One thing you will find when you start doing research on solar panels is that most of the time they are not cheap.  You cannot find a 200 watt solar panel system through the traditional channels for under $700.  This is just for the solar panels, that does not include all the other materials you need like the deep cycle solar battery or the inverter or the wiring.  A 200 watt system can help reduce your electricity bill but you are really going to need a 1 kilowatt to 5 kilowatt solar system to make a big dent in your cooling and heating costs.  On this hub you will get tips to help you get started with your own cheap solar panels while keeping your costs down. 

Where To Buy Cheap Solar Panels

If you haven't taken a look already, you should really check out eBay to get some cheap and used solar panels.  I just saw a 200 watt solar panel selling for $520, that comes out to $2.60 per watt.  Then you have to include shipping and handling and that added another $286.  So you still get to the $700 figure.  But if you happen to live next to one of these installers or solar suppliers, you could save the shipping and handling and pick it up yourself.

How To Make Cheap Solar Panels

You could also decide to do it yourself, DIY, and build your own solar panels.  You can get the plans on how to do it on eBay or at Earth 4 Energy.  On eBay, you can buy some really cheap plans, like under $10 but you may not find detailed videos as you would with the E4E solar plans.  You can build a 100 watt solar panel for around $150.  A 200 watt solar panel system would cost you about $300 to build.  So you can see that you would save anywhere from $200 to $400 by doing the project yourself.  And then it is just a matter of building several of them until you get to 1000 and 5000 watts.  Just to ballpark it, that would be around $1500 for 1000 watts and $7500 for 5000 watts. 

Learn How To Build Cheap Solar Panels

How Much Money Can You Save With Solar Panels?

For example, you get direct sunlight on your solar panels for 4 hours a day, for your 1000 watt system that will produce 4 kwh per day.  For a 5000 watt system that will produce 20 kwh per day. In my home which is over 2200 square feet, we use about 35 kwh per day during the summer at a cost of about $3.1 a day.  If we use the 4 kwh generated by our residential solar system that would cut our bills by more than 10%. If we use the 20 kwh then that would cut our bill by more than half.  The electric bill runs about $100 a month so you could save about $10 to $50 a month, or $120 to $600 a year. This is just for illustration purposes, your usage and savings will vary.

Depending on how large of a system you install, the payback period could be as short as 2-3 years.  This all depends on you finding cheap solar panels for your system.  Since that is usually the highest expense, that is where you will save the most money. 

Learn How To Build Cheap Solar Panels