Beware of the Pitfalls When Manufacturing Your Own Solar Panel Assembly

Posted on January 13, 2010, 3:53 pm, by admin, under House and Home.

When you build a solar panel, there are a number of things that need to be taken into consideration before you actually start. Once you know what you are doing it is a fairly straight forward process, building your own solar panel. What you need is the correct tools, the right products and a good training manual.

But before even those basic steps, it is more important to have a clear picture of what your solar panel is going to end up looking like and where you are going to use it. Decide how big your dream is. Do want to start a solar farm, building 2000 watt panels and feed electricity back to the national grid or do you want to build 500 watt panels for running specific appliances in your home or do just want a small one; to build a solar panel for re-charging your digital camera batteries?

The only difference between making 500 watt solar panel and 100W solar panel is the quantity of solar cells you require and the time you have available to spend on the project. The main reason for many people wanting to make their own solar electricity is that they can save on the cost of having to actually by them because they are very expensive.

So once you have decided what size of solar panel you are going to build, the next step is to determine where you can get a cheap supply of solar cells. EBay is always a good place to start when wanting to buy anything on the cheap, the only downside is that you can’t always get the exact thing you are after. The only problem with this is that if you can’t find the specific size and quantity of solar cells, what do you do then?

One very good option for you is to research businesses near to where you live and find the ones which use solar cells in the electrical products they use on a day to day basis. Contact these companies and make yourself known to them, tell them what you want to do so at a later date should they have any broken cells they want to dispose of, they will contact you. The best source of these solar cells are the businesses who put out traffic signs, for example, when repairs are being carried out to roads. The Companies name and telephone number can often be found attached to it somewhere. Traffic signs often get broken by manhandling or cars driving into them.

They don’t fix the solar panel if it is broken or chipped, they will fit a new one and chuck the old one in the skip. If you have a good training manual which shows you how to build a solar panel, it won’t take much for you to repair a damaged one.

Finding a cheap supply of solar cells is the only major problem you need to solve if you are looking to build a solar panel on a shoestring, so start searching for those local businesses today.

My passing shot is to remind you what I said a short while ago, know precisely what it is you want to end up with, how big and where you are going to put it. Having worked on many projects, you can learn from my experience, if you don’t do it you will have a panel fit for nothing. You will make life very hard for yourself and will probably be disappointed. Stick a picture on the wall and go and build it.

Different Types of Solar Panels