How Much Will a Small DIY Solar Power System Cost?
Whether you are building a small DIY solar power system or putting together a solar power kit for your children's school project, you should be spending less than $99 for the entire project.
An example of this is the commonly found 10-Watt personal solar energy system that can power small electronics like your garden sprinkler, automatic gate opener, or fishpond aeration & filtration system.
While shopping at a DIY store recently, I found a 10-Watt solar power kit on sale for more than two hundred dollars.
I automatically picked up the box to see what is in the package.
And I thought to myself, "Anyone can put these kind of stuff together for less than $99 within half a day!" It is true...
so let us see how this can be done.
If you are already building DIY solar panels or are interested in building one, you may be quite familiar with the major components that make up a small, personal solar energy generator.
In case you are not, here is a list for your reference: 1.
10-Watt framed solar panel 2.
Solar charge controller 3.
Rechargeable battery 4.
Switches and Fuse 5.
Diodes 6.
Wiring If you hop over to eBay, you'll find that a solar panel costs less than $35, a charge controller costs less than $25, and a 12V battery costs less than $20.
Switches, fuses, diodes and wires only cost a few bucks at most.
After computation, the total cost for all these components is less than $90.
You may also want to check out these figures for yourself on eBay by searching for their keywords.
See if what I'm saying is true.
The other place to look for affordable components is your local electronics component store.
You may want to drop them a line occasionally to find out if they have got any of these components on sale.
In my experience, retailers often slash their price drastically in order to move the old inventory to make space for more popular components.
If you want to scale your DIY solar power project to supply power to your household appliances, you will need more components.
An example of which is the inverter.
This component converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) so it fits the power requirement of household appliances.
In general, the larger your project, the increase in cost is more than linear.
Therefore make proper plans to determine how much your project will cost before commencing.
An example of this is the commonly found 10-Watt personal solar energy system that can power small electronics like your garden sprinkler, automatic gate opener, or fishpond aeration & filtration system.
While shopping at a DIY store recently, I found a 10-Watt solar power kit on sale for more than two hundred dollars.
I automatically picked up the box to see what is in the package.
And I thought to myself, "Anyone can put these kind of stuff together for less than $99 within half a day!" It is true...
so let us see how this can be done.
If you are already building DIY solar panels or are interested in building one, you may be quite familiar with the major components that make up a small, personal solar energy generator.
In case you are not, here is a list for your reference: 1.
10-Watt framed solar panel 2.
Solar charge controller 3.
Rechargeable battery 4.
Switches and Fuse 5.
Diodes 6.
Wiring If you hop over to eBay, you'll find that a solar panel costs less than $35, a charge controller costs less than $25, and a 12V battery costs less than $20.
Switches, fuses, diodes and wires only cost a few bucks at most.
After computation, the total cost for all these components is less than $90.
You may also want to check out these figures for yourself on eBay by searching for their keywords.
See if what I'm saying is true.
The other place to look for affordable components is your local electronics component store.
You may want to drop them a line occasionally to find out if they have got any of these components on sale.
In my experience, retailers often slash their price drastically in order to move the old inventory to make space for more popular components.
If you want to scale your DIY solar power project to supply power to your household appliances, you will need more components.
An example of which is the inverter.
This component converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) so it fits the power requirement of household appliances.
In general, the larger your project, the increase in cost is more than linear.
Therefore make proper plans to determine how much your project will cost before commencing.
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