Hi, since I discovered how to generate energy from a wood gasifier, I have been more interested in the whole field of free energy and without state presence
So, a day ago, it crossed my mind if it would be possible to make solar panels at home (and thus avoid the almost abusive costs that solar panels have between their purchase and installation)
For this reason, I ask in this forum if anyone knows if making solar panels at home is possible, and from any portal or YouTube channel or any book where it is explained
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Not in any meaningful way that I would know of.
You can get panels for pretty good deals nowadays, some even on websites where you can have it financed into multiple small payments. Theyâre sure to give you an easy 40 years or more of service provided you take care of them.
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Hi Felix, about 15 years ago there was a lot of action in the rebuilding solar panel sphere. Usually they were off cast or parts of broken cells ⌠Now, brand new panels are going for 30 cents a watt. Used ones with 30 years of life left in them even cheaper. That for perspective is cheaper than the tempered glass and aluminum frame that goes into them if you tried to buy the parts⌠Kind of killed the rebuilding diy worldâŚ
Cheers,. David
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I have never seen solar panels with tempered glass above the elements. Everything that is on sale in our area was with transparent plastic, which in the bright sun is unlikely to last more than 10 years before the formation of microcracks in it, and moisture gets inside, to the solar cells. We even thought with our youngest son to make solar panels with glass ourselves, and glue solar cells to it with liquid glass. Until we counted all the dirt that was created during their manufacture and in the manufacture of batteries, inverters and chargers for them. And dirt after using all this high-tech junk. And then woodgas finally penetrated my thoughts, and the problem with solar panels, wind turbines and free energy generators disappeared by itself.
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Marat, what you wrote is the same as going back in your thoughts 
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Look at it from another viewpoint. Panels are only one part of the solar âpower stationâ. For sure, you must have inverter, most possibly a battery, wattrouter, cables, mounting frames, switches, ⌠A the end you figure out the price of panels at 20% of the whole system. Add another parts for DIY working panel from sole cells, and you may easily conclude that those cell has to come âfor freeâ if not cheaper. 
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The most cost effective solar you can do yourself is solar thermal. This is just capturing heat for hot water or home heating purposes. You can use scrap materials and it is cheap and easy.
Solar PV is probably what you are talking about. As other have said, used ones are cheap, but even new ones arenât that expensive. The last wholesale price I heard out of china was like 30c/watt, but that is a shipping container full, and there is import/customs charges as well.
Ray Menke skipped the mounting hardware and leaned his up against a fence on top of pallets, and probably used baling wire or zip ties to attach them. (they donât get snow in texas) You still have to wire them and have an inverter, and inverters are not cheap.
As far as making them yourself, you probably cannot make the silicon style panels yourself. You can order the actual cells and create your own box.
I have seen some DIY videos for making solar cells but the efficiency is usually really low. Here is a youtube video on printing your own solar panels. it is an overview of the process. It is great until you get to the price for inks, but as the video mentions are there other video with some cheaper alternatives and (i would probably make the zinc oxide ink. I believe alkaline batteries cases are made of zinc), and donât expect them to last a super long time either. Perovskite* is probably what I would try, but that detiorates I believe by oxidation, so it needs to be without oxygen and plastic is slightly permeable but they get fairly high efficiency for DIY cells. You can also use organic cells and those would be cheaper and less efficient.
*Perovskite is mineral that is found in Russia, but perovskite solar cells can have slightly varying compositions. If someone gets them to work well, they will be rich. The minerals that it is made of are pretty cheap and easily applied. and the record efficiency is 25%
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Indeed. I once just threw a 300ft spool of half inch black PE water pipe on the ground next to our house and hooked a pump in seiries with the boiler and it had no problem keeping up with our hot water supply. The amount of free energy that we dont use and rather use electric heaters for water is absurd
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If you can use 150-200°F heat a solar furnace can be a very low cost way to get a lot of energy. If you are heating your house this way you can bring a lot of fresh air in.
- DIY Solar furnace - YouTube
- Solar Furnace for under $50 - YouTube
- Solar Air Heater Comparison! - Steel Can Heater vs. Screen Absorber Heater (temp. tests) - YouTube
Rindert
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This website has lots of (occasionally) useful and curious information in this vein.
How to Build a Low-tech Solar Panel? | LOWâTECH MAGAZINE (lowtechmagazine.com)
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We cleaned the shop and found five more panelsđ. Bought a new inverter for âŹ300. Fixed some stands for mounting in front of the rainpipe. On the roof is room for three more and then it is all full.
You are so right Marat, but this is easy harvesting. Day after day, year after year. And some thirty years ago lead acid was garbage now it is gold. The same will happen with LFP and PV.
And this is a succes. Every time. Woidgas is my personal batleâšď¸
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New inverter for âŹ300? They are here for at least 5-10 time more. For example this one is hybrid with decent power GoodWe ES 3648 | Solar-Eshop
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Hybrid is more expensive. Got a Growatt 2000 W for these. âŹ304 ex shipping. Goodwe is a little cheaper.
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Ok, such a baby would go for âŹ550 e.g. here GoodWe NS - 2 kW | Solar-Eshop. Stil almost twice your price.
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Sorry. Goodwe is more expensive. I thought the other way around. A newcomer with higher prices. I will stick to Growatt, i have more inverters. The same system is better for monitoring.
No connections with this club, just needed an inverter fast.
One mppt tracker in it. No need for two, better save some bucks.
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Auw, that is a big difference! And it all comes from you know where.
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This guy built a passive solar house up in maine.
If you arenât quite sold on solar, there is the âpain moundâ which is rotting woodchips or hay.
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Compost heating is a waste of time and effort in my opinion.
To late to check, but Jean Pain did a lot in perma culture? An autority on that level but compost heating in real life?
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-maybe-. It is just a big stack of grass or whatever you are composting. and a pipe in it. Im not convinced it takes that much time with some decent equipment.
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From what I have seen and heard, I believe it could work well under the right conditions and with the right feed stock. I think it would be worthwhile to try it. Itâs a lot of labor, material and expensive plastic pipe if it does not work. I noticed the ânewâ Jean Pain presentation on âInstructablesâ only attempts to heat a hoop greenhouse , not a living space. Jean pain, IIRC, had an almost proprietary mix of feedstock consisting of green chips, dry materials and soil, which had to be moistened (lots of water!) during âassemblyâ of the large mound. Could be worthwhile, especially if you use a lot of compost. 
Jean Pain also lived in a mild climate, the South of France.
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