The project is a solar panel to heat the air. What I want to do is use all recycled materials. My monthly bill is about $438 a month and so I want to see if I can get that down.

This is a solar panel that I built from recycled materials (2x6 DF frame and glass). The 7/16" OSB on the back, 3" ABS pipe, fittings, glue and thermometer and screws where purchased for around $90.00. The panel took two weekends to complete. During the one hour testing period, the panel produced between a 42 to 49 degree increase of temp at the return port of the panel. This temp increase includes the 7 degree increase of temp from the 6.25 hp Shop Vac used in the test.

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Technorati Tags: diy project, Free, furnace, green, heater, home built, panel, plans, solar, solar panel diy

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Our friends at GreenPowerScience.com have released an excellent solar panel diy video. Dan Rojas explains some basic terminology and shows you what both small and large solar kits are capable of.

Dan shows you how he has 3 regular car batteries hooked up in parallel. He also has a 12 volt jumper battery hooked up in parallel to the 3 batteries for a total of 4 batteries in his battery bank.

You want to get battery leads from an auto supply store basically they are the same thing that you would hook it to your car with but they allow you to hook them in parallel.

By hooking these batteries in parallel, our voltage is still 12 volts, it doesn't change the voltage what it does is that all the batteries draw down equally.

For your house, you want to use a deep cycle battery. The fundamental difference between deep cycle batteries and regular car batteries is that car batteries have more surface area and they are designed to kick out a lot of amps so you can start your car. Deep cycle batteries are usually bigger and they are spaced out a little more. They still produce the same cranking amps but they produce a longer flow of energy. Car batteries, if you drain them all the way down and recharge them again, maybe 20 or 30 times, the battery will be ruined. Car batteries just can't handle that. Deep cycle batteries are designed to do exactly that, deep cycle. They are designed to be pulled all the way down and then charged back up.

Here is a company that makes cheap deep cycle batteries and sells them on Amazon:
Deep Cycle 12V Battery

Next you need an inverter. This inverter is a 750 watt inverter. What the inverters do is that they convert the direct current (DC) from the batteries into alternating current (AC) that you can use for your house. Now this is called a modified sin inverter. There are pure sin inverters out there which are actually much better because they give you better voltage flow. Modified sin inverters are generally a lot cheaper and you can get them in higher output models for the price. The major difference between a modified sin inverter and a pure sin inverter is that pure sin inverters produce a cleaner energy flow and they can run more complex things. With a modified sin inverter you can't run all digital clocks, also some computers have problems running off of them. If you are just running some lights off it or something like that, save your money and go with the modified sin inverter.

This appears to be one of the cheapest pure sin inverters on Amazon:
400-Watt Pure Inverter

Again, the inverter is hooked up to any one battery in your battery bank which is where it is getting its energy from.

Now a lot of my friends are buying an interesting solution that combines both the battery and the inverter into a single pack that is portable so that it can be moved around easily. Amazon sells this Xantrex all-in-one solution here:
Deep Cycle Battery With Built In Inverter

The solar panels are hooked up to a control which is then hooked up to any one of the batteries in your battery bank and they will charge all the batteries.

The best solar panel that you can buy that is weatherproof and has a 25 year warranty is here:
Solar Panel

Now if this top of the line solar panel is too expensive for you, don't worry. Northern Industrial makes a cheaper solar panel that still has a good 15 watt output. You can see it on Amazon here:
Northern Industrial High Wattage Solar Panels - 15 Watt

Note that we don't just hook the solar panels up to the batteries. Instead we hook the solar panels up to a controller. The purpose of the controller is to prevent overcharging of the batteries and also to let you know that the solar panels are doing their job of charging your batteries.

Here is a very popular 7 amp charge controller:
Sunforce 60012 7 Amp Charge Controller

Here is a bigger 30 amp charge controller:
Sunforce 60032 30 Amp Digital Charge Controller

If you are interested in a bundle pack that has everything, here is an inexpensive way to buy solar panels, a deep cycle battery, a controller, and an inverter on Amazon:
Solar Panel With Controller, Inverter, and Battery

For more great information and a review of the top solar panel diy guides, go to Solar Panel DIY Guides Reviewed and don't forget to watch the video below, cool stuff!

