photo credit: richardmasoner

Ok, so lets put this into perspective. You are most likely a homeowner that spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $120-$160 dollars on your electrical bill monthly as this is the average for most homes in the united states.

So now on the other hand lets take a look at the cost of having a solar panel array large enough to provide 900 kwh monthly to the homeowner and it’s cost for it. The average home uses 900 kwh per month, so for an installation of this size you are looking at 30 or more solar panel arrays at a cost of $1000 and up a piece.

So lets say $30,000 is what you are looking at for getting started with your residential installation. So basically at that price and the average cost of and usage of electricity you will start gaining your return on your investment in the range of 15-20 years.

At this point you may be thinking that this is ridiculous, and not to worry we agree with you completely as well and are here to offer a solution that can start paying for itself as quickly as possible and more to the tune of return on investment in the 2-3 year range. Doesn’t that sound much better? Actually throw in the renewable energy tax benefits and the ROI time will actually be less than that.

So how is this feat accomplished? Simple by creating your own solar panels. Here is the long and short of it. Solar panels themselves are very expensive, but the individual solar cells that can be purchased are not very expensive at all.

This means that a panel that normally would cost $1000 could be built for under $200 with the right solar cells. Isn’t that wonderful? So, naturally your next question would be how and where can i buy these cells?

Literally you can buy individual solar cells to build your own home made solar panels even on ebay, although there are many providers that exist out there. You can simple get wiring plans on the internet and layout diagrams for each design as well which means you can create a panel easy on a weekend afternoon.

That is really all there is too it and it is extremely easy. This brings the ability for normal homeowners take advantage of renewable energy at the right price!

http://www.energyprojects.info/solarpanel/how_to_build_solar_panel.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_C.
http://EzineArticles.com/?Simple-Homemade-Solar-Panels&id=3251385

Related posts

• No related posts.

photo credit: richardmasoner

When we talk about home solar power, we think about homes in areas that have clear blue skies and bright sunshine all year around. The southern states in USA, Africa and Australia spring to mind. I am an advocate of solar power, but even I have been surprised at where I’ve seen solar panels working to produce power for homeowners and farmers. On a recent trip to cloudy Berlin, I saw solar panels everywhere. Even with cloudy skies and reduced power output, people are obviously enjoying solar electricity. But I had not heard of solar panels being used in locations that are subject to snow and cold winters. I thought that was pushing the limits of solar power too far.

But on further research, I’m finding that people are putting their solar panels to use in even the most unexpected places. Google long enough, and you will come across a family in Maine, USA that are totally sold on solar and have really taken green living to heart. Their home is grid connected so that they can pull power when needed. Their website clearly shows a photo of their home surrounded by snow, complete with roof installed solar panels and some snow sitting on the panels. Interestingly, solar panels operate on both direct sunlight and reflective light. So, as long as the panels themselves are clear of snow, they can take advantage of the significant amount of reflective light when there is snow on the landscape. If you have even been skiing, you will know that you can get sunburnt quite easily, that’s the same principle, ie reflective light.

It turns out that in winter, the solar arrays efficiency does drop back especially under cloudy skies, so the Maine family draw power from the grid. However, during the rest of the year, their power output more than compensates for the few short weeks when power output is lowest. It’s all about the long view and averaging the power usage over the entire year. It appears that not only does the array work well for the family over the course of the year, but they are net metered and sell power back to the grid. What does this mean for the average user? It means that you should not simply discard the idea of going solar just because you live in a northerly latitude with more severe snowy winters.

Providing information to online users interested in living, lifestyle and marketing. Helping people find Eco friendly solutions to everyday living. Visit SolarDIYTips for information solar solutions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Murry
http://EzineArticles.com/?Solar-Panels-in-Snow—Just-How-Practical-is-a-Solar-Power-Unit-in-Snowy-Climates?&id=3219520

Related posts

• Will Solar Panels Work During Winter? (0)
• What Kind of Maintenance Do Solar Panels Need? (0)
• Watch Out For Used Solar Panels (0)
• Three Factors That Effect Your Home Solar Panels (0)
• Solar Power in the US (0)

photo credit: mjmonty

The present economic scenario and the ever-shrinking state of the global oil reserves is not good news for everyone. But on a positive note it produces us inspect for substitute energy sources that is become the solution of cutting down present and the future energy consumption, mainly in terms of fossil fuel utilization like oil. For example, it has turned more and more cheap to construct homemade solar energy system. Building the home produced solar panels that utilize deep cell storage batteries generate the electricity upon client demand and decrease the individual dependence on the country’s energy grid.

