If you have thought about installing or building your own solar panel, good for you! It is tough project, the online kits only help so much, most cost $50 or so and require that you know a little something about electrical wiring and have some handyman skills. The solar sipper team was not deterred, this is how we tried to make our own solar panels.

We used the cheapest, most readily accessible materials available. We were able to do it for $150. The Solar cells cost $100, wood $10, plexiglas $15, Silicone caulking paste $7.99, wire w$5, 20 diodes were $7, plus $0 for miscellaneous screws and what not..

These mono-crystalline solar cells were the most expensive element part of the project, we found a good deal online.

The next thing we did was build a frame to house the panels.

The mass produced panels lie on a thin rectangular bed similar to what we had built. They keep the panels anchored and protected. We used regular plywood to build our box.

Then we drilled holes for the wires that will be attached to the cells to poke through.

We then reinforced the plywood frame with aluminum with small grooves for the pre-cut plexiglas to fit inside the frame.

Prior to mounting the plexiglass on the box/frame, a good weather resistant paint should be applied, multiple coats would be wise.

An unwired individual solar cell / A wired solar cell (?)

These puppies break easy! The Solar Panel frame should be constructed, painted, and wiring in place before you break out the cells.

You solder the cells to form a connection. You dot his by matching two cells on their back, make sure the spacing between the cells is even, or your panel will look like a jigsaw puzzle. You want to do this until you solder all your sells into equal line groupings.

Use a q tip to mix the glue

With the q tip put just a little epoxy on the tabbing wire.

press the epoxy and wire onto the front of the solar cell. This is the point most cells break! Fragile Alert!

Once all the cells have been glued …

Now, reverse the cell once the glue has dried.

You can prep the cell with a flux pen, this allows your solder to be doubly adhesive…

Solder the wire

Connect the cell and wire

Now you are ready to attach the panels to your box, dab the cell with glue.

Carefully guide the wires through the holes

Let the glue settle before adding your cells to the box.

If you are not a licensed electrician, do NOT try to install or build solar panels at home! Solar Panels are expensive, inefficient (if made improperly- most DIY are) and not easy to make… the truth is, we never got a single watt from our multi weekend project (long story), but we did form an appreciation for the level of detail and craftsmanship involved in producing panels. I couldn’t imagine making 20 of these things, nor could they survive more than one rainy season on the roof.

The Solar Sipper team cares about the environment and saving you money. We purchased two different DIY kits that in hindsight those were poor investments, all the info you need is available free on the web, contact us if you’d like to see what guides we used.

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