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Technorati Tags: 12, battery bank, CONFIGURATION, CYCLE, deep cycle batteries, deep cycle battery, diy, INVERTER, inverters, MODIFIED, PHOTOVOLTAIC, power, PURE, SEEP, sin, SINE, solar, solar kits, solar panel, WIRING

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http://www.solardave.com/index.php/cost-of-a-partital-diy-solar-panel-system-video/
SolarDave: Please tell me about your solar panel system and how you saved some money?

Adam Stevenson: The total of the system and materials was $22K. I ended up spending about another $1,800 in permit fees and a structural engineer and $400 for an electrician, several hundred dollars for a guy to come help me out for the two afternoons he spent with me.

Xcel (Energy) gave me $16,538 rebate. Fix cost based on the number of kilowatts you are installing and has nothing to do with how much you pay the permit office or the electrician.

My final cost after rebate was $7,237. (SolarDave note: that is cheap!)

I started my research in solar probably about a year before I actually installed it went and got a couple of bids from some of the local solar people both from contractors that my friends have used as well as just searching the internet and while talking to one of the guys I find of developed a good feeling from him, and I asked the question "Would it be possible to do some of the work myself" and kind of learn along the way he said "Sure I absolutely support the do-it-yourself-er (DIY) so I said why don't you throw me bids, what it would cost just come home and have solar one day and what it would cost to have it done where I do some or all the work myself. And throw them both to me and I said let's try the second one.

The guys name is Steve Cross from Sun Spot Solar.

I gave him my electric bills and said this is how much I think I need to generate and he said I agree and lets do these types of panels 180 watts each, you will need some where around 19 to 22 we figured out 21 fit pretty well.

So I went and got all the permit information from Golden (Colorado), filled it out. He came by 1/2 hour one day he type all the Xcel application on the internet and I kind of ran the process and when I had a question I would just send him an email and he helped me out.

I think in parallel we order the equipment - he dropped off in my driveway. Then one of his installers came out and helped me for two afternoons and I pretty much myself put in the whole rack system on the roof and the installer came out and helped me kind of a two man job carrying the panels up, putting the panels down and bracketing them down.

I think we sketch out on the side of one of the solar panel boxes how they are all going to wire together so that we get three rows of series - 7 series strings so the amperage works out.

I let his installer run the conduit because that is pretty much a one person job and then I paid an electrician to plug it all in for me.

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Technorati Tags: electric bills, kilowatts, panels, solar, solar panel system, watts, xcel energy

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We recently built a recreational home that's only used on weekends and the heating of it (60) is running high $$.( It's well insulated) (2300 sq ft) Is there a solar system that we could do ourselves, low cost (under $500), and that would be removable in the warmer months?

Solar doesn't work very well in the winter - not enough sun. Codes generally do not allow self setup because there is a very real danger and it has to be wired so there is no feedback into the wire system (or electric company workers up line could be fried). Also, it's generally not a good idea to run intensive users of electricity on solar (like heating); it takes way too many expensive panels to do this. Batteries (close to $200 each) would be needed for darkness heating and they don't last long if they are brought down more then 50% very often. You would also need a generator if it were cloudy, an inverter, and a controller. You'd be looking at closer to $5000 then $500.

I think you might do better with vented propane space heaters. Generally propane costs less to heat with then electricity and you only have to heat rooms you are using at the time. You can get them with thermostats so the house can be kept at, say, 50F when you are not there. However, I doubt you could do this option for $500 or less either.
.

