m talking about because I’ve done it myself.  Like you, the economy has been getting me down.  I was glad not to be retrenched but I had to take a massive pay cut just to keep my job.  40% less take home pay hit me hard. 

That’s when I decided to reduce my expenses.  So I looked into various ways to save on my variable costs and one of the things I researched was producing my own electricity through solar power.  Surprisingly, it was not as hard as I thought it was.  Even for a DIY dunce like me, I felt it was achievable.  So I started out by buying some solar cells from eBay.

Click Here for the Ultimate Domestic Solar Power Guide

I discovered that you could buy cheap blemished solar cells that cannot be sold commercially because they were chipped or something like that.  I bought a stack of 45 0.55V mono crystalline solar cells that measured 3x6 inches.  With some DIY instructions I was ready to go. 

I first needed a shallow box to be my solar panel box and since I was no good at woodworking, I went to the joiners to have it made for me.  I wanted 36 solar cells in my panel divided into 2 sections of 18 cells each with one central divider.  I also instructed them to drill holes at the bottom edge of the box for ventilation.  In the meantime, I got myself a peg board to work with as I prepared the solar cells.  The peg board would hold the solar cells so I cut it to the exact size that would fit into the shallow box panel later. 

What needed to be done with the solar cells was wiring them together in series, much like how batteries are arranged in a flashlight.  Solar cells are flat pieces of silicone or some other type of semiconductor.  Like a battery, a solar cell has positive and negative terminals.  Most solar cells’ negative terminals are the front (the darker side with 2 white strips running down its length) whereas the positive terminals are the back.  To join solar cells in series, you need tab wires, which are the special flat wires that come with the solar cells when you buy them.  All you need to do is solder the tab wires onto the front of one solar cell and join it to the back of the next solar cell. 

In metallurgy, there is a technique called ‘tinning’.  This is where you apply some solder onto the surface of whatever you want to solder.  So I took a tab wire measuring twice the length of a solar cell and tinned half of it.  I applied some flux on the 2 white strips of the solar cell and slowly soldered the tinned half of the tab wire onto it.  It was tricky at first and I messed up a couple of times, but I soon got the hang of it.  After that, I soldered the remaining part of the tab wire to the bottom of the next solar cell.

I joined 6 solar cells together and repeated the process to make altogether 6 strings of solar cells.  3 of them would be put in one half of my solar panel while the other 3 in the other half.  When I got my solar panel box from the joiners, I painted it with weather resistant paint.  I did the same for my peg board.  I also drilled holes in the middle divider for the wires to pass through between the sets of strings.

Next I had to glue the solar cell strings onto my peg board.  I did so by attaching a piece of double sided tape to the back of each solar cell.  The solar cells are rather flimsy and fragile, so I had to be very careful.  My solar cell strings had to be facing opposite ends alternately; meaning the first string faced the top of the panel, the second faced the bottom, the third faced the top and so on.  The next thing to do was to wire all the strings together.  I used some copper wire to connect the ends of the tab wire perpendicularly from the end of one cell string to the next one adjacent to it.  Finally, I ended up with 2 copper wires exiting the solar panel frame, one connected to the positive terminal of the first solar cell and another connected to the negative terminal of the last solar cell.  These 2 copper wires are to lead to the battery that will store the electricity generated by the solar panel. 

After all this was done, I tested my solar panel in the sun.  The voltmeter showed 18.3V.  Success!  Now to add a blocking diode into the circuit that will prevent the battery from discharging when the sun is not shining.  I placed the diode inside the solar panel box.  Finally, I covered my solar cells with plexiglass.  The plexiglass sheets were screwed onto the edges of the solar panel box and sealed with silicone caulk. 

When I connected the solar panel to my 12V battery, I also installed a charge controller.  This equipment prevents the battery from being overcharged or overdrained.  Lastly, I hooked up my battery to an inverter to convert the DC current to AC current to power my appliances.

These measures save me an average of 45 to 55% of my electricity bill each month.  My highest was just above 70% savings.  So I have no regrets generating my own domestic solar power.

Click Here for the Ultimate Domestic Solar Power Guide