DIY Solar Panel Kits

I’m in high school by the way, and I know I’m going to fail (I’m in year 11 right now) and so instead of just wasting my time attempting to study when I know I won’t achieve much, I figured I should try and improve skills that I otherwise would not gain or be interested in at school.
i.e, I love biology, but hate the class, so I have spent a decent amount of money on documentaries of wildlife, books/textbooks etc, to learn about living things without attempting to pass some test…
Also, I love physics and engineering, but hate the class, so I may buy some DIY kits of small appliances eg solar powered car, and try building it myself, using soldering irons and such.

I don’t really know how effective my "hobbies" will be in achieving anything, but I’m doing them because it interests me. Do you think this will make me "smarter" though ? As in, learning without relying on school ? Has that ever worked for anyone else ?

thank you

I do the exact same thing as you. Occasionally I get interested in random hobbies and spend a lot of time learning about different things. But for me, my number one priority is school and for you it should be to. It’s good that your random studies will make you well versed in a variety of subjects, but if you can’t get into a good college because of your grades, then there’s not much hope for your future. I would recommend getting a tutor and keeping your grades up, but by no means stop your hobbies because it’s always good to keep your mind mentally stimulated.

Im considering a few things and would appreciate any input. I would like to start installing solar panels over the next few years as well as a homemade VAWT windmill (not too big) and black tubing to heat up water before it gets to my water tank.

1 - Install a tankless water heater. Do I go gas or electric?
2 - Install electric clothes dryer instead of gas?
3 - electric stove instead of gas?

My thinking is to go all electric and get rid of my gas bill entirely and try to generate enough electricity on my own to power all the electric appliances.

Just not sure what direction to take! I dont use much electricity ($20/mo) and my gas bill is $10 in the summer and up to $40 in the winter from cooking and heating. Ahhhh. I forgot about heating. It doesnt get too cold where I am, but I would still need heating. I would think gas is still cheaper then electricity for heating.

Any tips or ideas out there? Thanks!

I can see advantages to both options. It all depends on your intentions for going solar. Is your motivation environmental, independent living, or emergency preparedness? Do you intend to keep your utility connection and supplement it as much as possible with solar, or do you wish to be utility independent? If you keep the utility connection, then go all electric, and buy some Eden-Pure heaters for your heating needs. You will feed the grid all summer long, build up a big credit, and use the excess to run the heaters in the winter. If Independence is your goal, gas makes a good back-up plan in the event your solar does not generate a sufficient amount of power. When you say "gas" are you talking kerosene, LPG (propane) or natural gas? If you want to prepared for all emergencies, and LPG is available in your area, use it. Buy a tank big enough for a year’s supply.

Be careful of tankless water heaters–gas or electric. Many do not support preheated water conditions, and will cause problems on a solar water heated system. Your bills are quite low, you are likely very energy conscious already. Solar will be a great fit for you regardless of which way you go.

I have been doing some research on solar panel and wind turbine systems. The pricing is crazy. For a 10Kw solar grid tie kit system is between $35,000 and $40,000. If you install batteries add $3,000-$5,000. 10Kw will only power a small to medium home without electric heat. Using my electric usage and info from my local electric company payback is 60 years for solar and 361 years for wind. This is unexceptionable. The manufactures of the solar and wind are gouging the consumers. They are using the excuse of supply and demand for the high cost. When demand goes up so will mass production and the price will go down. This is true, but they are making a huge profit on what they are making now. Some items are in the 3000% markup range. Are the power companies keeping the price up so their profits don’t suffer? My local electric supplier has an "ENERGY PARK" that you can go see solar and wind power in action and check out real time data online. They have a 4Kw solar array installed and claim it cost $30,378 installed and a 2.5Kw wind turbine that cost about $20,000 installed. I think they are giving false numbers to consumers so you won’t go green. I was able to find a 3.5Kw kit online for $9,000. This doesn’t include any type of mounting materials. You can add $800-$1,200 for these materials. An installer will will charge you $2,000-$4,000 to install it. For the sake of argument lets say this will cost you $15,000 to install but still way out of line for you and me to install. That is a far cry from the $30,000 the power company claims. The power companies don’t want you to make your own electric. They are keeping the cost high so they will still make money off you. A 210w panel sells for around $600. They probably manufacture it for under $50. The cost needs to be $100-$150 to the consumer to make it affordable to the average home owner. 50 210w panels make a 10Kw system. That would be $5,000 not $40,000. The manufactures are raping us and the power companies are helping them to keep prices high. When will we get the technology at a proper cost? Let me know what you think.
In response to the first 5 answers, Yes, if demand increases so will mass production and thus supply will increase and this will drive the price down. I looked into panels from China. From what I was able to find panels sell for $0.17-$0.45 per watt. In the U.S. they sell for $3.00-$5.00 per watt. Manufactures in the U.S. have lobbied for a higher tariff on solar products that makes them impractical to import on mass. These companies want to keep the price high so their profits stay high, and the power companies do not want you to produce all your own power. That would put them out of business.
In response to Steve R, You need to do more research before you post another retarded comment like that. Air "DOES" have mass (just not very dense). When air is in motion it is called "WIND". This motion creates energy. Have you ever heard of a "tornado"? Get your facts together next time.

