DIY Solar Panel Kits

well, I’ve got an old solar panel kit from some relatives of mine. Well, as a kid, you can probably guess that I put in a closed circuit backwards and all sorts of dumb things. well, I tested it with an electrometer and it is capable of giving up to 5 volts, but only 6 mA. I am guessing I fried something because now I can’t generate a small motor the size of your thumbnail. I’m not sure that it’s something painfully obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

It would help if you told us the size of the panel. Were your measurements made in bright sun?
3 volts x 6.5 mA = 20 mW

The smallest one I found for sale has a power level of 80 mW, 4 times the one you have. It has an area of about 10 cm² or about 1.6 square inches. If your panel is a lot smaller, then that may be normal.

But I think it is damaged.

.

Here is a 100-Watt Solar Panel Kit ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882260013&cm_re=solar_power-_-82-260-013-_-Product ),
my MAIN QUESTION is, what does it mean to say that this is a 100 watt solar panel?
Does it mean that it can store 100 watts an hour/minute/second in a battery?
Can it store enough power into a battery to power a window A/C which requires 1900/1880 Watts to Condition Air?

a 100 watt solar panel will make 100 watts for every second that it has perfect angle and sunlight. On the average, there are only 5 hours of equivalent perfect sunlight per day. That means your 100 watt panel will make 500 watt-hours or .5 kw-hrs per day.

Your AC needs 1900 watts per hour and say it runs 24 hours per day, that means it needs 45,600 watt hours or 45.6 kw-hours. You would need 45.6/.5 91.2 of them panels to make it work. In the summer you might need 70 and in the winter 110 of them. Plus you’d need batteries, lots of batteries so that the panels would make energy when the sun shines and return it when the sun goes down you’d need to store 45.6 kw-hr of energy. Thats about 4000 amp hours at 12 volts Large batteries are about 100 amp hours, so you’d need 40 batteries.

price, cost, solar panel kit
I am building a house, I would like to put solar panels on the roof so I could cut bills in half.

$3804.17

Me and my friend have made our own functional solar panels for considerably less than retail prices and we are thinking about selling them. Are there any legal issues regarding this? Would I need any special licenses or anything? Would using brand name components or parts in the panels make any difference legally? I want to know before I just go out and start doing it. Thanks!

you might first patent the design . Make sure everything is well documented . talk to patent agents and lawyers . Then instead of becoming a seller , introduce your design to established companies. They already have all the licences , lawyers, codes..etc to sell , install, advertise to buyers .

they can often make you a partner or buy your design for a lump sum .

Solar is a huge step . Best wishes

I would like to start researching solar panels and know little to nothing about them at this point. Where would be a good and very basic point to start? I am also interested in learning about homemade solar panels. I am not looking for people to answer these questions or inform me about these topics, but rather, to point me to resources (books, web-sites) that can do this. Thank you.

Magazines homepower and solar today are good sources and for building homemade solar the last site listed

i got a 20 watt solar panel and a 120v pump.the thing is that most electronics have a piece that reduces electricity into the voltage the part wants.will the solar panel make the pump work.

20 watts is not much power. That would run a small DC fountain pump. For anything larger, you would have to match the power rating of the pump.

There is an entire forum devoted to solar water pumping here http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/forumdisplay.php?f=10 . If you browse around, you may find what you’re looking for. The people there are pumping larger volumes, to water cattle, irrigate, or fill cisterns.

One good site you might want to check out is http://www.simplesolarhomesteading.com/
They have a lot of people there who have built their own equipment and they have many reviews of purchased equipment too. Also some interesting alternatives. It is a good group of people.

I get the part of the solar panel, but the wiring of components gets me down. I don’t want an independent circuit, i want the energy to go directly into the house to save on energy.
I want to know what component/s to use and how it works, because i don’t want to be completely clueless. I have been in an electrical course so i understand well, but my memory is not at is best.

i ask this question because the parts are all there to buy, but most don’t explain what they do or how they do it. I want to be able to make an educated dessication on what to use.

A DIY will probably not save or make the money you hope for. There are scam guides on the internet that say you can make your own panel, but that sort of panel is not only expensive for the power it produces, it will generally be illegal to connect to your house wiring. Most places require compliance to the National Electrical Code, and that means that the components you use must have UL or a similar safety rating. No homemade panel will have UL.

It is possible to install your own commercially made panels in some places. In some states, this will invalidate your rebate. In some countries (Australia), a self-install is outright illegal. If you want to see what we did in terms of self-install, our page is at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/roderick/solar/photovoltaic.html - go to the bottom and click on the video.

