Solar Home Energy

Did you know you can easily generate your own electricity using solar power from your own home?  Imagine cutting down your electricity bill by up to 80%.  No, it’s not a pipe dream.  Solar technology has come to the ordinary person in the street.  All you need are some basic tools and a willingness to put in some work (a few hours a day for a few days will do).  Here’s a brief overview of the whole system of generating your own solar energy.

There are 2 ways to get solar cells – buy them or make them.  You could make them out of sheets of copper that are heated up until the copper oxidizes to form cuprous oxide.  That method is more tedious, so I would recommend buying the solar cells (which is what I did).  You can buy solar cells quite inexpensively from eBay.  Many people are selling solar cells that are either chipped or blemished in some way, but are just as effective in generating electricity.  Shop around eBay and other auction sites and you will find some good bargains.  A set of 36 solar cells should cost you no more than $200 (get a few extras for spares).  I recommend you buy tabbed crystalline solar cells and look for those that are 0.55V in capacity.  The purpose is to generate enough electricity to charge up a 12V battery so that it can power some of your home appliances.

Click Here for the Ultimate Solar Home Energy Guide 

You also need a panel to hold the solar cells once they have been wired together.  Such a panel can be in the form of a shallow plywood box.  So measure the size of box you need to fit in a set of solar cells arranged in a 6x6 matrix and make your plywood box accordingly.  You will need a border of wood around the 4 sides but do not make it too high otherwise the edges may block out the sun’s rays when the sun shines at an angle.  Also, find a flat and thin board (like a softboard or glass) that you can glue your solar cells to and be fitted at the bottom of the panel as a base.

When you have finished constructing your shallow box and cut your base, you need to paint both of them on all sides with weather-proof paint.  As the paint dries you can work on your solar cells.

The solar cells need to be wired together in series.  If you bought tabbed ones like I recommended above, you will find the solar cells come with tab wires already soldered onto the front along 2 white lines running down the length of the cells.  Choose cells that are about the same size, if yours are chipped ones.  All you need to do is solder the tab wires from one cell to the solar points found at the bottom of the next cell.  Do this for 6 cells and you will get a string of cells.  Repeat this process until you get 6 strings.

Now glue the 6 strings onto your base of softboard or glass.  Make sure each string faces opposite ends of the panel because each string should also be connected to the next string in series.  The best way to do that is to use a copper wire and solder it perpendicularly to the tab wires at the end of the first string, then solder the copper wire to the tab wires at the solar points at the bottom of the next string.  Thus you have joined the first string to the second in series.  Do the same for the second and third strings and so on until you have joined all your 6 strings in series.  Now fit your base into your solar panel and screw it in place.  Also, use silicone caulk to glue your copper wires down so that they do not move around.  Silicone caulk needs to ‘cure’ or dry completely so give it a day or so before you cover the entire box. 

In the meantime, you can bring your solar panel box out into the sunshine and test it.  You should have 2 copper wires exiting your box that are joined to the first cell in the first string and last cell in the last string.  Connect these 2 copper wires to a voltmeter under the sun and you should get a reading (mine was a nice 18.3V).  If you do not get any reading, check your connections.  Sometimes a tab wire may break due to movement or other reasons.  When everything is working, add a blocking diode into the circuit in series.  This is to prevent a backflow of electricity into your solar cells when the sun is not shining.

Once your diode is in place, you can cover your solar panel box with a sheet of plexiglass.  Simply screw it on and seal the edges with silicone caulk to prevent rainwater seeping in.  I do not advise using glass because it’s heavier and tends to shatter when hit by hail or other falling debris.  Plexiglass is transparent (allowing maximum sunlight in) and more durable. 

All that you need now is to connect your solar panel to a battery to store the electricity that is generated.  To actually use the electricity to power your appliances, you need to pass it through an inverter that will convert the DC current from the battery into AC current (most appliances run on AC). 

Now all that is left is to mount it on your roof to absorb the sunshine for some free electricity.

Click Here for the Ultimate Solar Home Energy Guide