Who is there in the world who doesn’t wish to have the energy expenses get came down by 80% or more? numerous of us shall need to make the most of such an excellent deal. If such is the demand then go after the Earth4Energy guide that provides lot of fantastic homemade solar solutions on their site, which could be built simply, for the low cost of less than $200.

The attributes of the guide are -

Full and detailed instructions given which can be simply understood by a layman or the unskilled for building a homemade solar panel.

Other details on how to acquire the components accessible in the neighborhood material store for planning the home produced solar system.

Few considerations on how to build the substitute energy generators that is not promptly available anywhere else.

One time investment and lifelong updates to the manual and video series at no additional cost.

Full money back if you aren’t saving hundreds of dollars per month on your energy bill after utilizing the system for 8 months.

Detailed instructions given away by videos

Think about it! Here you are with a homemade solar system, generating power that will be stored in deep cell batteries for future consumption. And all of this expenses just pennies on the dollar! At Earth4Energy, you will have subscribe to the home produced solar DIY package and then start off to experience of making the energy generating package at home. The DIY instructional manual and videos are simple to understand so that even a beginner will be able to comprehend.

They have a history of excited clients mentioning positive reviews about the numerous money saving quotes. Most of them who have built the devices cannot believe how easy it was. In addition, these testimonials or feedbacks state that they have in truth gained as well as saved 100% of their electric bill and that they could use the extra cash to pay gasoline to their car!

Collect the FREE Energy Saving Tips from Efficient Planet or Earth 4 Energy to improve your living environment and save your electricity bills now.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Calvin_T
http://EzineArticles.com/?Easy-DIY-Homemade-Solar-Panels&id=3228361

Related posts

• Will Solar Panels Work During Winter? (0)
• What Kind of Maintenance Do Solar Panels Need? (0)
• Watch Out For Used Solar Panels (0)
• Three Factors That Effect Your Home Solar Panels (0)
• Solar Power in the US (0)

photo credit: Paulo Brandão

NASA estimated that the Sun gives or irradiates the earth 174 Petawatts (Pw) of solar energy every day. Out of this approximately 30% of energy is reflected back to space, and another major share is absorbed by our atmosphere. Even if we get only 10% of this energy which is about 17.4 Pw per day, it is still more than the whole daily energy requirement worldwide.

If this much energy is freely available then why there are energy crisis. The answer is that we are not able to canalize fully all this energy to meet our requirements. Most Solar Cells which are available in the market are quite expensive to be accessible to our purchase power. But now we have an option of DIY Solar Panels. You need some good instructions and simple materials. By building your own DIY Solar Panels with patience and dedication you will start saving in energy bills and generates your own electricity.

Science behind the Working of your DIY Solar Panels:

Our DIY Solar Panels have photovoltaic cells or Solar Cells which are arranged in a grid-like pattern on its surface. Solar cells are made of special materials such as silicon. When the solar energy falls on our DIY Solar Panels, this energy knocks electrons loose and allows them to flow freely. The solar cells have the electric field that makes the loose electrons to flow in certain direction, which is a current. To draw this current off for external use we place metal contacts on the top and bottom of our solar cell.

This is the basic process. But to understand it better let’s consider one example of solar cell: the single-crystal silicon cell.

Silicon in its crystalline form has some special chemical properties. One single atom of silicon has 14 electrons which are arranged in three different shells. The first two inner shells which are closest to the center or nucleus are completely full. The outer shell has only four electrons. The outer shell is short of four electrons; therefore a silicon atom will always look for ways to fill up its last shell. For completing its outer shell, it will share the four electrons with its adjacent silicon atoms. This forms the crystalline structure. This was the description of pure crystalline silicon, which is a poor conductor of electricity. It means all the electrons are completely locked.

