But the actual construction cost is only part of the story. The way I see it, if you choose to make them yourself, you'll save money in several ways.
Make Your Own Solar Panels - It's Much Cheaper Than Buying Them
If you're familiar with the retail market for professional-built solar panels, you'll know that they usually cost thousands of dollars. Before I started building them myself, I searched high and low for the best prices and found that most panels started at about $1,000. Occasionally I'd find a sale that knocked a couple of hundred bucks off, but they still cost much more than I was willing to pay.
If you chose to make your own solar panels, you'll soon discover that it's possible to build them for less than $200 on average. And once you get good at it and start hunting for discounted materials, it's not impossible to make them for less than $100. I know because I recently built two for about $90 each.
That's at least an $800 savings right off the bat! And the ones you make yourself are the same size and produce the same amount of power (sometimes more!) than any of the brand name units you can buy off the shelf.
(It's also super easy to find the necessary parts; I buy most of mine at Home Depot, but I'll get into that in another post).
Your Own Solar Panels Will Drastically Reduce Your Power Bills
I know this is kind of a side-note, as it's not directly related to the actual build process, but I think it plays an important role when discussing the money savings. Since I've plugged mine into my home's power grid (Please don't do this yourself unless you're a licensed electrician - you could be killed!) my power bill has all but gone away. And during certain times, my meter actually spins backwards, which means I'm actually selling electricity to the power company! They are paying ME!
Keep in mind that I've got several units installed on my house, but for those of you who are ready to make your own solar panels, I'll tell you this: I noticed some serious savings after installing my very first one. My power bill dropped from nearly $200 for the same month the year prior to just under $130 - that's a savings of about $70 in the first month! And that's also including a rate hike that went into effect between the two months.
Every body's situation is different, so I'm not saying you'll see the same results, but I am saying that just one is enough to make a difference. Now imagine if you keeping making your own solar panels and wiring them to work together. Pretty soon you'll be like me and run almost entirely off solar power!
Getting back to the savings, my point is that I "made" $70 in one month from a solar panel that cost less than $200 to build. Let's assume that I never made another and kept just the one, I would have made my money back in less than three months. But the savings don't stop there, as it would keep producing power, and power bill savings, month after month. By the end of the year, it would have actually made me almost $650 in profit!
That's some serious money. Now imagine adding several more panels to that equation!
Again, I'm not saying you'll see these exact same results. Depending on your power usage, your power rates and other factors, you might get better results, you might get not-as-good results. But you WILL get results. That I can promise you.
In Conclusion
If you're considering adding solar power to your home, go for it! Even if you choose a store-bought system you'll see see some benefits. But if you're really into making every penny count, then make your own solar panels and save money.
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