In order to build homemade solar panels by yourself or with the help of a friend, there a few solar panel materials needed that we will be pointing out and why will you need them. Here are a few things that you can buy at your local hardware store with the exception of some of them.
Solar Cells
Okay first and foremost, you probably won’t find these at your local hardware store. That being said, there are numbers of other sources you can buy them online such as eBay, Amazon.com and other sources out there. You can buy them individually, in packs or even do it yourself but honestly, they aren’t worth making them yourself since its just too much hassle for nothing.
If you are willing to save on them, you can even buy broken ones and join them together. Some people do it, I personally wouldn’t even bother and buy new ones unless I broke one of my by accident.
Plywood
You’ll need three-eighth inch thick plywood and these can obviously be bought at your local hardware store. It will be used to build the frame of your solar panel system so be sure to get something that is quite rigid and of good quality. You don’t want to skip on quality since it will be outside all the time and going through rough weather conditions. The better the quality, the more reliable will it be.
Jones Plug
You will need the 2-pin Jones plug this way you could connect/disconnect your solar panels from the rest of the solar power circuit. You need to have this ability this way you can remove your solar panel for cleaning, maintenance or if anything needs to be fixed.
Silicone Caulk
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Usually used as a seal to fix bathtubs, kitchen sinks and other things in the house, it is waterproof and will be used to seal your solar panels. Also something that can be bought at your local hardware store like most of your other solar panel materials.
Wood Glue Or Super Glue And Screws
The glue is going to be used to hold pieces together before you screw everything together. Wood glue is usually what you should be using but since it can take some time to stick properly, super glue gets the job done in less time so you can go for that as well. Either way you will be using the screws to hold everything together so which ever one you choose wouldn’t matter.
Wires
Simple enough, you basically need wires as you will run a circuit and like most electrical circuit out there, get 2 different colors. Usually red for positive and black or brown for negative. Remember not to get the same color since you can easily get them mixed up and that is something not to do.
Good Outdoor Paint.
Your solar panels are going to be outside and going trough quite a lot of harsh conditions and that is why you should get some good paint. Something that should be very durable this way it will help protect your solar panels for a long time. It will also help prevent moisture and will make them look good.
Diode
A diode will make sure that the electricity will flow only form the solar panel to the battery and never in the opposite side. You want a system that will run perfectly and help you make power and if you do not have any diode, the battery will discharge overnight from the solar panels so a diode is a must.
Plexiglass Or Lexan
Most people use plexiglass to protect the solar cells. It is much better than regular glass as it is easier to handle and does not break as easily. However, if you could go with Lexan, than do so since it is tougher than plexiglass, shatter resistant, can be drilled safely and cut with metal shears ( if thin).
Battery
You can get yourself a good battery to insure that the system is be in proper running order even at night or on cloudy days. You should get a deep cycle battery since they tend to last longer without any charging what so ever.
With all that being said, you are pretty much ready to build homemade solar panels and the only thing you need is to put all of your solar panel materials together. There are also a few things that you will need to take into consideration since you need to calculate the amount of energy most of your home appliance take and know how much you can produce with your solar panel. You can get all of the step-by-step instruction by having a look at the different instructional guides we compared in the Top 3 Product Review Page.
