 DIY Solar Panels - Buy and Install yourself? |
Kentish Flats seen from top of North Downs near Lenham. Turbines are about 30 miles away - see map
Headlines
A dream becomes concreteOutside, it blends into rocks and cliffs; inside, it blazes with warmth: A wind-energy consultant and a retired stockbroker use high-mass concrete walls and a lot of DIY ingenuity to create a sustainable home within their means.
American Researchers develop DIY solar panels
It may be as easy as click-and-print when you need a spot of solar energy, according to American researchers who say they've developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets.
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Off the shelf or Self Installed Systems
It seemed a simple and relatively cheap thing to make after all, surely a solar panel was little more than a box with some copper tubes painted black, a sheet of glass on the front and pipes to the heating system. But: Then you have to add the means of putting the heat into the heating system, so perhaps either a pre-heat cylinder or a dual coil cylinder which is hardly a DIY option. Final plans were for a pre-heat system. This was going to be a home made panel which would heat a simple single hot water tank which would be placed immediately before the proper hot water tank and act to pre-heat the water, thus taking some of the strain off the boiler. For pumping, I had planned to use a 12 volt solar powered pump so that when the sun was up and the panels being warmed, the pump would run. One of the main reasons I never got round to doing it was lack of time - I was renovating / buidling a house and there were other priorties. Even so, I had no idea what amount of heat I would be generating. Then there was the consideration of:
Other considerations with regard to going DIY would be the potential adverse effect on my house with what might end up being an effective but ugly lump on the roof. With the Introduction of the RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) there is little point in making a solar panel or even buying one and self installing. Even though an installation might be £4,000, the payback through RHI will cover the cost within a decade while providing free hot water and the associated energy (cost of fuel) savings. After the payback period there is another decade of financial incentive. Below is a list of web links that describe how to make a solar panel, these are provided for interest only. Build Your Own Solar Water Heating Panel Solar Solutions: Photovoltaic Panels - from DIYnet Comments about the Building regs and Solar Water Heating A solar water heating system for swimming pools A selection of solar ideas from "The Toolkit" |
DIY Solar Panels: