Build Your Own Solar Panel

By Cory Clemons

Lots of people have been looking into installing solar panels in an effort to combat rising energy costs. When the majority of these people see the prices of the professionally installed panels they realize it may not be a luxury they can afford. There is an easier, more affordable way to harness power from the sun and that is to learn how to make solar panels for yourself.

Any hungry do-it-yourselfer can study how to make solar panels for their home, workshop or business. When compared to the cost of buying and installing a pre-made green solar energy system, learning how to make solar panels for your green energy needs and the materials you need to start the project are far less. By Studying how to make solar panels for yourself, you have greater control over the size and design of your system as well.

Once you have a basic manual and you have studied how to make solar panels, the supplies are fairly basic to find. Most can be discovered at your local hardware store like, plywood, sheets of glass, and a roll of copper wire. It is also easy to find cheap solar or photovoltaic cells to use in your project. Many are available over the Internet or you may have a retailer available locally. One you've learned how to make solar panels and you have your supplies, it will take about a day to assemble a 100-watt panel. This is the perfect amount of electricity to operate small appliances or a small workshop.

best step is looking for a quality manual with detailed instructions for knowing how to make solar panels. In most cases you get what you pay for, so don't be scared to spend a few extra dollars on a well-reviewed instruction manual. Overall, the expense of the making your own panels is so low, the cost of the how to guide is minimal-you will still be paying way less studying how to produce solar panels on your own than purchasing a professionally installed system.

With a little bit of effort, you can be on your way to knowing how to make solar panels to exceed your energy needs. Then sit back and bask in the pride the next time the power goes out on your block. Your lights will still be on because you learned how to make solar panels and your energy supply is still in your battery bank.

Making the choice to build your own solar panel is a great investment for your future and the world's future. Start making your own power at home and take advantage of this great way to educate yourself while saving money and helping the environment and learn how to build your own solar panel today.

About the Author:

Before you purchase anything, make sure you check Cory Clemons' excellent free report creating solar energy panels. This article, Build Your Own Solar Panel has free reprint rights.

Solar Power Techniques To Convert Your Home To A Green Haven

By Jack Hammer

You can start utilizing the power of the sun throughout your home in order to save money on your energy bills. Additionally, you will be making your home more environmentally sound. You do not even have to invest in solar panels! Read through the advice outlined in this article to begin utilizing solar power in your home living environment.

The largest of these systems is a solar water heating system. Instead of using expensive solar panels to generate electricity, this system uses panels that are dark colored to capture as much heat as possible. These panels are then used to heat water that can be used throughout the home. The cost of these systems vary based on how complicated you make the system, and cost recovery varies by region, taking up to 20 years in northern climates.

One advantage of using solar energy is helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Unfortunately, a large amount of the crude oil we utilize comes from politically unstable countries. This wrecks havoc with energy prices and has caused a huge increase in electrical energy and gasoline prices within the last few years. When there is less demand for crude oil, the law of supply and demand will go into effect and energy prices across the board should be much lower.

Know upfront how much money you will need to install solar energy. As mentioned, you will need a good amount of money to get started. Solar panels can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and you don't want to get started, only to find you do need it.

How do they work? Solar panels are made up of several photovoltaic cells. These cells capture light energy from the sun's rays and convert that energy into electricity. Since the cells convert the sun's light energy, rather than the sun's thermal energy, into electrically energy, solar panels will still generate electricity on freezing cold days as long as the sun is shining.

If you want to save some money on mowing your lawn every month, you can invest in a lawn mower that runs off of solar power. These products store sun power in a battery and use this power to mow the lawn. These products are only slightly more expensive than their conventional counterparts and can save you a lot of money over time, especially if you own a lawn care business.

If you're looking for a more all-inclusive, large-scale way to take advantage of solar power, you should look at the principle of passive solar design when you build a new home or renovate your existing one. Passive solar design is a set of architectural principles intended to fit a house into its local climate with as much energy efficiency as possible. Roofs and windows are oriented to take advantage of sunlight for direct heating during the cold months. Building materials are selected for year-round energy efficiency. The overall result is a home that works with its environment and requires minimal energy expenditure for heating and cooling.

The variety of items that use solar power make it easy to educate your children about solar power and how it can save energy in everyday life at affordable prices. Use the examples above to choose some easy ways to lead by example when it comes to living green.

About the Author:

The author of this post would like to invite you to visit his other informative sites about Solar Energy. You can check them out here - Advantages of Solar Energy, How to Install a Residential Solar Power System.