Cut the incentives, import tarriffs, and special grind tie rates. That will make prices truly competitive for those that want to participate in home green energy, and not put any cost on those that do not want to.

The important thing is the incentives, which artificially raise the prices of equipment.

well my mom got a whole load of solar powered lights for outside. is there any way i can make these into a solar panel ? if so how?if not why?

it’s probably not a good idea.
they only generate enough power, with the sun shining on ‘em all day, to produce a few watts to light a diode at night.
you could string a hundred of ‘em together, and you’d probably not be able to run your computer.
added all together, they’re not as big as a single solar panel.
and you need several panels to make a useful amount of electricity.

enjoy the lights.
they’re kinda nice.

okay, so I have an 11 year old daughter who is doing a solar panel project. I was wondering if someone here has a link where I could purchase a solar panel kit that comes with directions.
Thank you

P.S. I just need a link please!

Edmund Scientific has stuff along that line:
http://scientificsonline.com/category.asp_Q_c_E_421196

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Who’s your daddy? Answer’s at the drugstore
Pharmacy chain markets DNA paternity tests in 30 states nationwide

Pierre-philippe Marcou / AFP - Getty Images file
New at-home DNA paternity tests require samples of cells swabbed from the cheeks of the child, the alleged father and, ideally, the mother.
View related photos

Video

Who’s your daddy? DIY paternity test debuts
March 27: A new type of at-home medical test can reveal a child’s paternity. But is it a good idea? NBC’s Michelle Kosinski reports.
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By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
MSNBC
updated 8:36 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 27, 2008

JoNel Aleccia
Health writer

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• E-mail

After two decades, Sean Reid of Surrey, British Columbia, discovered that he had a son. Fred Turley of Des Plaines, Ill., learned he didn’t have a daughter. And Wendy Lieb of Lewis Center, Ohio, made certain she wasn’t going to be a grandmother quite yet.

In all three situations, crucial genetic information altered the lives of the people involved. And in each case, it came not from a doctor or other medical source, but from a $29.99 kit on a drugstore shelf.

Reid, Turley and Lieb are among more than 800 customers who responded to the first wave of marketing for do-it-yourself DNA paternity tests sold as Identigene by Sorenson Genomics of Salt Lake City.

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Sales in three western states — Washington, Oregon and California — were so brisk last fall that Rite Aid Corp. expanded the product this week to some 4,300 stores in 30 states across the country.

“The running joke is that we’re the Maury Povich family,” said Reid, 37, who confirmed years of speculation about a former girlfriend’s son with a kit purchased at a Bellingham, Wash., store. “But why not do it privately? We did this as discreetly, as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible.”

For users like Reid, the tests provide easier answers to one of life’s crucial questions — Who’s your daddy? — said Douglas Fogg, chief operating officer of Identigene.

“Everyone is purchasing the tests because they’re curious,” said Fogg, who expects to sell at least 52,000 tests this year. “They’re looking to establish questions about their own child or their own paternity.”

But for genetics experts, drugstore marketing of DNA testing raises questions of accuracy and ethics.

“From our perspective, direct-to-consumer genetic tests raise all the same issues for lax government oversight, potentially misleading or false advertising and the potential for making profound medical decisions on the basis of poorly interpreted or understood results,” said Rick Borchelt, a spokesman for the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University.

At the very least, the kits have the potential to complicate the lives of the people who use them, legal experts cautioned.

