homemade solar cell
Alternate ways to harness the energy from sun light?
I’m about to build a homemade power source and was considering solar cells and fans (air), anyway.
Solar cells are expensive and don’t really generate that much power. The area will be about 30 cm2. I’ve seen that It’s possible to build your own solar cells but they generate very little electricity.
So what can I use instead of solar cells (for sun light or uv rays)? Is there some way to create more powerful solar cells at home instead of buying? How?
P.s. this is for a project in school, so I need cheap and effective solutions.
Thanks!
You can probably easily build a solar heater yourself. A solar heater is simply a panel with water channels, or tubes, which pass by solar concentrators (parabolic mirrors or lenses) which capture and concentrate the sun’s energy to heat the water. Remember killing ants with a magnifying glass? This is the same concept.
Solar heaters can generate electricity very efficiently if the water can be turned into steam. You could use a steam turbine, if you have one (probably not). Or, you could build yourself a little fan connected to a cheap little DC motor and run the fan by the steam and water vapor coming out the end of the tube. This should easily generate enough electricity to power a small light bulb or some LED’s.
To do this experiment you will need at least a few dozen plastic magnifying glasses and probably about 6 feet of 1/8″ diameter copper tubing. Copper tubing usually costs a couple bucks per foot, and you can pick up cheap party favor magnifying glasses at most dollar or thrift stores.
The simplest way I can think of building this thing would be to take two flat boards and create an long L shaped shelf. Straighten out the copper tube and staple it to one of the boards. Here’s a cross-sectional view of what I mean…
|`|
| |o <---- Copper Tube
|.|____
|_____|
Then screw the stems of the magnifying glasses to the right side of the bottom board, making sure that the distance between the copper tube and the lens matches the lens's focal length for maximum heating power.
|`|
| |o.....() <---- magnifying lens
|.|____||
|_____||
Then attach a water tank to one side of the tube, point the contraption at the sun, and see how hot it gets.
Anyway, it sounds like a fun project. Have fun, and good luck. 
Homemade solar cell
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Tags: build, cell, cells, diy, solar
