Picture 18Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Picture 19Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Picture 20
In the end the solar absorbers will be painted in matte black and be positioned inside the housing. Covering the solar panel with plexiglas secured through silicone comes next. Keep in mid that polycarbonate and plexiglass is slightly convex and will offer the construction additional strength. In the Figure 18 you can see the solar absorber without plexiglass while the complete solar colector is shown in Picture 19 and finally the installed element is showcased in Picture 20.
Take as example the pop-can diy solar panels on YouTube. Video shows how solar panel operates on a bright day. After first 20 minutes, panel raised the air temperature inside living room to 50°C/122°F.
Keep in mind that this solar thermal system will not be able to retain thermal energy after it produces it. When it`s sunny outside the solar collector will produce heat yet it is necessary to use it immediately to heat the room. In the same manner if the sun does not shine you should intrerrup the air supply as it will slowly cool off the room. You can install a shut off valve will which can reduce unnecessary heat loss to avoid this incident.
You can also improve this installation with different electronic components bought from various stores. A differential thermostat can help you reglate the temperatures if you need more comfort. Keep in mind that if the on/off temperatures will be calculated carefully this diy solar panel is able to produce an average of 2 kW of energy for home heating.
Important note: This solar thermal system is not able to accumulate thermal energy after producing it. When it’s sunny, solar collector produces heat, but it is necessary to use it immediately for heating the room. If the sun does not shine, it is necessary to interrupt the air supply to the solar collector, otherwise the room will begin to slowly cool off. This can be solved by installing shut-off valve, which will reduce unnecessary heat loss.
Differential thermostat (snap disc) controls the fan. This thermostat can be bought in better-equipped electronic component stores. Thermostat has two sensors. One placed inside the top opening for warm air, the other inside the lower opening for the supply of cold air in the solar collector.
If on/off temperatures are set carefully, diy solar panels are able to produce an average 2 kW of energy for home heating. This generally depends on how much sun do we have during the day.
Solar Panel Test Drive
The solar collector dress rehearsal can be conducted in the backyard before installing the system on the house. Do the procedure in a sunny day without clouds. The air blower used in this project has actually been a PC cooler salvaged from a faulty power source of a personal computer so do not spend to much on these components. After 10 minutes in the sun from the solar collector is out hot air temperatures of 70°C/158°F! Needless to say that test results have pushed us to install solar heaters on the house as soon as possible.
Soon after the installation of the collector has been finished the outside temperature was -3°C/26°F and the element was blowing 3 m3/min (3 cubic meters per minute) of warm air. For the end result a more powerful fan has been used. Heated air temperature went up to a staggering +72°C/162°F and the temperature has been registered with a digital thermometer.  To calculate total heating power of the collector, the calculation of the air flow and average air temperature on output. Calculated power which DIY solar panels produced, was almost 1950 W watts which is almost 3 HP
In conclusion the results have been extremely rewardful and we would dare to say that these DIY solar panels are definitely worth making. The collector at least can be used to complement your power source in order to save a huge amount of money.
Photo Courtesy to freeonplate.com