Solar Power Home

Here it comes again…the beautiful, awesome sunshine. When you walk outside and feel its warmth, are you thinking, “How could I bring this in with me and put it to work as solar energy without having to spend so much money?” A lot of people who’ve had that thought have hit upon the something that’s too often overlooked…that’s going solar one step at a time.

A solar hot water heater is one of the best places you can start, since, if you’re like most households, you can save four to five thousand kilowatts of power a year…one this one thing alone. It will give you a good idea of what the costs and benefits of solar energy are, and by starting on just one project, the rest of the system won’t seem so overwhelming.

You don’t have to break the bank with a solar hot water heater. You can look at a couple of different options…building your own hot water heater and installing it yourself…or having it done professionally.

There are a number of options here, so before you go buy, or start building a solar hot water heater, decide where you want to put it. You could have a batch hot water heater that sits by the side of the house to be pumped in. At www.byexample.com, you can find instructions (with photographs) on how to build your own batch hot water collector. You could also have your hot water heater with a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell panel on your roof. That’s dependent, of course, on your own aesthetic preferences…or perhaps the neighborhood covenants. Another option is to put your collector on the rooftop, and have your hot water heater in the attic. At ByExample, you can find a good illustration of how everything for this system is connected and how it works.

Any way you decide to go, though, you can build your own solar power system quite economically. If you’re interested in starting with one solar panel, built in your garage or shop in your spare time, you’ll need the following equipment: solar cells, a shallow box built of plywood or other material, masonite pegboard or similar substrate, plexiglass or glass to cover the box and protect the cells, screws and hardware to hold the box together, wire to connect the solar cells together, a diode, a jones plug and silicone caulk to seal your box tightly.

A blocking diode is mounted inside the panel, and the solar cells are soldered together in a series. When you’re done, you’ll need the polarized two-pin jones plug to connect at the end of the wires. The glass or plexiglass cover that goes over the top protects the cells. Then, the silicone seal around the sides and edges prevents water and moisture from damaging the cells inside the panel. Once everything’s assembled, properly sealed, then all you need to do is to connect your panel to either a battery bank or inverter, and you’ve got a mini-solar energy system…or the first piece to your larger system.

For a good detailed description of exactly what’s required to construct a solar energy panel like the one just described, visit www.mdpub.com. There’s some good detail on not only how to build the panel, but where you can find all the parts you’ll need.

Ideas for solar projects, including how to build solar hot water heaters can be found readily on the Internet…many with instructions…as well as in books available in the bookstore or online.

If you start on one project, like a solar water heater, and find out you really like it…and can afford the small investment of dollars with a little larger investment of time spent putting everything together…keep going.

If you’d like to move on into living “off the grid”, you can start making your plans now. Design a system that will support your home, and start putting the system together slowly…as you can afford it. OKSolar.com is a great website that will help you determine your energy needs before you start putting together what it will take to build a system. They walk you through what your daily energy budget is, and then show you how to determine what that looks like in battery and inverter wattage. It’s also a good place to look if you decide to buy your solar panels premade rather than doing it yourself, but still build the system.

There’s a great example of starting small and building one step at a time at www.byexample.com/homestead/energy/current_system. With just a few 12V photovoltaic panels of different wattages, the author describes their plan to move to a 24 volt system, and how they designed their system to move from small to large.

In addition, there’s some great information on where they found used parts to build their system, and used scrap and other available resources for their construction. It’s a good source of information to show even the most budget-conscious person how it is actually possible to move to electrical “off the grid” living.

Timothy Peters is a home solar power enthusiast and author. Learn more about home solar energy at his site: www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com