If you are considering building solar panels at home, it will pay to do some preliminary planning. You will need to determine the scope of your project, as well as your available time and space. Your experience level and the size of the project will affect the success of your project, too. In order to plan a successful project, you will need to define your goals, prepare your workspace and allocate your time.

First decide how many solar panels you want to build at one time. If you have never built any before, it might be smart to start with a small project building one or two small panels to trickle charge your car’s 12 volt battery. Part of the process will be learning about your own resources and the best way to handle them in your work space.

Next, what kind of space do you have available to store your tools and materials, and to spread them out during the manufacturing process? Few people have ready-made solar panel workshops in their homes. So you will probably need to convert a section of your basement, garage or a spare room into your work area. You will need access to an electrical outlet for the soldering iron. And your work area should be well ventilated to disperse the fumes created by the hot soldering flux. Many people set up a workspace on a concrete patio or driveway, using saw horses and plywood to provide a work surface.

Of course, you will also need time. Not only will you need to arrange for the time to build the solar panels, but you will need to allow extra time for your learning curve, which is tough to estimate when it’s your first time. A safe guess would be to double your initial time estimate. It’s also smart to add time for troubleshooting mistakes and surprises (like running out of wire or needing to replace a pane of glass that breaks).

Now that you have defined the scope of your project and your work area and scheduled your time, you can start gathering your project materials. In part 2 of this article, you will get a basic overview of the tools and equipment you will need to build your own solar panels.

Tags: solar cells, solar electric systems, solar energy, solar panel, solar panels

Filed under: Alternative Energy, Solar Power by admin
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