How To Create Solar Energy At Home?

Step-by-step guide to set up solar power unit

1. Step 1: Gather solar power components.
2. Step 2: Calculate your power load.
3. Step 3: Select and charge the battery.
4. Step 4: Set up the inverter.
5. Step 5: Fix the solar panels on your roof.
6. Step 6: Connect the solar panels with battery.
7. Step 7: Setup stands for inverter and battery.

Can you make your own solar power?

It is possible to build and install your own solar powered panel system, and often the cost of doing so would be much lower compared than the prices charged by professional solar panel installers.

Can you make solar cells at home?

How to Make a Very Cheap Homemade Photovoltaic Solar Cell Updated May 29, 2018 By Jason Thompson A solar cell is the fundamental element of a solar panel, a device that converts sunlight into electricity. Professionally made solar cells are made of special semiconductor material sandwiched between metal contacts and a layer of non-reflective glass.

1. The semiconductor is specially made to be sensitive to the photoelectric effect and responds to light by releasing a flow of electrons.
2. Though these materials are expensive, you can make your own solar cell at home out of materials that are much cheaper and easier to come by.
3. A homemade solar cell is perfect for science class demonstrations, science fairs and even powering your own small devices.

A homemade solar cell made of copper sheet and salt water can give insights into the physics of the photoelectric effect. Light a propane torch and hold it in one hand. Pick up a sheet of copper in your other hand, using tongs. Hold the sheet of copper in the flame.

• Heat the copper until the section under the flame has been glowing red hot for at least a minute.
• Set the copper sheet down on a fireproof surface.
• Pick it up with the tongs again, so you can hold a different location and heat a new area with the torch.
• Repeat this process until you have treated a few different spots on the copper sheet.

Place the copper sheet onto your fireproof surface and let it cool to air temperature. The areas that you heated should be blackened, though other colors may be present as well. Strip 1 inch of insulation off of each end of one copper wire with the wire strippers.

• Clamp one end of the wire to the copper sheet, using the alligator clip.
• Make sure that it is clamped to clean, unblackened copper.
• Mix salt into a cup of water until it stops dissolving.
• At this point the salt solution is at maximum strength.
• Place several drops of salt water onto different blackened areas of the copper.

Because of microscopic irregularities on the surface of the copper each drop will produce different results. Strip one end of insulation off each end of the other wire, using the wire strippers. Place one end of this wire into one of the drops of salt solution on the blackened areas of copper.

Can I use copper as a solar panel?

You can make a solar cell to generate electricity from the sun using a sheet of copper. By heating the copper and cooling it as shown in the video below, you form a copper oxide (Cu 2 O), aka cuprous oxide, layer on it. That layer is a semiconductor. Most modern solar cells work using a semiconductor made of treated silicon instead.

Note that this does not produce a useful amount of electricity, unlike silicon and other commercial solar cells, but is fun to make. You would need acres of these copper solar cells to power your home. Notice how near the end of the video, the effect is demonstrated by measuring the current coming from the solar cell when in sunlight.

When the sunlight is blocked, the current drops. For those who are curious about this effect, here are some research papers about cuprous oxide solar cells:

Copper (I) Oxide (Cu 2 O) based solar cells – A review (PDF file), Abdu, Y. and Musa, A.O Production of cuprous oxide, a solar cell material, by thermal oxidation and a stufy of its physical and electrical properties, A.O Musa, T. Akomolafe, M.J Carter

The simplest circuit to make is what is used in the above video and illustrated in the following diagram. Make sure that the wires that connect the two plates are above the level of the water. The electrical circuit is completed through the salt water itself. Circuit for DIY solar cell in salty water. Experimental setup for testing DIY solar cell. The purpose of the salt water as shown above, is solely to act as a conductor of charge from the outer surface of the cuprous oxide layer back to the copper plate that that cuprous oxide is covering. As the following diagram illustrates, if you can find a way of electrically connecting to the cuprous oxide layer without blocking it from sunlight, then you can do without the salt water and the other copper plate. Charge distribution on cuprous oxide solar cell and wiring. One way of doing this is to press a metal mesh against the cuprous oxide (see diagram below.) Some sunlight will get through the holes in the mesh to the cuprous oxide and cause the charge to move to the surface to the mesh. DIY solar cell with metal mesh. Another possible way is to use a glass that has a transparent, electrically conductive coating and press this conductive side against the cuprous oxide (see diagram below.) Since the glass and its coating are both transparent, the sunlight will not be blocked.

The coating may still cause some loss in transmission of sunlight, but it will still be better than the mesh approach. An example of this glass is the tin dioxide coated glass used in modern flat LCD computer screens. I haven’t tried this method myself but if you do, please let me know how it works out.

If you take a picture or video then I will include it here. DIY solar cell with tin dioxide layer.

How do you make organic solar cells?

Single layer – Fig.5: Sketch of a single layer organic photovoltaic cell Single layer organic photovoltaic cells are the simplest form. These cells are made by sandwiching a layer of organic electronic materials between two metallic conductors, typically a layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) with high work function and a layer of low work function metal such as Aluminum, Magnesium or Calcium.

Sudomo Susilo Budiman