The cost of buying solar panels is too expensive for most people. However if you know how to make a solar panel step by step then you can make your own solar panels remarkably cheaply. There are several guides available that will teach you how to make solar panels for home use. The best in my opinion is Earth4Energy as it is the most complete and easy to follow. It won’t show you how how to make a solar panel for free but it will show you how to get all the components you needs as cheaply as possible. A solar panel is basically a wooden box that is used to house an array of solar power cells. So the bulkiest materials you are going to need are the wood and glass to make the container. This box will house the solar cells of which there will typically be 36 connected together to form an array. I can’t very well give you instructions here as you need to visually see how to make a solar panel step by step. This is why you should consider Earth4Energy as it will show you each step in graphic detail. Although a lot cheaper than buying commercially made solar panels you can still expect to have to pay between $100-$200 per solar panel to get the components you need. Although this is a DIY project you won’t be making every single component from scratch as you need to obtain the solar cells and batteries to store the electricity you generate. The secret to keeping the solar panel costs down is to buy solar cells that are slightly damaged or blemished. It makes little difference to the effectiveness of the solar panel if it’s constructed from slightly blemished cells. You will be solar powering your home for a fraction of the cost so losing a fraction of the power due to blemished panels is not an issue. The worst case scenario is that maybe you will have to build one or two extra panels to compensate for the difference in quality of the solar cells you have used. Any guide that shows you how to make a solar panel step by step will show you where to get the parts you need. In fact one of the best places to get the solar cells is on eBay. You can take a look right now to see how much they cost. Remember that you will need 36 cells for every solar panel that you make and that one solar panel will produce about 18v of electricity. So do the maths to work out how many panels you will need to determine your overall budget. All of the other components such as the wood and plexiglass for the panels can be obtained locally at hardware stores and can even be cut to your specifications. Then all you need are components to connect everything together. For this you will need copper wire, plugs and screws etc. As I’ve mentioned previously the best guide showing you how to make a solar panel step by step is Earth4Energy as it contains all the diagrams and videos showing you how to everything fits together as simply as possible.