Solar cells have the silicon but with impurities and these impurities are actually put there for making it more conducting. Let’s think about an atom of silicon with that of phosphorous which has five electrons in its outer shell. When it bonds with its neighboring silicon atoms, there is one electron in phosphorous which is free. When energy or heat is added to it, most of these electrons go free, and hence we have a lot of free carriers. The process of adding impurities is called doping. When silicon atom is doped with phosphorous, then the resulting silicon which we get is called N-type (”n” for negative) because of the dominance of free electrons.

In fact, by this we got an N-type part of our solar cell. To get the other part silicon atom is doped with boron, which has three electrons instead of four in its outer shell, to turn into P-type silicon. In this P-type silicon (”p” for positive) we have free holes.

When we put N-type silicon together with P-type silicon, the free electrons from the N side, which requires holes to fall into, found the free holes on the P side, and they rush to fill them in. This completes the electric field, which makes our solar cell work.

Ralph Somers, Editor
DIY Solar Panels Information Portal

YouTube DIY Solar Panels Videos.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ralph_Somers
http://EzineArticles.com/?Science-Behind-DIY-Solar-Panels&id=3242138

Related posts

• Watch Out For Used Solar Panels (0)
• Solar Panel Kits – 5 Reasons to Build Your Own Solar Panel Kit (0)
• How To Install Solar Panels Video (0)
• How to Install a Solar Power System In Your Home (0)
• How Much Solar Energy Will My House Need? (0)

photo credit: Jesse Wagstaff

Solar panels have become extremely popular just in the past year due to rising energy prices and renewed concern for the earth and its atmosphere. You can buy solar panel kits that provide the materials you need for setting up your home with solar panels. While many home solar kits won’t put you “off the grid,” they can definitely put a huge dent in your home energy costs. Here are 5 reasons to build your own solar panels from kits.

1. Substantial Energy Savings. By supplementing home energy consumption with energy produced by solar panels from solar panel kits, you can cut your energy bills in half. While solar home kits are not usually able to fully power a conventional home, they can make an enormous difference. Make your own home solar power using solar power kits, and you save up front as well.

2. Use of Renewable Energy. Once all the oil and gas are gone, they’re gone for good. But solar power is renewable.

Unless you plan to stick around for another five billion years when the sun’s lifetime will be over, you’ll have enough solar power for the rest of your life. Depending on your climate, solar energy from solar power kits can be very abundant and go a long way toward reducing the use of fossil fuels for generation of electricity. The more of the process you are able to undertake yourself, such as by building panels from solar panel kits, the smaller you make your own environmental footprint.

3. Lack of Pollution. Other than whatever fossil fuels were used in the creation of the solar panels themselves, solar panels do not cause air pollution. Emissions data from 13 manufacturers of solar cells in Europe and the United States from 2004 through 2006 showed that solar power is 90% less polluting than power produced by fossil fuels, and the pollution that does come from manufacture and transport of solar cells ends after it is shipped and installed. If you make your own panels from kits you’re doing your part to minimize the impact of solar cell technology on the environment.

4. Ability to Customize Applications. There’s almost no limit to the number of common devices that can be powered by solar power from solar power kits: water heaters, satellites, landscaping lights, and even cars can be powered by solar energy. When people supplement their home’s power by building panels from solar panel kits, they can customize how that home solar power is used.

5. Availability Remotely. Running electric power lines to remote areas is not always the best way to provide electricity to those areas. But there are many remote areas, particularly in the desert, that can benefit greatly from using solar panels from solar panel kits. A new home built to be powered by solar panels can be self sufficient in terms of energy production and consumption. Even in areas with power lines nearby, solar may provide a viable alternative to connecting to the electric grid.

Home solar power is getting a tremendous boost in popularity with government tax breaks in the United States, and also around the world as people realize that alternatives to the use of fossil fuels are necessary for the health and future of the planet. Building solar panels from solar panel kits is one way people are taking environmental and energy concerns into their own hands.

Derrek Buttron is an Internet Marketer and IT Consultant who’s passions include helping people, spending time with family, good food, the mountains and recently solar panel kits and saving on energy bills.

http://www.solarpanel-kits.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derrek_Buttron
http://EzineArticles.com/?Solar-Panel-Kits—5-Reasons-to-Build-Your-Own-Solar-Panel-Kit&id=3149853

Related posts

• Three Factors That Effect Your Home Solar Panels (0)
• Solar Panel Mounts (0)