What I would do:
1. Legalize Gay Marriage (because all marriages cost lots of money wether they be gay or straight)
2. Legalize Marijuana for Sale, keep it regulated (ask for I.D., etc.)
3. Legalize Prostitution, moderate it (like the porn industry) to keep it safe and put much less money in the hands of criminals since a majority of all prostitution is to fund criminal and gang-related activities
4. Get all soldiers back to the U.S., get them working and spending (let the "terrorists" do as they like in their own country since this war is basically pointless)
5. Fix energy problem (stop off-shore drilling and implement more land-drilling to create more jobs and make it slightly safer for the environment; build more solar panels, windmills, etc.)
6. Slightly increase taxes of upper-middle class and above, and decrease taxes of lower-middle class and below
7. Stop printing as much money
8. Stop printing "In God We Trust" on the dollar, since printing "In God We Trust" is a violation of the seperation of church and state, and also uses a fraction of a pennies worth of ink. Over time that cost builds up and with as much money as we’re printing currently, that only adds to the national defecit.
9. Tax all places of religious worship
10. Remove all bans of abortion and stem-cell research (without abortion there is no stem-cell research)
11. Not try to bail out miserably failing companies.
12. Stop it with the stimulus packages, we’ve tried three, two of them huge, and only created 20,000 jobs.
13. Stop buying everything from other countries.
14. More funding in space projects. Create jobs and interest kids in engineering.
15. Stop making pennies since it costs more than a penny to make a penny.
16. Introduce some sort of pay scale for high-paying jobs and do something about these bonuses for bank managers and such.
17. Have most, if not all, major sports franchises and leagues widely owned, and introduce a new CBA for each league which doesn’t allow for outrageous pays.
18. Switch from unit banking system to a branch banking system
19. Don’t "leave it to the market." Some situations should require intervention, especially oil.
20. Minimum voter IQ, as well as mandatory voting or voting that requires a tax to get out of
21. Pay science, engineering and math teachers more money so that higher qualified people from the field will interact with students.
22. Place restrictions on quantitative finance methods, hire better educated financial experts who are focused on sustainable business and not short term maximization
23. Raise tariffs
24. Increase minimum wage
25. Lower minimum drinking age to 19.

With more money in circulation, the national debt will be gone very soon.

Keep in mind, I’m far from an expert when it comes to economics, but what I do know about economics is that by doing these things the debt will decrease greatly.

Your ideas?

right on. i like all these solutions
legalizing marijuana for sale! its a major cash crop. that alone would help the economy

What I would do:
1. Legalize Gay Marriage (because all marriages cost lots of money wether they be gay or straight)
2. Legalize Marijuana for Sale, keep it regulated (ask for I.D., etc.)
3. Legalize Prostitution, moderate it (like the porn industry) to keep it safe and put much less money in criminals since a majority of all prostitution is to fund criminal and gang-related activities
4. Get all soldiers back to the U.S., get them working and spending (let the "terrorists" do as they like in their own country)
5. Fix energy problem (stop off-shore drilling; build more solar panels, windmills, etc.)
6. Increase taxes of upper-middle class and above, decrease taxes of lower-middle class and below
7. Stop printing as much money
8. Stop printing "In God We Trust" on the dollar
9. Tax all places of religious worship
10. Remove all bans of abortion and stem-cell research
11. Put less funding in space projects
12. Not try to bail out miserably failing companies.

With more money in circulation, the national debt will be gone very soon.

Keep in mind, I’m far from an expert when it comes to economics, but what I do know about economics is that by doing these things the debt will decrease greatly.

Your ideas?
Printing "In God We Trust" is a violation of the seperation of church and state, and also uses ink. Ink costs money and printing "In God We Trust" uses a fraction of a pennies worth of ink. Over time that builds up and with as much money as we’re printing currently, that only adds to the national defecit. Getting rid of it would be a very intelligent idea, no?

1. Stop it with the stimulus packages, we’ve tried three, two of them huge, and only created 20,000 jobs.
2. Convert everyone who works at BP into alterntive fuel.
3. Okay, since the invention of the lightbulb, we have known how to make lightbulbs last forever, STOP scamming us and give EVERYONE PERMANENT LIGHT.
4. Stop buying everything from other countries…
5. Do we really need more allies? I mean, Iraq was revenge, but Afghanistan is just camping…
6. MORE funding in space projects. Create jobs and interest kids in engineering.