Costly Mistakes to Avoid When You Build a PV Panel

March 12th, 2010 by Steve Evans

Don’t be too quick to start to build a solar panel, because before you start; there are a few pitfalls that you need to be aware of. Once you know what you are doing it is a fairly straight forward process, building your own solar panel. What you need is the correct tools, the right products and a good training manual.

But before even those basic steps, it is more important to have a clear picture of what your solar panel is going to end up looking like and where you are going to use it. Decide how big your dream is. Do want to start a solar farm, building 2000 watt panels and feed electricity back to the national grid or do you want to build 500 watt panels for running specific appliances in your home or do just want a small one; to build a solar panel for re-charging your digital camera batteries?

Obviously, the main difference between building a 100 watt panel and a 1000 watt panel is the number of solar cells you need and the time to build it. The main reason for many people wanting to make their own solar electricity is that they can save on the cost of having to actually by them because they are very expensive.

Having decided the size of panel or panels you are going to produce, the next part of the process and the critical part is to establish where you can acquire low cost if not free solar cells. EBay is always a good place to start when wanting to buy anything on the cheap, the only downside is that you can’t always get the exact thing you are after. The only problem with this is that if you can’t find the specific size and quantity of solar cells, what do you do then?

The best option is to contact companies in your local area who use solar panels to power remote pieces of electrical equipment. Find these organizations, contact them and start building rapport. Explain your project goals and the tight budget you are working to, so when they do get damaged solar cells, they will contact you to take them away. A big user of solar cells are the companies who repair roads or make street signs for roads. Traffic signs often get broken by manhandling or cars driving into them.

If the solar panel is damaged they will throw the old panel away replace it with a new one. The good news is that it is normally very easy to repair a chipped or damaged solar cell, if you know how to build a solar panel, you can easily repair a solar cell.

This is the biggest pitfall you have to overcome, so go and find some local companies who are throwing away their solar cells and recycling them.

My passing shot is to remind you what I said a short while ago, know precisely what it is you want to end up with, how big and where you are going to put it. Having worked on many projects, you can learn from my experience, if you don’t do it you will have a panel fit for nothing. You just end up with disorganized chaos. Stick a picture on the wall and go and build it.

Different Types of Solar Panels