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Solar energy- does anyone know of a DIY way to make a solar collector and transfer that energy to batteries?
By Solar energy | October 3, 2009
I would like to learn about solar energy and how I can make some panels for my home, of course with in a reasonable budget. My goal is to be able to run a refrigerator and fan off of battery. Any ideas out there?
Topics: solar energy advantages | 1 Comment »
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
If your goal is to save money, it will be hard to do that with solar electricity. You can come out ahead under some circumstances, but powering a refrigerator and a fan is an unlikely one. However, if your goal is to learn about this kind of setup, you could get a kit from (say) Harbor Freight for a few hundred dollars, which will (barely) charge a car battery over a period of a couple weeks. The energy you collect could power a fan for several hours.
You could also learn about solar electricity just by searching the web. That way, you don’t need to spend any money at all. Our solar setup is documented at
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/roderick/solar/photovoltaic.html
That said, there are ways you can save money on energy. A solar hot water heater usually pays for itself over time, depending on where you live. You can buy a kit to retrofit your existing water heater for perhaps $2000 or so.
Also, if your refrigerator is old, just changing to a new, extremely efficient model can save 1/3, maybe even 2/3 of the energy.