Do you really know the use of solar panels? Yes it’s mainly used room heating in cold countries. It directly heats the indoor air to keep your room temperature normal. But the thing is that making such an amazing thing is not just easy but it is also in a budget. Mainly you will have to arrange for some pop cans that will be mainly used for making such a useful solar panel. So without wasting any more time, we should proceed in making such a cheap and efficient homemade DIY solar panel.

Materials Needed:

Plywood (15mm)

Plexiglas

Rock Wool

Soda or Beer cans

Black Paint

Nails

Paint Brush

Hammer

Procedure:

Actually pop cans are mainly used because when the weather is sunny, it will heat up rapidly. Now the fan fitted in the solar panel
will drive the hot air from inside the cans to the room. So first of all we will learn how to construct the solar panel. The housing of the solar panel is made out of plywood (15mm), while the front is made up of polycarbonate sheet or Plexiglas. You can also use tempered glass for the purpose. The back of the solar collector is insulated with a 20mm rock wool. Mainly the solar absorber is made out of beer cans or soda cans which are painted in matte black so that it can absorb more heat. The upper part of each can is cut and bent in a way that provides highly efficient heat exchange in between the cans and the flowing air.
Now we will be showing you the step by step guide to build the solar panel.

1. Collect empty cans for the solar can assembly and then try to wash them with water thoroughly. This is mainly done as after
a certain period of time, they will start spreading bad odor. Prefer aluminum cans and check it out nicely as some cans are made up of iron.

2. Try to cut the top of each can and form fins to make the airflow more easier. Carefully cut the can and form a star on each of them. Now make it distort free using pliers as shown on image 1. It is very important to do these things before you fix them together. We have done three holes on each can with a nail and then drilled the bottom using tools shown in image 2 and 3.

3. Now you will have to glue all the cans together by using the adhesive or silicone resistant to high temperatures at least 200-400 degree Fahrenheit. Notice that the top and bottom of each can is fixed perfectly onto one another. Put glue or silicone on the edge of one can and press it against one another. In this way the glue or silicone will fix the edges together. You can see the detailed thing in the picture given below.

4. Use two wooden flanks and nail them together to form an ‘L’ shaped template which will hold the cans. This template will actually work for supporting the solar pipe during the drying process. Additionally, you can secure the cans on the template using ordinary jar rubber. You can see the jar gluing process on the below images.

5. Exhaust or air intake boxes can be made either of aluminum or wood whatever you like. Gaps around the edges are filled with adhesive or heat resistant silicone. 55mm cutouts are drilled on one side of the exhaust box. You can see that in details in the below image. Now this is the place where the cans will be glued to exhaust box. You can also see the overall look of the project and get an idea of how it will look. Normally the adhesives dry very slowly, so give it some time to dry out.

6. Solar absorber fits in a casing which we have to make with wood. As we have said earlier that the back side of the DIY solar panel will be made out of plywood and insulation of the solar panel will be made using rock wool.

7. Next is that you will have to paint the timbre box. But before that attach special hooks on all four corner of the solar collector so that it can be mounted on the wall. Use 10mm screws to mount it in the wall. Place the empty box first to mark the spot of the drilling.

8. Now at the end, paint the solar absorber completely black and let it dry. Once it dries up, install it inside the housing. Now the casing of the solar panel is covered by Plexiglas attached to the frame or corked with silicone. The Plexiglas is fitted slightly convex in shape to gain additional strength.

So now you are done with your DIY project but before installing it inside the house, just check it out for additional safety. You know how to check it and after the checking procedure, check out the temperature it is releasing. So only after considering the results are really satisfactory, you can then conclude that the DIY solar panel making is successful. So now just calculate how much money you needed to make this cheap project and what is the actual rate of it in the market. So use it for additional home heating in the winter time and get outstanding result. Check out other various tutorials of us in the blog.