Installing Solar Panels On Shipping Container Homes
The idea of using solar power to reduce your home electricity bill makes perfect sense.
But to a lay person, understanding the science of solar electricity can be very confusing.
In other words, without proper skill and knowledge, building your own solar power system can be very challenging.
But rest assured, it is not as hard as you think.
Knowing some basic understanding on how electricity works does help, but you don’t need a degree in electrical and electronic engineering to make your own home solar array.
Simple Home Solar Power Project – PV Panels on Shipping Containers
As you can see in the video above, Photovoltaic panels were installed on shipping containers.
The real challenge is making sure the area to be covered by the solar panels has no shadow casting on the surface throughout the day.
Building Your Own Solar Power System
When you are building your own residential solar energy system, the only component that you can make on your own is the solar array.
The rest of the components such as charge controller, battery bank, power inverter etc are too complicated.
It is a better idea to purchase the units off the selves from a hardware store.
To make the solar array, begin by sourcing for cheap PV cells.
The best place to do your price comparison is at Ebay. When you have the solar cells, the next step is to solder them together.
The soldered cells are then placed on a specially constructed wooden box to protect the Photovoltaic cells from wind, rain and snow.
The entire box is then covered with a UV proof plastic sheet and sealed with a waterproof sealant.
A DIY solar panel should consist from 20 – 36 pieces of solar cells measuring 3” x 6”. When the cells are linked together, the total power output would be around 80 watts on a clear sunny day.
To provide sufficient power for a small house, you will need to build 4 – 8 units of solar panels.
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