Im interested in constructing my own solar panels out of individual photovoltaic cells, I m a resident in the UK and Id like to attatch them to my south facing shed roofs. After a bit of research ive found the cells for £400 for 300 pieces ( 6 x 6 polycrstalline) or £250 for 100 pieces ( 6 x 6 mono crystalline), each individual cell will generate a max output of just over 4W, so in theory I can generate over a KW on my shed roofs. What are the major advantages of mono over polycrystalline?

Will it be easy to connect these to the house’s power and will it be possible to sell any excess back to the power companies?

Two of us live here but we’re never in so we dont use much electricity, apparently between 3 and 4 KW is the household average usage so I doubt we use more than 2KW, Please let me know if this sounds about right for the amount Im planning to buy.

Are there any grants available for cost of materials? as the government usually pays 50% up to £8000 for domestic solar energy projects? although these are usually supplied and fitted by a registered firm.

Has anyone inititiated a similar idea themselves?

any feedback on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

We were wondering if it makes sense to install solar panels on our roof? We are pretty handy and do these online kits work? Any recommendations so that we can save on our power bill, thanks.

The ones that have solar panels and and when night time comes they automatically turn on. How do they work? This is for a DIY project I want to try. Also how much power to solar panels generate? What size do solar panels come in? Do they come in the small size that are on solar lights? Also can you buy those solar panels and where?

I’m planning to construct a solar powered ventilator. I have several questions.
If I use just one 12v dc solar panel (PV Module), how many fans( CPU Fan) can I operate?
Do i need a battery and a charge controller?
What about DC input?
How do I set up the system with the basic equipment to operate this solar powered ventilator project of mine?

Tips and links to other websites are are very much appreciated. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

P/S: I am not an electrician neither an engineer in any engineering field. I just want to learn and invent something for the sake of inventing only.

What type of Solar, (thin film, chrystaline panels, etc) is most likely to emerge for residential use, and what company produces and sells these units presently. (January 2011)

I would like to learn about solar energy and how I can make some panels for my home, of course with in a reasonable budget. My goal is to be able to run a refrigerator and fan off of battery. Any ideas out there?

I would like to learn about solar energy and how I can make some panels for my home, of course with in a reasonable budget. My goal is to be able to run a refrigerator and fan off of battery. Any ideas out there?

I’ve recently been looking into alternative energy to run my auto shop that consumes an average of 9.2kw per month. Everything will be DIY of course . Solar panels CAN be expensive, wind is not so efficient, and I’ve found schematics for magnetic generators that have a 20/80 input output ratio.

So the real question being: Is there a way to combine 2 or more systems with some form of power storage unit (batteries?), that will pay itself off within a 12 month time frame??

Not looking for a long winded explanation (no pun intended), but more of a push in the right direction to meet my power and $$ needs. I’m not the kinda guy afraid to do research and get my hands dirty. Again, this is DIY so keep in mind my costs to build the systems would be minimal. Thanks

I would like to learn about solar energy and how I can make some panels for my home, of course with in a reasonable budget. My goal is to be able to run a refrigerator and fan off of battery. Any ideas out there?