Solar Power

[kingofkings]

Hey People

Edited July 26, 2021 by Single0Speed
want to remove

[Daegurth]

i was going to make a sarcastic post as is my nature ("take 10 wafers of pure silicon, some arsenic, and an oven..."), but i think i'll keep it short. you can't. unless you have access to industrial semiconductor facilities.

 

given how cheap photovoltaics are these days, there's a possibility you could half your electrical bill with 4k. you'll need some cells, some deep-cycle batteries, and in inverter. probably some kind of charge controller/power monitor, too. have a look around and see what google pulls up.

[CraigD]

I was just wondering how to make a solar panel?

What kind of solar panel are you thinking of?

 

Solar water heating panels are pretty practical to homebuild – just make a big, thin box with a clear top, blacken its inside, and run some sort of water line through it.

 

Photovoltaic panels can be homebuilt, but only as far as doing your own mounting and wiring of manufactured small PV cell “chips”. Actually making these cells is, I think, beyond the practical capability of a home setup. Though you can make a solar cell from scratch using just copper, salt water, and a plastic bottle (see this webpage), it’s vastly less powerful than the commercial kind (around 0.00001 W for something the size of a 2 liter bottle). The efficient ones take specialized equipment – a factory, basically.

 

Some folk (like earth4energy.com’s Micheal Harvey) claim you can save a lot of money doing your own mounting and wiring commercial cells, but, suspiciously, ask US$ 50 for a DVD guide. As best I can tell, the most successful folk following their guide manage to built about a 18 W panel for about $100. This is about half the cost of a complete commercial panel of the same power.

 

I'm looking to 1/2 my electricity bill.

I have a 4K budget

So what’s your electric power consumption?

 

If it’s similar to mine, it averages about 750 W (in usual electric-bill units, 540 KWH/month). Optimistically assuming you can get the equivalent of about 6 hours at nameplate performance per day, you’ll need then about a 1500 W array of panels. Taking the most optimistic homebuilt cost claims of about $5/W, that puts you about 100% over your $4000 budget – not including the electric components you’ll need to connect it all to your power box.

 

Still, putting whatever $s you can into as big a system as you can afford will save you something, so even if you don’t hit your cost-savings goal, I say go for it. :thumbs_up Even if it’s a money loser for you, it sets a good example for impressionable neighbors and children. :)

 

If you’re into the challenge of meeting or exceeding your goal with an unusual design, I recommend a concentrated photovoltaics. It’s challenging, because while lots of people feel CPV will ultimately be the dominant design for solar power, the technology’s still fairly new and experimental, and focused mostly on larger than home-sized systems.

 

Or perhaps not – China Craft Manufacturing lists a 15 W concentrated solar panel, the MicroPV15, at $60 – which at a glance looks cheaper than Micheal Harvey’s homemade stuff, and has the advantage of ... well, not being homemade.

 

I recommend browsing and whatever other tech-searching you know how to do for more like this.

[CraigD]

you'll need some cells, some deep-cycle batteries, and in inverter. probably some kind of charge controller/power monitor, too.

In the US, while you need approved inverters and control systems, you don’t need batteries and a charging system. Most home solar power systems connect seamlessly into the building’s externally supplied electric system, reducing power consumed from the electric company. If you generate more than you use, even only briefly, the electric company is required to pay you for it at the same rate they sell it to you.

[Daegurth]

In the US, while you need approved inverters and control systems, you don’t need batteries and a charging system. Most home solar power systems connect seamlessly into the building’s externally supplied electric system, reducing power consumed from the electric company. If you generate more than you use, even only briefly, the electric company is required to pay you for it at the same rate they sell it to you.

 

wow. i did not know this. well, i knew that power COULD be sold back to the grid, but not that it HAS to be purchased. excellent! i guess i was thinking more about off-grid living when i wrote that.

 

i might definitely have to look into that at some point, though...

[Turtle]

wow. i did not know this. well, i knew that power COULD be sold back to the grid, but not that it HAS to be purchased. excellent! i guess i was thinking more about off-grid living when i wrote that.

 

i might definitely have to look into that at some point, though...

 

i would also look into government rebates to offset your cost. i found a couple sites on it for you; there may be others.

 

http://www.dsireusa.org/

 

http://www.greenmadesimple.com/

[Daegurth]

cool finds! i'll bookmark them. :applause:

 

not sure when i might get around to this- it would probably help if i was on the right side of the atlantic, for a start. haha. in a year or two, perhaps. but it's definitely something i want to do.

[HydrogenBond]

What would be an interesting sci-fi use of solar power would make use of the efficiency of life. For example, we have plants collecting solar energy, transforming the solar energy into food chemicals. We then have something similar to genetically engineered muscle pairs, that use this food/energy for simple cyclic opposing contraction. A visual might be expanding and contracting muscle pistons, that work sort of like an internal combustion motor, to drive a generator.