The Sun is FREE! DIY (Do It Yourself) Solar Power!
Just like with the lighting up of your home with wind power; you don’t need to wait until the power companies bring solar power to you.
Let’s start with some fun facts about the sun for your amusement, shall we?
- Four (4) million tons of hydrogen are consumed by the sun every second.
- The sun is made up of 75% hydrogen, 23% helium and 2% heavier elements.
- Approximately 109 planet earths would fit on the surface of the sun.
- More than one million planet earths would fit on the inside of the sun.
- The sun is, rounded up, 93 million miles from you and I, here on earth.
- At its core, the sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million Celsius).
- 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) billion tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to match the energy produced by the sun every second.
- I would weigh 5,600 pounds on the sun. I’m not going to tell you how much that makes me on earth. That’s a secret! To figure out how much YOU would weigh on the sun; just multiply 28 times your weight (but I forbid you to reverse calculate that to find my weight, lol).
Did you catch that one, most relevant, fun fact there?
One Hundred BILLION sticks of dynamite would have to detonate every second to equal the energy the sun produces every second. Now that’s solar POWER, yeah?
Before we get into the “nitty-gritty”, “meat and potatoes” of this article…enjoy this funny commercial from the Planet Green folks, posted on YouTube by http://www.simple-gold.com/. We’ll just call this a “humorous interlude”:
But is solar power really something we can “DIY” from home?
Well, the good folks at www.GreenPowerScience.com (watch the video right below this paragraph) are here to answer that question for you. Note: These are some of the best instructional videos I have found on YouTube. I am always super impressed with these Green Power Science people (Dan and Denise Rojas) and how well made their instructions are in YouTube form.
Here is a video from the Discovery Channel showing how solar power is made in a typical factory. This video, of course, doesn’t lend itself to showing us how to make our own, but is very interesting and informative to watch nonetheless.
If the above videos aren’t enough to help you on your way to garnering free solar power for your home, here is a written, how-to guide from Michael Graham Richard from www.TreeHugger.com.
Making Cheap, Inexpensive DIY Solar Panels at Home
“Mike Davis is an astronomer. To practice his hobby away from the light-pollution of cities, he bought some land in a remote part of Arizona. But there was a problem: No electricity…. But he’s a resourceful fellow. He built some home-made solar panels using inexpensive blemished and damaged solar cells from eBay! That might be even cooler, though less romantic, than the couple who got their solar panels via their wedding registry.†
Read on for more photos and some technical details to give you an idea of how he did it.
I bought a couple of bricks of 3 X 6 mono-crystalline solar cells. It takes a total of 36 of these type solar cells wired in series to make a panel. Each cell produces about 1/2 Volt. 36 in series would give about 18 volts which would be good for charging 12 volt batteries. (Yes, you really need that high a Voltage to effectively charge 12 Volt batteries) This type of solar cell is as thin as paper and as brittle and fragile as glass.
A solar panel is really just a shallow box. So I started out by building myself a shallow box. I made the box shallow so the sides wouldn’t shade the solar cells when the sun comes at an angle from the sides.
Next I cut two pieces of mason-ite peg-board to fit inside the wells. These pieces of peg-board will be the substrates that each sub-panel will be built on. To protect the solar cells from the weather, the panel will have a plexi-glass front.I laid out the cells on that grid pattern upside-down so I could solder them together. All 18 cells on each half panel need to be soldered together in series, then both half panels need to be connected in series to get the desired voltage.
I used a low Wattage soldering iron and fine rosin-core solder. I also used a rosin pen on the solder points on the back of the cells before soldering. Use a real light touch with the soldering iron. The cells are thin and delicate. If you push too hard, you will break the cells.
I drilled a hole in the back of the panel near the top for the wires to exit. Each solar panel in a solar power system needs a blocking diode in series with it to prevent the panel from discharging your batteries at night or during cloudy weather. I added a polarized two-pin jones plug to the end of the panel wires.
The finished solar power product, produces 18.8 volts and 3.05 Amps in the sun.
How much did it cost?
$104.85.
Not bad, though of course there’s a lot of labor needed to actually build the thing, and you need the skills in the first place. Not a project for everybody, but those with the courage will certainly have a lot of fun.”
As you can see, with a little bit of effort and very little money invested; solar power for your own home can be a REALITY!
As I mentioned in my previous article about wind power; these kinds of investments can be made by hiring a company to do it. In one example, I know that an investment into solar power and/or wind power for your home, it is calculated that you can be at your investment break-even point seven (7) years after you pay the upfront costs to a company to build them for you.
In other words, you will have saved that much, over the 7-year span, in what you would have paid to the power companies for your natural gas, electric/lighting and/or oil furnace costs during that time – to equal what you paid the company to build your solar power and/or wind power equipment.
Up next: ocean wave power.
CEO/Owners of Adrian Frank Consulting
Cell: 206-261-7348
eMail: adrianfrank@gmail.com, jocelyntranfrank@gmail.com www.BeEmpoweredHere.com FIND your way to making $1000 PER DAY (I'm not kidding). DISCOVER the WEIRD marketing tricks of the Empower Network. WATCH this FREE Video. † http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/romantic-green-illinois-couple-buys-solar-power-system-using-wedding-registry.html
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