How to Build a Solar Panel Instruction Book
+ How to calculate how many solar panels you
need to power your home.

Only $49.97
Click here to learn how to build a solar panel Now!

The problem for many people who want to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce their energy bills by using solar power, is the cost of installing a system in their home as it can be frighteningly expensive. Most systems seem to start at around $8000 for an average house, although this does include all the materials and fittings. Which is fine if you can afford it, but if you can’t? What are your options – DIY or build a solar panel?

One of the cheapest options is to buy the photovoltaic solar panels and fit them yourself or an even cheaper option is to “build a solar panel” yourself. I read about a couple of people who can build a 100 watt panel for about $100 and at this cost it fits into most people’s budgets. However, solar panels can seem a little complicated and where on earth do you start to go about building one?

The second problem is knowing what size and how many solar panels you need to power your home or RV and all the things that go in it like; washing machine, fridge freezer, microwave oven, heating, ceiling fans, lighting, TV, computer, music system, etc.

I am not the most technical of people and anything to do with converting sunlight into electricity and electrical circuits, normally goes straight over the top of my head.

However, I had the good luck of reading about Michael Harvey who is a self proclaimed renewable energy enthusiast. He builds his own solar panels and got so good at it that he wanted to share his knowledge with the rest of us. Therefore, he wrote a book called Earth 4 Energy. It is a step by step guide to building your own solar powered electrical system for running electrical appliances inside your home. I have to say I am often disappointed with DIY books because for some reason they never get to show you, in detail, how to do the tricky bits.

However, with this book you can see exactly how to do it. The bit that concerned me the most about building my own solar panel was assembling and wiring the solar cells together because if you get this bit wrong then everything else is a complete waste of time. Well, I was so impressed with the two videos that came with this eBook. You can see exactly how to assemble and solder the cells together, and in fact it is really simple, you don’t need any special skills and is simpler than assembling a flat packed bookshelf! Plus it explains how you can simply calculate how many solar panels you need to power all the appliances in your home, including heating and lighting. This is the main reason why I feel very happy to recommend it to my readers.

What this book gives you is:

* A step by step plan on how to build a solar panel.
* Advice on where to get solar cells to make your solar panels at greatly reduced prices.
* A complete list of products you need to build a solar panel – cells, board, flexi-glass sheet, etc.
* A complete list of tools you need to build a solar panel – volt meter, soldering iron, copper wiring, etc.
* Two videos showing you exactly how to wire the solar cells together to make the solar panel – which are excellent!
* Advice on how to charge a battery and live “off grid” or connect to your home’s electrical wiring system via the AC breaker panel.
* Tips on how to maintain your solar panels.
* Excellent support with a 12 hour response time for emails.

It also gives you a full glossary explaining all the different technical terms like what an amp is, how an agitated electron produces electricity. It also explains about the difference between using solar energy to heat water and using it to produce electricity and when you to apply each one to meet your household needs.

If you want to save money and learn how to build your own electric solar panels to generate electricity for your home then this book is a must read. It has to be one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity.

How to Build a Solar Panel Book

Only $49.97
Click here to learn how to build a solar panel Now!

Michael Harvey is a renewable energy enthusiast, he has a great passion for environmental issues and loves to help people generate their own electricity and that is why he wrote this book, he leads you inch by inch and leaves nothing out so you can build a solar panel with ease.

How To Build a Solar Panel For Less Than $100 is a post from: How to Build a Solar Panel

To turn a photovoltaic solar cell into an infrared solar energy panel the glass has to be treated during the production phase. It is turned into low ironed tempered glass as opposed to normal ironed tempered glass.

By producing low ironed tempered glass, it means that the system can absorb high wavelength sunlight. The high wave length range is from 800 to 1200nm and this is the infrared range. A lower wave length from 400 to 800nm is the normal visible sunlight.

The reason why you would want a photovoltaic cell which picks up infrared light is because it makes the panel more effective, it increases energy conversion efficiencies.

For cells covered in non infrared glass, they will only produce energy when the sun is shining directly upon them, when sunlight is in the 400 to 800nm range. This means if the sun goes behind a cloud, they stop producing power. When the sun goes behind a cloud the only light that can be converted into energy is infrared sunlight.