Photovoltaic Solar Systems: Advantages And Disadvantages

By Christopher Gilman

Today's high energy prices are ridiculous, and everyone should be looking at different ways to reduce energy costs. One good way to reduce energy costs is by using solar energy. Continue reading to find out some great advice about the advantages of using solar energy.

You need to read about and research where to place the panels. This can help you get a better idea as to where to place the panels on your own home after you've figured out how many you need. It's important to have a good idea as to where you want to put them, and of course you can ask professional installers any questions you may have as well.

Find out about grants and incentives that you may be eligible for. Both the federal government and individual states are now offering incentives to people who want to get solar panels and introduce solar energy. Therefore, it is smart to make sure you investigate as much as you can and apply for all the help you can get. While everyone agrees that it is very expensive to buy the large panels, it will be cheaper in the long run. Therefore, it is worth your time and effort to make every effort you can to put up the panels as soon as possible.

Sunlight costs nothing. On a good day, you have hours upon hours of free fuel pouring down onto your PV system at 186,000 miles per second. For most would-be consumers of solar energy, this is the most enticing benefit. Once your system is up and going, your source of power is free.

You won't have to own a huge home, but a sufficient solar system isn't going to fit on the roof of a small row house. If so, the government would have already installed them on their publicly funded projects, and they'd decree that the HOA must. The fact of the matter is that you need sufficient roof space to install a system that is quite large.

However, a single solar cell can barely power a flashlight, much less you home. That is why many of these small solar cells are wired together into solar panels, and these panels all work together to create the solar array that powers your home. The reason why you can even have a small solar installation in your home is because of this expandable property of solar energy. If you could only use a single cell to power a device, you would have to have a huge solar cell for each device in your home, which would simply be too cumbersome.

One way that you can harness the power of the sun without having to put thousands of dollars toward solar panels is by purchasing small outdoor lamps that utilize solar power. While this may seem minuscule, it is a cost effective way to light the outside of your home during night and it is a way that you can begin to be more conscious of the environment.

Remember these tips and do more research about solar power. Stay up to date with innovations in this field; new products should appear on the market and make solar power more affordable in the next few years.

About the Author:

For more information about solar power systems and how to successfully install them yourself, don't hesitate to visit these links: Build Your Own Solar Panel and Residential Solar Energy.

How Does Solar Energy Work

By Marty Johnson

With energy prices rising higher and higher with no end in sight, these days, the question of how does solar power work is firing up the curiosity of many money-conscious families and individuals. A major concern for people considering going solar is the cost of equipment and installation, but federal and state grants to help defer these costs are becoming increasingly available. Notwithstanding what may seem like a high installation cost, using solar power in the home is a great option for the long term and the ongoing savings will soon off-set the initial outlay.


In both residential and commercial applications the basic concept of how does solar power work is exactly the same with the only difference being the scale of the installation requirements. A factory or warehouse is obviously going to require a larger amount of energy hence a more complex and more expensive installation would need to be in place.

In its most basic application, solar panels are a set of solar cells with a semiconductor that produces electricity when sunlight hits it. There are also solar panels that are made to heat the air and water in the building. When the solar panels produce electricity, it is transferred to the system's controller-regulator to adjust the voltage/amperage to what your system uses, then transfers for current electricity needs or to the batteries to be stored for future use.

There are three major components to a solar power system. The first is the photovoltaic panels, also known as solar panels or PV panels. The second is the current regulator or controller, which controls the voltage/amperage of the electricity that the solar panels generate. The third component is the storage system. This is typically an array of batteries used to store any energy that is created by the system and not need during the day.


Solar panels can vary greatly in cost depending on the type of installation you are aiming for. If your building is in a more remote area and is industrial you can use the typical boxy style roof mounted panels. In a business or industrial application solar panels can be installed not only on the much larger roof space offered by an industrial structure but additional panel arrays can also be installed on the ground offering additional power generation.


Solar panels are commonly mounted on rooftops with ground or pole mounts. The mounts provide added flexibility if your structure is accustomed to shade. To maximize the power generated, mechanisms can be attached to panels. This allows maximum sun exposure. One of the biggest downsides to solar installation is sunset. This is easily fixed by installing a battery array, a storage system, or simply using supplemental power from the utility power grid.


If you want a more discrete, dual purpose installation you can even have your structure constructed with solar cells built right into the roofing, awning and window materials. In a residential application using roofing materials with the solar cells built in will give you the same level of protection as an asphalt shingle while functioning as a solar panel, giving you more flexibility in design and reducing the chances your home will look like a space station.

