Build Your Own Home Solar Panel
November 28th, 2008 Filed Under General
Building your own home Solar Panel is fun, if you know how! Though the making of solar panels is done in a strict quality controlled environment, for personal purposes you can build your own home Solar Panel! to see the way the sun’s energy can be converted to electricity. Whilst the best panels are made with silicon, you can build your own home solar panel by using cuprous oxide, a material that causes light to be turned into electricity. You can’t go into a store and buy cuprous oxide but you can duplicate with a thin sheet of copper.
Ok, here’s what you need to make your own home solar panel:
You’ll need about one square foot of thin copper plate, 2 alligator clips and short leads of wire, a wide mouth glass jar, tap water and salt. Place the copper sheet on the burner and turn it on high and let it sit there for approximately thirty mins. As it heats, you see the plate turn colors and the heat will show the outline of the heating coil beneath the plate.
As it cools the black cuprous oxide coating will start to pop off the sheet, leaving a thin coating of red on the copper. This red coating is needed to build your own solar panel, and whilst the bulk of the black can be washed off under running water, it shouldn’t be brushed clean.
Salt Water assists to produce the electricity for the home solar panel:
Using the alligator clips, connect the copper sheet to one the top of one side of the glass jar. Attach another clean copper sheet to the other side of the jar. Mix about two tablespoons of salt into hot tap water, making sure it dissolves and then pour it into the jar. Be careful the water does not get on the alligator clips. The two copper sheets should be under water with about one inch left exposed at the top of the car to build the home solar panel.
Thoroughly place the complete contraption in the daylight, either out front of a window or carry it outside and reveal it to the sun. Using the voltmeter connect the leads to the two alligator clips and you can see the meter indicate the amount of power being generated by daylight, with your own home solar panel. Now, enjoy the sun’s energy from your own home solar panel! You can feel proud!!!
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