How Easy Is Homemade Solar Power? What Will You Need?



Posted: Thursday, September 04, 2008

by Jonathan Souza

If you are tired of paying the power company lots of money you should try a homemade solar power system which will save a lot of cash for you and your family.  This DIY solar power system can be assembled using many items around your home and yard and a home improvement store can be visited for the rest. 

First it is important to check that your home has a roof that is right for solar panels.  With the right angle to the sun, your solar panels will get a lot of usable energy from it.  Without the right angle to the sun, even having a great DIY solar power kit will not affect your power bill as much as it should.  Living in the northern hemisphere it is important to make sure that your solar panels on your roof face south.  Shady areas are also important to avoid as it will cut down on your electricity produced.   A solar panel that is usually in the shady areas will hurt your solar panels productivity by at least half, even if only a small portion of it is covered.

In order to make your DIY solar power system to work properly you should find out how often your region is covered in clouds or is rainy so you can see how many solar panels you will need to get you through the darkest months.

Another important part of the solar power at home system is a battery system to store all the energy.  Without them you would only have power when the sun was shining, but batteries allow you to have continuous running power during the night and even days of cloudiness.  If you are dead set against using batteries you will have to find a way to contact your power company and hook up the solar panel system to your power grid. Deep cycle batteries are the best kind to get and they will not have to be replaced for many years of proper usage.  These types of batteries can ensure long periods of time of usage and also very little lose in power.

Another vital part to your homemade solar power system is a charge controller.  A charge controller regulates and monitors the amount of electricity flowing into and out of the system which will preserve your batteries lifespan and not allow them to be fully drained.

Finally, you will have to find a way to take the DC current coming from your solar panel and turn that electricity into AC, so you can utilize that power in your home.  For this task you will have to have an inverter.  There are a few electrical inverters that will not require a whole lot of wiring but some electrical experience would be beneficial.    It would be very helpful if a professional electrician were to help you out with this whole process so that you are safe and up to code.

  This homemade solar power system can last you for almost 20 years or more.  The amount of money you will have saved from spending on your electric bill will be staggering to think about by this point.  Your next door neighbors may loose their power because of a downed power line, but you will still have your lights on because you have become independent with your energy.
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For easy to follow instructions on how to build your own homemade solar system check out: http://www.easyhomesolarpower.com
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