“We all need to take a step back and realize that this is different than many tests that you take,” said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “This is a life-changing moment.”

DNA tests join other diagnostic tools
The paternity kits have taken their place on store shelves next to other diagnostic tests that don’t rely on DNA, including those for pregnancy, HIV and blood sugar, said Michael S. Watson, executive director of the American College of Medical Genetics.

Unlike genetic tests for health conditions, tests that use DNA to determine paternity are fairly simple to provide and fairly easy to interpret, said Watson. They’re subject to limited oversight, however, with no review required by the Food and Drug Administration and no certification required under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, or CLIA.

The Identigene kit includes swabs for collecting cell samples from the inside of the cheeks of the child and the alleged father. Collection of the mother’s cells is optional, but strongly recommended to strengthen the results. The swabs are packaged and mailed to the Sorenson laboratory in Salt Lake City where they’re analyzed.

Cast your vote
Are at-home DNA paternity tests a good idea?

The Sorenson lab is accredited by the AABB, the agency formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks.

Results are reported online, by phone or by mail in three to five business days. They come back as a probability figure that verifies paternity with 98 percent to 99 percent accuracy, Watson said.

Total cost is about $150, including the price of the kit and a $119 laboratory processing fee. For another $200, users can purchase validated tests that meet legal requirements for determining paternity, Fogg said.

Court use questionable
But Susan Crockin, a lawyer who specializes in reproductive technology, said consumers shouldn’t count on the tests standing up in court.

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“The jury’s still very much out on these tests in terms of reliability and establishing a chain of custody,” said Crockin, a consultant for the Johns Hopkins public policy center.

Most of the users who have been buying the kits — which have gone on sale for as low as $17.99 — don’t plan to use the results to resolve legal issues, Fogg acknowledged. Instead, most are looking to answer social questions. And that’s where the complexity comes in.

Because the cell samples are taken in private, there’s the potential for fraud and deception, noted Charo, the ethics expert.

“I can imagine rather peculiar circumstances in which somebody has a swab taken without their knowledge,” she said. “It raises questions about informed consent.”

Even when people do consent, the results can be unsettling. Watson estimates that between 5 percent and 10 percent of genetic tests he’s conducted show a child is not related to the presumed father.

“It could break up families,” Watson said. “Some will be broken because that was the goal. Others will be broken up and that wasn’t the goal.”

But people who’ve used the at-home tests swear by the ease, the accuracy — and the results.

After 20 years, a mystery solved
For Reid, the paternity test opened the door to a new extended family. He’d always wondered whether the baby born to a former girlfriend was his, even though she insisted the child was fathered by another man. When the girlfriend contacted Reid on Facebook last summer, the pictures she sent of her oldest son raised the question anew.

“My wife, said ‘Oh my, that’s you,’” said Reid, a nurse.

Internet research pointed Reid to the Identigene test, which was cheaper and more convenient than other options. With cooperation from his former girlfriend and her son, they all took the tests, with results that altered everyone’s lives.

“Our newest son has a family he never knew he had including grandparents, aunts, and three younger brothers who are all very excited to meet him,” Reid said.

For Fred Turley, 55, the DNA test confirmed what his companion had told him: the 4-year-old girl he helped care for was not his. The news was disappointing, but clear, he said.

“The bottom line is, I don’t have to live with the uncertainty about her being my daughter and wind up in a fight just to find out,” Turley said. “This won’t change how I feel about the girl. It will just remove what had become a major concern.”

For Wendy Lieb, 41, the DNA test restored her 20-year-old son’s future. He’d already quit college, taken a job and assumed the responsibilities of pending parenthood after a girl he had sex with at a party claimed she was pregnant with his child.

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‘He just didn’t look like my son at all.’
Lieb said she was proud of her son’s response, but perplexed after the baby, a boy, was born.

“He just didn’t look like my son at all,” Lieb said. “And we have fairly strong genes.”

A trip to the drugstore and 10 days later, the answer was clear: her son was not the father.

“I thought it would have required thousands of dollars and a trip to the doctor,” she said.

Lieb is relieved for her own child, of course, but also for everyone involved. As difficult as the situation has been, she said, it will be easier for them to adjust now, rather than years later. The test may raise ethical questions, she said, but it also provides the peace of mind that comes with answers.