So why aren’t all solar cells covered with infrared low ironed tempered glass, surely it is more eco friendly? Well there is only one reason and that is cost. As the glass needs additional materials and complex production methods being applied to it, this pushes up the cost considerably. This means when deciding whether to go for the extra expense or not you have to weigh up your payback period timeline.

If you live in a part of the world where you do not experience much cloud cover then it would not be worth the extra investment because when the sun is shining directly upon the panels the non-infrared glass is just as efficient as the treated glass. However if you live in the part of the country where you do get a lot of cloud cover then it is probably worth going for. It will mean even during the winter months you can generate electric solar power.

The other benefit of the low ironed coatings is that it cuts down the emission by about 80% which increases the efficiency of the solar cell. Emission is a technical term for the amount of energy which is released back into the atmosphere. Obviously you don’t want to have the effect of energy bouncing off your panel, you want your panel to absorb and convert as much energy as possible.

So at the end of the day, it comes down to what you can afford. In an ideal world you have all your solar power being produced with infrared photovoltaic solar cells.

Infrared Photovoltaic Solar Cells is a post from: How to Build a Solar Panel

An infrared solar panel is more efficient at converting the suns energy in to electricity or hot water in comparison to a non-infrared panel. However, there is a downside and it is not for everyone.

In this article we will be looking to answer the following questions:

• What is an Infrared Solar Panel?
• Why Should We Use an Infrared Solar Panel?
• Who Should Use It and Who Doesn’t Need To?

What is an Infrared Solar Panel

An infrared solar powered system can be either made up photovoltaic cells, the conventional solar panel which generates electricity or a solar thermal panel which generates hot water. An infrared solar panel can absorb infrared sunlight and produce energy from it and a non-infrared panel can’t.

The sun gives out light at different wavelengths and infrared light is at the high end of the spectrum. To enable a panel to collect infrared light, the glass which covers the solar collectors has to use a different technology and materials. It has to be treated with a special coating material called “Low Iron”. When looking at the specification of a solar panel , look for the “Glass” section, and if it reads “Low Ironed Tempered Glass” then it is an infrared panel and if it reads “Normal Ironed Tempered Glass” then it is not.

Why Should We Use an Infrared Solar Collector

When the sun is shining directly on to a solar collector panel both the infrared and non-infrared panels will absorb the same amount of the sun’s energy. However, when the sun goes behind a cloud, the only light which can be turned into energy is infrared light so the non-infrared panels stop producing energy at this point.

Infrared collectors have another advantage and that is the “Low Ironed Tempered Glass” has an emission figure of 3% in comparison to 88% for “Normal Ironed Tempered Glass”. The lower the emission the greater the energy conversion efficiency of the solar panel. The emission is the percentage of energy the solar panel can release back into the atmosphere. To use a building example, the fact is double glazed windows are designed to have a very low emission rating because they are designed to keep the heat inside the home and not let it escape through the glass and a solar panel with “Low Ironed Tempered Glass” works the same way.

Who Should Install an Infrared Solar Panel and Who Doesn’t Need To

The downside of infrared products is that they are more expensive than traditional panels. Therefore, they are only worth getting if you live in a part of the world where there is often a lot of cloud cover during daylight hours. If you live in a hot temperate climate, then you don’t probably need them because the standard solar panels are just as efficient as the infrared panels when the sun is shining directly on them.

To summarize the main points, an infrared panel is basically a standard solar panel whose glass has been treated with a special coating which enables it to harvest infrared sunlight. Infrared light has a wavelength of 800 to 1200nm and is the only light that can be converted into energy if the sun goes behind a cloud. Both the standard panel and infrared panel can convert the same amount of the suns energy for the time the sun is shining directly on the collectors. Therefore, in conclusion, because infrared panels are more expensive, it only makes sense to install them if you live in a climate where there is often a lot of cloud cover or you have a big enough budget which can absorb the additional cost.

Do you have any experience with using infrared solar panels?

If you have any experience of using infrared and non-infra solar panels, or know of any websites that have carried out trials comparing efficiency of these panels, please tell us about them by leaving a comment below. Just scroll to the bottom of this page to leave a comment. You can comment on your own experiences or point to websites you like.

Infrared Solar Panel is a post from: How to Build a Solar Panel