Building Solar Panels Guide

Step 1: Finding Solar Cells

Before we can start building your solar panels you'll need to gather some parts first. The most important of these parts is the solar cells themselves and the tabbing wire that's used to tab the solar cells (if you decide to go this route. First we'll discuss the differences between solar cells that you can buy so you can make an informed decision. Read more »

Step 2: Preparing Tabbing Wire

If you choose to tab your own solar cells there are a couple things that you should do that will make the whole process go much faster. There are two steps that you should do before you actually tab your solar cells: tin your tabbing wire and put flux on the cell. This step will show you how to quickly cut your tabbing wire to length as well as how to tin it. Read more »

Step 3: Putting Flux on the Solar Cell

Ok, the last thing that we need to do before we can tab our solar cells is put flux on the face of the cell. This is a crucial step because if you don't put any flux on the cell you'll have a very hard time trying to get the tabbing wire to stick when you try to solder it. Read more »

Step 4: Tabbing the Solar Cells

Now that we've finished all of our preparations for tabbing solar cells it's time to actually tab them! If you haven't yet prepared your tabbing wire or put flux on the cells I recommend you go back to the previous steps. If you don't prepare the cells it will be a big headache trying to tab them correctly. Read more »

Step 5: Stringing Cells Together

Ok, now that you have tabbed your solar cells it's time to connect them together in such a way that we can get some useful power out of them. You see... by themselves solar cells don't produce very much energy. The ones I use produce 0.55 volts, 3.98 amps (or about 2 watts). Since 0.55 volts isn't going to charge 12 volt battery we need to hook the cells up in series to get the voltage we need. Read more »

Step 6: Tacking Strings In Place

Alright, before we go connecting the strings in place we need to tack the strings into place so that they don't move them around when we connect the strings together. This step helps ensure that all of your cells are perfectly spaced and aligned. This step is what gives your panel that professional look. Read more »

Step 7: Connecting Strings

We're almost finished our solar panel. In this step you'll need to connect the strings of cells together so that we can make a useful amount of power from our panel. Read more »

Step 8: Testing for Power

Our solar panel has been all wired together, but before we put the finishing touches on it, we should test to make sure that we haven't screwed anything up. This is a fairly simple process in which you peel back some of the covering of the plexiglass and shine some light on the cells. Read more »

Step 9: Putting the Backing On

Now that we know that our panel produces power and we haven't screwed anything up it's time to put the backing on the panel. This is a crucial step because it's very important that you properly seal the panel so that rain water can't get in. Read more »

Step 10: Trimming The Sides Off

Ok, now that your silicone has cured for a couple days it's time to trim off the excess around the edge of the cells. You're going to want to leave about 3/4" out from the edge of the cells because we're going to cover that up with some "J" vinyl flashing. Read more »

Step 11: Putting The Siding On

The last step has arrived! While your panel looks pretty good right now, we want it to look like a professional panel. To do this we add a little "J" flashing around the edge of the panel. This can be a little trick so make sure to watch the video. Read more »