With the right instruction, anyone can build a solar panel, and building solar panels for your home will save you thousands over the cost of buying them. To clarify this, let’s compare buying solar panels to building them yourself.

Building Solar Panels for Home Use will Save You Money

Buy Solar Panels For Home Use

To begin with let’s talk about buying solar panels. In 2009, the average cost of solar panels did actually fall a bit, but it’s still not enough.

According to Science Daily, the average cost per watt for solar panels installed ranged between $7.60 and $10.60 (depending on where you live). So for a 100 Watt solar panel you should expect to pay $760 – $1060 per panel.  Considering that just 3 years prior the same panel was $1200 +, this is a step in the right direction, but we can still install a solar power system for a lot less.

Build Solar Panels For Home Use

Now let’s talk about building solar panels. If you choose the DIY yourself method to install your solar panels for home use, you can go green while saving green!

The average cost of a homemade solar panel is $1.25 – $2.50 per watt. To put this into perspective, instead of paying $1060 per panel (on the high end) you can expect to pay $250 or less (also on the high end). That’s a savings of over $800 per panel.

In this case it isn’t the brand you choose that varies the cost, but the parts themselves. Solar cells will cost you about $0.95 per watt, and then you have some choices to put the rest of the panel together. You could build a cheap solar panel for $125 – $150. Or you could use higher end backer boards and covers and spend $250 per panel.

Now here’s the best part. Building a solar panel isn’t difficult at all. Starting with the right instruction, most people can build a complete solar panel in less than an hour. In other words by simply putting in an hour of time you save yourself $800. For each panel you build, you’ll repeat this.

Solar Panels For Home Compared – Building to Buying

It’s when we talk about an entire solar energy system for your home that the advantage to building solar panels for home really becomes clear. If you decided to convert your whole home to solar energy (you don’t have to do this by the way, you could just install a few panels to reduce your energy bill) you might need 12 panels, maybe 15, or even 20. In this case you’d have to calculate your own energy need.

Let’s just assume for a moment that you needed 12. If you purchased those panels at $1000 per piece, that’s 12 x $1000 = $12,000 you would be spending on the solar panels.  If you chose to build those solar panels instead, even if we calculate this on the high-end, you would be paying $250 x 12 = $3000. In other words you saved $9,000.

As long as you use an ISO certified DC converter, that homemade solar energy system can still be tied into the grid, and as such it still qualifies for the government rebates on green power. So you can still reduce that $3,000 by an additional 40% – 60% (depends on your state).

To sum it up, you can build solar panels for home use and save money. In fact, with the right instructional material, anyone can do it. To get you started, I recommend the #1 DIY Solar Guide (Green Power Easy), or the #2 DIY Solar Guide (Earth 4 Energy).

First, converting to solar power, special considerations before you make the conversion.  A single solar panel may be built for $100-$150 or less. But, when converting an entire home, the project will likely end up costing a few thousand or more.

Of course a $3,000 home conversion is 1/10 of the cost of having a professional solar panel installer design and install your system, so that price isn’t bad. For many the costs will be recovered in the first year and the solar panels you build have a life expectancy of 30 years or more. If you take advantage of some of the government rebates that the top diy solar panel guides recommend, you can reduce that cost by half.

When taking on a project of this size through there are still a few considerations to make beforehand. Considering the details, When converting to solar power for your home, will help ensure your diy solar panels last for years to come.

It should be noted before we get started that many people (when taking on a DIY Solar Power project) usually decide to begin by first working to reduce their energy bill.

They start by building a few solar panels, and they don’t actually convert to solar power until later on. Over time they add to their system and with $100 – $200 put in each month they can finish converting to solar power over time. By working this way the cost of converting to solar power is spread out over a period of 6 month to a year and their isn’t a large outlay of cash required ahead of time.

Even if you choose this route to convert your home, there are still considerations to make ahead of time. Specifically there are two areas that need to be considered. We need to talk about energy needs, and the solar panels that you decide to build.

Solar Power for Your Home – Considering Energy Needs

Before you decide to convert your entire home to solar power you should first look at your energy requirements. There are simple things you can do to reduce your electricity needs beforehand that will reduce the overall cost of your solar energy solution.

Things like switching to LCD lighting, replacing old appliances, and adding a solar water heating system to your current electric hot water heater, will greatly reduce the amount of power you need. When you begin to look closely at your home many people can reduce their energy needs by 50% or more and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.

If you need help in this area, the top DIY guide to Solar and Wind Power, lays out the steps needed here quite well.

Solar Power For Your Home – The DIY Solar Panels

The next thing you need to consider is the solar panels than you build. The life expectancy of a solar cell is 30 – 40 years. Because of this you are going to want to choose materials that will allow you to build panels that will last just as long.

Instead of using painted plywood for a backing for your solar panels, consider using aluminum sheeting or exterior grade plywood. And, instead of framing your panel with 1 x 2, consider using square aluminum tubing. Simple ideas like this will reduce the amount of maintenance needed and extend the life of your solar energy system.

Building solar panels that will stand the test of time is particularly important when converting to solar power for your entire home. You won’t be doing yourself any favors by using cheaper materials and ending up having to rebuild the panels 5 years down the road.

The reality is that converting to solar power is easy. If you’re converting an entire home though, taking the time to consider the finer elements will help you make the most of your conversion. If you need help with any of this, one of the top DIY solar power guides can be a big help.

If You’d Like to Learn More About DIY Solar Panels, use the links at the top of this site to get video reviews of the top 4 guides to solar power. These are the guides that we found provided the best instruction on how to build solar panels the diy way!