“I think it’s a lot more ethical for you to find out the truth,” she said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23814032?GT1=43001

i was just telling my sister about the home D.N.A. she didn’t believe they were being sold in stores. i think they are a great idea. now all those lil girls /women can stop making a fool of them selves on Maury because it looks so ignorant and disrespectful. and it’s cheaper than going to a lab or the court system.

after seeing this —> http://www.altestore.com/store/Kits-and-Package-Deals/Off-Grid-Residential-Systems/c567/ and searching Rip-Offs dot com , I think that I can’t believe in Earth dot com MotherEarth catalog , etc. I’m a jack of all trades which makes me a Fool and a master - of - none , but don’t fool me thrice ! Is there a good link to build this mouse-trap or should I just max-out my credit card for a pipe-dream ? Maybe I should forget PV and just sweat copper pipes for solar water… BTW: I love removing old TV antennas and installing FREE-to-Air TV service for semi-retirement in NOLA. What’s your input [GI-GO]

I just looked at what you are referring to.

In short, the answer is a resounding NO.

They are only 4.5 - 12 watt max sub units that can produce that only under the absolute best of conditions. Additionally, in order to make any real use out of them, you would have to take anywhere from 8 - 10 of the larger units to store enough to run only minor electronics for a while. Say you wanted to run one brushless motor for 1 hour. You would need to store the equivalent of 36 volts at 600 watts. These panels will let you store enough for an 1/8th charge, at max capacity for a day, on an average auto battery.

It’s not worth it unless you create a full array.

I’m planning to construct a solar powered ventilator. I have several questions.
If I use just one 12v dc solar panel (PV Module), how many fans( CPU Fan) can I operate?
Do i need a battery and a charge controller?
What about DC input?
How do I set up the system with the basic equipment to operate this solar powered ventilator project of mine?

Tips and links to other websites are are very much appreciated. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

P/S: I am not an electrician neither an engineer in any engineering field. I just want to learn and invent something for the sake of inventing only.

If you want to power the fans only when solar energy is produce, the solution is rather simple, the sum of the load current should be a bit less than the current the panel can provide.

I believe a typical 80mm CPU fan draws 150ma, which is about 1.8W (I’d round that to 2W), and leave extra, so a 5 watt panel should run two fans easy.

If you want to run the fans all the time, in addition for accounting for powering the fans needed when solar is present, you need to account solar power needed to charge a battery at least enough to power when solar is not present in the one day, if not to cover a couple days with weak solar (such as overcast days). For that, you need a battery with enough capacity for those "non solar" conditions, and panel capacity to run your load and charge the battery. You will likely need a charge controller depending on capacity.

Has anyone out there actually done this? The guide says anyone can figure it out and its only a few hundred dollars per panels, but it seems like if it were that easy everyone would be doing it.

Whats the truth?

Brilliant deduction! Yes, if it were that easy, we would see at least a few people doing it. I don’t personally know a single person who has homemade panels on their house, although I would say I do know a good number that have commercially-made panels. Including our family.

I’m planning to construct a solar powered ventilator. I have several questions.
If I use just one 12v dc solar panel (PV Module), how many fans( CPU Fan) can I operate?
Do i need a battery and a charge controller?
What about DC input?
How do I set up the system with the basic equipment to operate this solar powered ventilator project of mine?

Tips and links to other websites are are very much appreciated. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

P/S: I am not an electrician neither an engineer in any engineering field. I just want to learn and invent something for the sake of inventing only.

Very general answer. What you plan is difficult if you want to make it perfect. If you want to make it quick and dirty for fun, it could be a neat project.

A CPU fan is a great little thing to power because it is very well balanced and takes little energy.
Try to get some data on the fan. I am just guessing, but it is bound to be much less than 5 V DC.

If you want to play around, get some rechargeable batteries. See how many batteries, hooked in series, it takes you to power the fans. The fan has a little cable. One lead is positive and one negative. You might find that from 4 rechargeable batteries, you can run one to four fans for some period of time. Try a parallel configuration and see what happens.

Use the solar panel to charge the batteries. Use the batteries to power the fans. The reason is that the fans will then always spin at their usual rate, and they can spin even in the dark.

Get a good sense of what is positve and what is negative on your batteries and leads. Be careful not to mess up your panel by using positve and negative incorrectly.

Good luck.