Re: How do you create a solar panel at home?

Patrick,

There are two basic types of solar panels with which most people are familiar: photovoltaic (which generate electricity) and solar heating. Photovoltaic cells are made from semiconductor materials (e.g. silicon). A solar panel is just a just an array of solar cells all wired together. Energy from the sun excites electrons in the material to generate electricity. The design of the device is very simple, but the material has to be highly pure, highly crystalline, and small amounts of trace elements must be added in very specific concentrations. I'm sorry to say that there is really no easy way to make a photovoltaic device at home. However, you can get creative with solar heating.

In a typical solar heating unit, water is circulated through pipes in a box placed on the roof of a building. The box and the pipes are painted black to absorb as much of the sunlight as possible. Hot water is drained from the box and colder water is pumped in to replace it. Most people have natural gas powered water heaters in their homes. There is a thermometer inside the tank which regulates when the gas is turned on and off. When the temperature falls below a certain pre-set level, the gas kicks on to warm up the water. This type of system can be supplemented with a solar heater. Water heated by the sun is passed through the hot water heater. As long as the temperature of the water doesn't fall below the pre-set temperature, the gas won't turn on. The less gas is needed, the bigger the savings in your parents heating bill, every month. The hot water can also be circulated through pipes in the wall and/or floor to radiate heat out into the rooms of your home. The system could be simplified by collecting the hot water in an insulated tank, drum, barrel, etc., then using it directly for taking baths. Have you ever been camping? At most department stores you can purchase a camper's shower. What this basically amounts to is a black rubber bag with a spout on it. You hang the bag out in the sun to warm the water, then open the spout and lather up.

It's possible to use hot water from your solar water heater to generate heat, but you might have to study up a bit more about generators. The electricity that comes out of a wall socket is generated in power plants by large turbine engines. Water is heated by burning coal, oil, or nuclear energy.

Facilities have been set up out West, which use hundreds of large mirrors to reflect sunlight onto a central tower containing a reservoir of water. The hot water is then pumped into a turbine to generate electricity. Here's how a turbine works. A moving magnetic field will generate an electric field. Likewise a moving electric field will generate a magnetic field. When I was young, I had a book that showed all kinds of things you could do with large flashlight batteries. If you take a wire and wind it around a nail you can make your very own electromagnet. The more turns of wire around the nail, the stronger the magnet will be. Attach one end of the wire to the positive side of the battery, they touch the other end of the wire to the negative side to turn the magnet on and off. With a little imagination you could build a crane or attach the wires to a piece of wood and make a switch to operate the magnet. Inside a turbine, wires are attached to a drum which is rotated around a large magnet. An electric current is generated in the wires as they travel around the magnet (and around...). The force needed to make the drum go around comes from the tremendous pressure exerted by the hot water (actually super-heated steam) which is pumped into the system. It is possible that you could make a crude turbine out of household items, but it would be a fairly ambitious undertaking.

Wind power is really another form of solar energy. Air heated by the sun rises, as colder air settles in below it. Differences in geography, elevation, the presence of water (i.e. lakes, ponds, streams) causes the air to go up, down, left, right, and every which way. If you had a small generator, you could attach a propellor to it to convert wind into electricity. If you heated water hot enough to generate steam, the steam could be directed to turn the propellers of your windmill.

Well I hope this gives you some good ideas with which to start.

Good luck,

Marc