DIY solar panels
This website offers information about how to build your own solar panels. Below is a picture of my first panel, placed on top of the shed. It has been a bit photoshop'd because the photo was taken in the twilight, however only the colors and brightness have been changed a little:
And now for something else: Friends of us are helping out with a charity project. They want to bring solar energy to Africa (amongst other projects). Do you have something to share then click once on the logo and make a small donation:
Solar panels.
To my opinion solar panels are very expensive. A panel of 100 Wp (Watt peak) costs around 400 Euro. I do not know the exact price but it will not be much lower and that is too expensive. This is a rough calculations (based upon dutch electricity prices) and will without a doubt be far from the truth, but still: 100 wp is about 80 kWh on an annual basis (a little less I think, but ok). This is with an energy price of 20 Euro cents about 16 Euro per year. So that would be 400/16 = about 25 year. Which would be too long for the lifespan of the panel (without maintenance). This is only the price of a panel. In addition an inverter is needed. This inverter will return the collected energie back into the electricity grid. Converters have different prices, and range from approximately 50 to 75 Euro per 100Wp. Also you'll need some installation and mounting materials. Let it then be done by a "professional" and a price of 500 Euro per Wp is not unusual and then you would have a cheap installation. Note: these are all dutch prices.Detail regarding installation material in the solar world, Tyco and multi connectors (3 and 4) are very common. These are of standard IP67 and IP68 (as I remember) what I think means that the connectors are waterproof. And that is beautiful. These connectors are expensive but the costs are acceptable (so somewhere between 2 and 4 Euro per piece). Until you realize that you need a tool with which you have the connectors connected to the wires. This tool will cost somewhere between 300 and 400 euro.To met this indicates that the solar world is not cheap and that home is something to achieve when doing things yourself. I have decided to avoid as much as possible these connectors. I'm going to take a long electric wire to my panel. During installation this will give some struggle, but this is hopefully once.
This website was translated from dutch into english, partly using google tools. My english is reasonable, but definately not good, so there will be many errors. If you feel the need to correct some then send me a mail...
As indicated, my goal is to build solar panels. I have been looking for information for a long time and found little until I recently searched again and encountered the website of Chis van der Zwaal. He has just done it and described his concept clearly. I liked it so much that I will try this as well. Take a look at his website because he has a lot of information about making solar panels.
For anyone who perhaps would like to try theirselfs I created this website. I intend to keep track of the costs (an important aspect, I think, because the costs are too high to be something purely for the hobby) and how I'm going to build the panels. At the time of this writing I know pretty much what I want to do. First a pilot project then a complete install (I do not know exactly how much in total it will be, but somewhere between 600 and 2000 Wp). Most orders are made and some are already received. The first is a pilot project to determine feasibility.