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Usefulness of solar energy in today's world.

By Ben V. Williams

The once expensive photovoltaic cells can now be obtained at a lower price as the process of producing them becomes easier and faster. These are produced at larger quantities and are smaller I size, thus making them possible for a reliable source of energy supply on a mass scale in the bear future. The prices have lowered to per watt per hour. 17 years ago, the price was doubled.

There's no question about how environment-friendly solar powered electricity generation is. This is an alternative form of energy production that does not emit any hazardous material into the environment and uses something that is naturally available as its source.

Today, solar cells are abundantly found on the rooftops of people's homes. You can use them without much trouble in heating your home, heating water and in producing power for all your needs . There it gets heated and is then supplied inside the home through pipes.

Photovoltaic cells of today enable you to gather heat from the sun and store it even if the sky is full of clouds or if there is a storm brewing. The technology used by Uni-Solar is an example of it.

In addition to the above system, there's another system available known as the PV system. The system is attached to the closest grid of electricity so if a home produces more electricity by its solar system, this energy is channeled into the grid, which can now utilize this energy for electricity production and will not have to depend wholly on hydroelectricity.

Using PV systems makes solar energy production economical for you, and also mitigates the problem of environmental pollution and helps to free up the grid from excessive pressure. Within some towns and suburban communities, such centralized solar collection arrays are becoming quite popular so that they can serve the entire region.

Worldwide, there has been an active interest among large scale corporations to enter into the arena of solar power generation and among other things, it shows how feasible this concept is. Google has already installed a 1.6 MW solar power generation plant on the roof of its headquarters while Wal-Mart will soon outdo this by installing a 100 MW solar power system of its own.

Countries such as Japan, Germany, Switzerland and America are providing benefits such as subsidies and tax deductions to people - whether individuals or companies - who install solar power systems for getting their supply of thermal and electrical power. This kind of interest will only help make it more and more popular and ultimately - affordable!

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If you liked this article, and wanted to know more about Portable Solar Power for Home, then please visit my website, where you can also find some interesting and informative articles about Solar Power Roof Vents and many other informative articles about Solar Energy and ways to use it for our homes.

Solar Power For Homes

By Adrian Fletcher

Solar power for the home has made great strides since its early beginnings. Technological advancements have allowed commercially available building materials to incorporate solar cells, which turns them into solar panels that are virtually invisible to the naked eye.

There are two ways that solar power for homes is supplied. These are off-grid and on grid or net metering. A stand alone solar power system acts as the sole source of electricity for your home and is off the grid as such. Alternatively, supplemental solar power systems, can supply all of your homes energy depending on sunlight availability. When sunlight is not available, your home can use energy from the power grid.

Standalone solar power systems and supplemental systems for the generation of solar power for homes contain the same fundamental parts. At the outset are the photovoltaic panels, generally referred to as PV or solar panels, which are equipped with a solar cell or semiconductor that transforms the sun's rays into electricity. The electricity then is routed to a regulator/controller which maintains the electric current at the voltage/amperage level the system is made for. Electricity then is routed into your home's electrical system or else into a battery array or a storage system which will keep the solar power ready for when the sun sets.

If your home is connected to a power company grid you do not have to install a storage system, but it does have its advantages as it will help to further lower your monthly utility bill, and it will make power available to you during a power outage.

It is now cheaper and simpler than ever before to reduce or eliminate your need for outside electricity by using solar power for homes. Several types of building materials include awnings, roofing materials, car port roofing, and edges of window panes. This kind of solar panel is known as Building Integrated Photovoltaics. If used for roofing material, such panels provide the same measure of home protection as do asphalt shingles, even while they function as a solar panel.

One of the greatest obstacles to using solar power for homes has traditionally been the up-front expense. Now, however, there are avenues to offsetting that expense. Government grants are available which go a long way toward subsidizing your household's conversion to solar power. Federal rebates for solar power installations can vary year from year, and each state that offers one has its own incentives ranging from additional rebates to offering low-interest rates to finance green projects.

Besides the fact that you'll make your home greener using solar power for homes, you'll also be seeing lots of "green" with all the savings on your utility bill. You may even be able to eliminate a utility bill altogether. A growing number of utility companies now have a metering program allowing you to sell to the power company any excess power produced by your solar power system. Selling your excess electricity to the power company is a good idea and more net metering programs will be enacted in various states in the future. An incentive to sell your electricity to the utility company benefits other people that can use the power and reduces the utility companies need on coal and other fossil fuels to generate electricity.

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