Saturday, August 23, 2008

How To Make Solar Power Panels For Your Home

Even though people generally think of solar power panels as some sort of over-sized reflective box that catches the sun's rays, that perception is changing quickly as the technology for solar cells is progressing.

Get a complete step-by-step guide to make solar panels at home and create electricity at this solar panel information site.

As with anything related to the sun there is going to be heat involved, this heat can also be collected and used to heat both your water and incoming air for your ventilation systems using solar power panels. Commonly known as a photovoltaic panel, or PV panel, solar power panels are lined with a semi-conductive material, typically silicon based that produces electricity when sunlight passes through it. This lining is called the solar cell. The electricity then travels through the conductive material into the electrical system that powers your home or business.

Traditionally solar power panels or PV panels were limited to large square or rectangular shaped enclosures. In recent years the process of manufacturing solar cells has developed significantly and has opened the doors to massive changes in the way you can integrate solar power panels into your home of business. Solar cells can now be found in a huge variety of building materials. This technology is commonly referred to as Building Integrated Photovoltaics or BIPV. Solar cells can now be incorporated into everything from roofing material to the edges of the panes of glass in your windows.


Solar power panels can be incorporated into skylights, windows, exterior walls, awnings and almost anywhere that has a direct line-of-sight path to the sun. As new advances in solar power panel technology come on to the market, solar power cells can be made a part of any roof for both collecting energy and providing the traditional insulation and protection one can get from traditional roofing materials.


There are a variety of solar power panel assemblies that are mounted off of the building itself. The two most common are ground mounted or pole mounted fixtures. These features are valuable as they allow for optimal placement of the solar panels where they would receive the greatest exposure to the sun, thus allowing for greater flexibility in both building design and solar power system design. Although solar power panels will generate some power with indirect exposure to the sun’s rays, you will only generate the most efficient amount of solar power with direct exposure of the solar panel to full sunlight.


Ground mounted structures which are mounted typically to metal frames anchored into the ground with traditional construction methods, concrete footers etc. These frames can be built with motorized mounts for the solar power panels which would allow them to “track” or follow the sun throughout the day.


Pole-mounted structures, mounted to either the side or top of a metal pole, can also be built to have the solar panels move with or track the path of the sun to get the optimum amount of solar exposure during the course of the day.

Get a complete step-by-step guide to make solar panels at home and create electricity at this solar panel information site.

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