Manydo-it-yourselfhomeownersareinterestedin
tryingoutsolarpowertoleamaboutthetechnologyand
perhapstoprovideenergyforlimited-useapplications．
Thereareavarietyofwaystofindcheapsolarpanels
（板）includingbuyingusedandbuildingyourown
withfactoryseconds．Bothmethodswillsavemoney
whileforcingyoutolearntheins-and-outsofasolar
powerarray（阵列）．
We'veallseensolar-poweredstreetsignsorPV
panelsbeingusedforvariouspurposesatremotelocations．
Whenthoseunitsbecomecrackedorchippedandareconsidered"unsafe"companiesareforcedtoreplacethemgenerallytoavoidresponsibilityissues．Becauseit'sdifficulttogetridofPVpanelsmanycompaniesifapproachedarewillingtogivethemawayortosellthemformodestprices．Dependingonthedegreeofdamagepresentexpecttoseeperformancedegradation（降级）intherangeof10%to60%．Amultimeter（万用表）canbeusedtotestthepanelbeforebuying．Ifthepanel'sfreetakeitanyway．Itcouldstillbeusefulinahomesolarproject．
Asolarpanelisreallynothingbutaboxservingasacontainerforalargegroupofsolarcells．FactorysecondsolarcellsareusuallysoldoneBayatasmallpartoftheirregularcost．Thecellscomeinavarietyofsizes．Youwillneedtofigureouthowmuchpowerasinglecellproducestodeterminehowmanywillneedtobewiredtogethertoformanarray．
AsimplesearchoftheInternetwillshownumeroussitesdetailinghomesolarpanelprojects．Do-it-yourselfloversaregenerallyquitegenerousinsupplyphotographsoftheirworkanddescriptionofwhatwentwrongandrightwiththeproject．
Gettingcheapsolarpanelswithslightimperfectionseitherusedorthroughsalesoffactorysecondsisaperfectsolutionforhome-builtrenewableenergyprojects．Thehighnumberofsolarloversonlineprovideawealthofusefulinformation．Onlylimitedskillsarerequiredplusanunderstandingofthebasicwiringinvolved．Allarewellwithinthetalentsofalmostanyhomehandyman．Beyondthesatisfactionofhavingcompletedtheprojectyou'llcomeawaywithafunctionalsolarpanelthatwillbeasourceofpowerforusearoundthehouseoratremotelocatio