DIY Solar Panel Kits

I’m looking to solar power my home and don’t want to spend a lot of money, I want to do everything myself and need a good guide.

Of all the sites that I have come across on the internet about solar power and it’s home application the most accurate and helpful has been…

http://www.solar-power-information-site.com/

It covers all the aspects that any homeowner would need to know and that would take looking in a few other sites just to get all the different information. PLUS it has books you can get that will detail the exact process of putting together a heating or energy system. I am in the process of making a heating system from it now. (takes about a week to do by yourself). Hope that helps!

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.

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.

yes

I am building my own camper right now. While I’m still in the building process what are some ways that I can effectively build wind or solar generators to power most of the electricity? I’ve searched the web and I just can’t find any good DIY (Do It Yourself) projects for them. Thanks!

some recycling bins and a lot of green paint.

I’ve got get a questionnaire done for my DT GCSE coursework and I would very much appreciate it if you could spend a minute to do it.

I need as many people to do it as possible please.

Just copy and paste the question and your answer.

__________________________________________________________

1) What Gender are you?
•Male
•Female

2) What age range are you in?
•Less than and including 19 years
•20 - 24 years
•25 - 29 years
•30 - 34 years
•35 - 39 years
•Over and including 40 years

3) What type of shop do you buy lamps in?
•Lamp stores
•DIY stores
•Supermarkets
•Other stores

4) In what price range would you buy a lamp?
•£0 - £9
•£10 - £19
•£20 - £29
•£30 - £39
•£40 - £49
•£50 +

5) What genre of lamp do you prefer?
•Modern
•Traditional

6) What gender do you think a lamp should be aimed at?
•Males
•Females
•Both

7) What materials would you prefer a modern lamp to be made out of?
•Stainless steel
•Brass
•Other metal
•Plastic
•Wood
•Other

What type of lamp do you use most?
•Table lamp
•Wall lamp
•Floor standing lamp
•Ceiling lamp
•Mantle piece lamp
•Garden lamp
•Spot light/desk lamp
•Mood lamp
•Other

9) In what size range would you prefer a lamp to be?
•0cm - 14cm
•15cm - 29cm
•30cm - 49cm
•50cm - 69cm
•70cm - 99cm
•1m - 2m
•3m - 4m
•4m +

10) What do you mainly use lamps for?
•Lighting up whole rooms
•Reading
•Lighting up garden
•Working - desklamp
•Other

11) How would you prefer a lamp to be powered?
•Mains
•Battery
•Solar
•Other

12) How long do you use a lamp for on an average day?
•0 - 1 hours
•2 - 4 hours
•5 - 7 hours
•8 - 10 hours
•11 - 15 hours
•16 hours +

13) What type of colours would you prefer it to be?
•Bright colours
•Dark colours
•Florescent colours
•Contrast between colours
•Other

14) When would you be most likely to use a lamp?
•Spring
•Summer
•Autumn
•Winter

15) Would you prefer a lamp to have a theme?
•Yes
•No

16) If so a theme on what?
•TV
•Film
•Music
•Sport
•Nature
•Other

__________________________________________________________

Thanks very much.

1) What Gender are you?
• Male

2) What age range are you in?
• Less than and including 19 years

3) What type of shop do you buy lamps in?
• Supermarkets

4) In what price range would you buy a lamp?
• £0 - £9

5) What genre of lamp do you prefer?
• Modern

6) What gender do you think a lamp should be aimed at?
• Both

7) What materials would you prefer a modern lamp to be made out of?
• Plastic

What type of lamp do you use most?
• Spot light/desk lamp

9) In what size range would you prefer a lamp to be?
• 15cm - 29cm

10) What do you mainly use lamps for?
• Working - desk lamp

11) How would you prefer a lamp to be powered?
• Mains

12) How long do you use a lamp for on an average day?
• 0 - 1 hours

13) What type of colours would you prefer it to be?
• Dark colours

14) When would you be most likely to use a lamp?
• Winter

15) Would you prefer a lamp to have a theme?
• No

16) If so a theme on what?
Non applicable.

The ones that have solar panels and and when night time comes they automatically turn on. How do they work? This is for a DIY project I want to try. Also how much power to solar panels generate? What size do solar panels come in? Do they come in the small size that are on solar lights? Also can you buy those solar panels and where?

Hi,

How they work is straightforward:

1- The built-in or stand-alone solar panel coupled with a charger will recharge the batteries during day light.
2- when night falls a photocell will detect the change of luminosity and will trigger the light.
3- The same photocell will switch of the light at sunrise

Can you tell me more about your DIY project? May be I can help you.

Treehugger.com (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/inexpensive_diy.php) has an old article on how to build yourself an off-grid solar power set up. Say you hook a TV up to that. When the batteries run out (say on a cloudy day or at night), you’ll have to plug it into an outlet and wait for the batteries to charge. Then you have to plug it back in to the batteries.

I suppose you could charge the batteries from AC power, but how do you know you are even using solar power then?
Basically I am trying to save the expense of parts & labor having a tie in grid inverter installed. If I move to a new house/apartment, I'd like to be able to take my setup with me.

I am just looking for a "box" with three plugs. One for AC input, one for solar DC power, and one for the AC output that I can plug a device into. The box then runs off DC power whenever available, but switches automatically to grid AC power when the solar power is not available.
I don't know if I can do net-metering or not, but again, I'm not interested in going through the expense/hassle of getting a grid tie-in.
I would be using an inverter to make the solar power DC current go to AC. Does that help? Would a different setup work with two AC sources? Please provide a link if you can, I've never tried to undertake a project like this before.

Most domestic appliances are designed to run at mains AC so you may have a problem running much. There are, of course, inverters that convert battery power to ac main voltage and are quite cheap especially if you keep your dc batteries at 12v.

The circuit to change from battery to mains is fairly simple. A correctly sized zener diode can close a relay (dc coil). If the battery voltage falls, the relay will drop out and some “normally closed” contacts apply the mains. When the battery voltage gets back above the zener voltage, the mains will be removed.

What are something things I can build to make energy out of wind, solar, water, etc. I just want something simple that could make enough energy to power a small shack.

I would prefer to build something like this..

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-1000-watt-wind-turbine/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/axialflux/

This claims it gets 1,000 watts

So if you know of anything like this could you please provide a link to a detailed tutorial.

Thanks a lot.
Is this worth looking into building?

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Home-Power-Plant—Wind-Power-Generator-Revised/

How about a pedal-power generator:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicyle-Power-for-Your-Television%2c-Laptop%2c-or-Cell-/

The ones that have solar panels and and when night time comes they automatically turn on. How do they work? This is for a DIY project I want to try. Also how much power to solar panels generate? What size do solar panels come in? Do they come in the small size that are on solar lights? Also can you buy those solar panels and where?
I'm asking about solar lights it because I want to build a greenhouse for a science project. I need lights shining on the plants 24/7. I saw the solar lights and thought that might be a good concept for lights always shining.
I live in a very sunny part of California so whether there is sun or not is not a problem.

It's a good concept, the problem is that the light from the solar lights you are talking about is very … what's the word… weak I guess. I have a few around my place where it wasn't feasible to run a hardwired light and they're just barely enough to see where I'm walking. It's not going to be enough to make the plants think they are in the sunlight 24 hours. You'd need a much stronger lighting system.