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I'm trying to build a DIY Uninterruptable Power Supply to run some electronics in a remote location with intermittent grid power. I plan to use two 115Ah deep cycle batteries attached to a two stage battery charger. When grid power is on I want to charge the battery bank with grid power, but I also want to supplement with solar panels. I purchased a 30A solar charger (Sunforce), a 16v 20A regulated power supply (Samplex), and a battery isolator (to use when I get solar panels to keep them isolated from the power supply). I thought that the regulated power supply would power the charger when the grid was up, and solar panels (added later) would charger in the absence of power. PROBLEM: When the regulated power supply gets over about 5 amps, the charger basically stops working. The output voltage starts fluctuating and it eventually shuts off. Is there some way to get this working???
Oh and I know I could just get a higher end solar charger that will do all this, but the costs are very high. . .I'd like to spend under $300, thus the DIY aspect.
Thanks for the response, but not that I already purchased a batter isolator to prevent backfeeding either the panels or the power supply. Also I don't have any solar panels right now, just the power supply, so solar panels aren't the issue. I think there must be something fundamentally different about the DC that is coming out of my regulated power supply and a solar panel! Another interesting note, the solar charger says right on the side, "Only use with solar panels, do not use with other power sources". . .but WHY???? Seems like it should work to me. . .?

Sounds like you have the power supply in parallel with the solar panels, feeding the charger, right?

If so, you're putting power into the solar cells and the charger at the same time. If those are 12V panels, you're putting 16 volts on them and probably back-biasing them. The solar panels are designed for direct connection only when they are a higher voltage than what they're feeding.

The simplest way to fix this is to use a power contactor (large relay) -- DPDT. One side to the solar cells, the other to the power supply. Have it pass the power supply to the charger when the grid is on and the solar cells to the charger when the grid is off. That's what you're trying to do any way, right? Since your electronics are running off of the batteries either way (right?), the momentary switch shouldn't cause any problems.

Here's one for 20A at 28VDC for $16 from digikey.com. The coil is energized with 100VAC, so it just hooks to the main (if you use 120). I'm sure there are similar relays with 240 VAC coils, if needed. You could put two in parallel if you need a higher rating than 20A.

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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 asking about solar lights it because I want to build a greenhouse for a science project. I need lights shining on the plants 24/7. I saw the solar lights and thought that might be a good concept for lights always shining.
I live in a very sunny part of California so whether there is sun or not is not a problem.

It's a good concept, the problem is that the light from the solar lights you are talking about is very ... what's the word... weak I guess. I have a few around my place where it wasn't feasible to run a hardwired light and they're just barely enough to see where I'm walking. It's not going to be enough to make the plants think they are in the sunlight 24 hours. You'd need a much stronger lighting system.

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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?

If your goal is to save money, it will be hard to do that with solar electricity. You can come out ahead under some circumstances, but powering a refrigerator and a fan is an unlikely one. However, if your goal is to learn about this kind of setup, you could get a kit from (say) Harbor Freight for a few hundred dollars, which will (barely) charge a car battery over a period of a couple weeks. The energy you collect could power a fan for several hours.

You could also learn about solar electricity just by searching the web. That way, you don't need to spend any money at all. Our solar setup is documented at

http://www.mysolarsecret.com

That said, there are ways you can save money on energy. A solar hot water heater usually pays for itself over time, depending on where you live. You can buy a kit to retrofit your existing water heater for perhaps $2000 or so.

Also, if your refrigerator is old, just changing to a new, extremely efficient model can save 1/3, maybe even 2/3 of the energy.

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http://www.mysolarsecret.com Build a solar panel with solar cells...

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I see alot of people asking about making their own wind turbines and solar panels, and the only answers they are getting is links to sites that want you to pay for the information/plans. Are their any sites that give you this information for free?

It may not be free but as an example I purchased the guide from http://www.mysolarsecret.com and constructed a small scale wind turbine (I plan on making a few more as well) and I have to say the design was about as easy as it can get when dealing with something like this. It also provided places to get everything for as cheap as possible. In the end I spent a few hundred dollars for something that sells for $10,000 - $20,000, so I don't think you're wasting your money on a guide, you're never going to make one for free either. The materials alone cost a few hundred and then it takes some time to assemble and if you plan on attaching to the power grid you will need your city/county inspector and the electric company inspector to come out. I hardly think that $50 for a guide is a large cost. If you do plan on assembling one yourself I was pleased with my experience and recommend it. I calculate that I will recoupe my overhead costs within 8-10 months.

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This is a simple explanation of "Series" and "Parallel" configurations for solar panels and DC batteries.

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Technorati Tags: PHOTOVOLTAIC, power, solar

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