How To Build DIY Solar Panels with Pop-Cans

I was inspired to build efficient, cheap, and fully home-made diy solar panels by studying
ingenious solar thermal system shown on the cansolair website.
What this incredibly simple solar system does, is that it basically heats the indoor air directly which
makes it perfect for supplemental home heating. The most interesting part: home built solar
collector is almost entirely constructed out of empty aluminum cans!
Between renewable (ecological), and conventional (non-renewable, non-ecological)
energy sources, the first choice for exploitation is always conventional energy with
profit as the only important factor. For example, high profit is obtained by monopoly on
strategic crude-oil reserves
When it is sunny, regardless of outdoor temperature, pop cans heat up very quickly. The fan drives
warm air from inside of the cans back into the room. For those living in remote places, or those who
want to achieve full off-grid autonomy, simply hook up small PV solar panels or wind generator and
wire them to power the air blower.
I have to mention that, before going solar, it is advisable to perform a thorough assessment of your
home insulation in order to improve heating efficiency and minimize all possible losses. This is
very important because after minimizing heat loss in your home, you can actually install smaller
solar system and get the same result as with the twice bigger heating system.

Do-It-Yourself Solar Panel Construction

Housing for diy solar panels is made of wood (plywood 15mm/0.6in), while its front is 3mm/0.12in
thick Plexiglas/polycarbonate sheet. Tempered glass can be used as well. The back of the solar
collector is insulated with 20mm/0.8in rock wool or styrodur. Solar absorber is made out of beer
and soda cans, painted in matte-black (paint resistant to high temperature). The upper / top part of
each can is cut and bent in a way that provides highly efficient heat exchange between the cans and
the flowing air.

Step by Step Building Guide: DIY Solar Panels

First, let`s collect empty pop cans for solar panel assembly. Try to wash them thoroughly, otherwise
they will begin to spread odors very quickly. Attention! Cans are generally produced out of
aluminum, but there are some made of iron. You can test different cans easily with magnet.
Please pay attention and try to precisely cut and form small fins at the top of each can. Idea is to
encourage turbulent airflow inside pop cans so that air passing through the tube can collect more
heat from the warm pop-can wall. Carefully cut the top of the can in the form of a star, and then
distort free parts using pliers (Picture 1). It is important to do all this before gluing the cans together.
We have marked three holes on each can with a nail, then drilled the bottom using tools shown on
images 2 and 3. More details can be found on diy solar panels video tutorial page.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

WARNING! This procedure is extremely dangerous because pop can walls are very thin. Sharp
parts may cause hand injury.
After drilling is completed, small parts of the metal could remain in the can. Use pliers to remove
these parts.
Do not remove pieces of sheet metal and debris with bare hands!
Remove grease and dirt from the surface of cans. Any synthetic degrease agent will do the job. Do
this outdoors or in a well-ventilated room.
WARNING! This procedure is flammable! It is dangerous to do this near open flame or cigarette!!!
Glue all cans together using adhesive silicone resistant to high temperatures, at least up to
200C/400F. There are products for bonding that can withstand temperature up to 300C/570F.
Top and bottom of all pop cans are compatible and fit perfectly one onto another. Put some glue or
silicone on the edge of one can and press it against another one. In this way the glue/silicone will
not run away from the edge. Picture 4 shows inside view of two pop cans glued together, while
series of stacked and finished cans is shown in Picture 5.
Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10
Prepare a template for stacking cans L profile shown in Figure 6. You can use two ordinary flat
wooden planks and nail them together. Template will provide necessary support for solar pipe
during the drying process. In addition, secure the cans onto a template using ordinary jar rubber.
Pictures 7, 8 and 9 show the gluing process. Series of glued cans form a solar pipe. Picture 10
shows the pipe fixed in motionless position until the glue gets completely dry.

Picture 11

Picture 12

Picture 13

Air intake and exhaust boxes for diy solar panels are made using wood or aluminum, 1mm/0.04in
thick (Figures 11 and 12). Gaps around the edges are filled with adhesive tape or heat-resistant
silicone. 55mm/2.16in diameter cut-outs are drilled on one side of intake/exhaust box. Drilled parts
can be seen in Figures 12 and 13. This is where the first row of cans will be glued to the air
intake/exhaust boxes. Check out how it looks when all parts are assembled and prepared for
painting (Figure 13).
The adhesive dries very slowly. Leave it to dry for at least 24 hours.
Solar absorber fits in the casing made of wood (Fig. 14). Back side of diy solar panels box is made
out of plywood. Insulation of solar panel is achieved by applying rock wool or styrodur. Installed
insulation can be seen in Figure 15. Pay special attention onto insulation around the openings for
the solar collector air inlet/outlet.
Next step is preparation, protection and painting of timber box (solar panel housing). Special hooks
have to be attached to all four corners of the solar collector, so that it can be easily mounted on the
wall (Fig. 16) using 10mm/0.4in screws (Fig. 17). Empty box is placed on the wall in order to
precisely mark the spot for drilling the air inlet/exhaust.

Picture 14

Picture 15

Picture 16

Picture 17

Picture 18

Picture 19

Picture 20

At the end, solar absorber is painted black and placed inside the housing. The casing of diy solar
panels is covered with plexiglass attached to the frame and thoroughly corked with silicone.
Polycarbonate / plexiglass is slightly convex in order to gain additional strength. You can see
installed solar absorber without plexiglass in picture 18. Complete solar collector is shown on
Picture 19, and finally, installed solar thermal panel can be seen in Picture 20.
Check out our pop-can diy solar panels on YouTube. Video shows how solar panel operates on a
bright day. After first 20 minutes, panel raised the air temperature inside living room to 50C/122F.
Important note: This solar thermal system is not able to accumulate thermal energy after
producing it. When its sunny, solar collector produces heat, but it is necessary to use it immediately
for heating the room. If the sun does not shine, it is necessary to interrupt the air supply to the solar
collector, otherwise the room will begin to slowly cool off. This can be solved by installing shut-off
valve, which will reduce unnecessary heat loss.
Differential thermostat (snap disc) controls the fan. This thermostat can be bought in betterequipped electronic component stores. Thermostat has two sensors. One placed inside the top
opening for warm air, the other inside the lower opening for the supply of cold air in the solar
collector.
If on/off temperatures are set carefully, diy solar panels are able to produce an average 2 kW of
energy for home heating. This generally depends on how much sun do we have during the day.

Final Chapter: Solar Panel Test Drive

Solar collector dress rehearsal was carried out in the backyard before installing the system on the
house. It was a sunny winter day, without clouds. Our air blower fan is actually a big PC cooler
extracted from a faulty power supply of PC. After 10 minutes in the sun from the solar collector is

out hot air temperatures of 70C/158F! The test results have encouraged us to install solar heater
on the house as soon as possible.
After completing installation of collector, the outside temperature was -3C/26F, and solar
collector was blowing out 3 m3/min (3 cubic meters per minute) of warm air. For the home version
we have used more powerful fan than the one for testing. Heated air temperature went up to
+72C/162F. Temperature was measured by digital thermometer. To calculate total heating power
of the collector, we took into calculation the air flow and average air temperature on output.
Calculated power which DIY solar panels produced, was approximately 1950 W (watts) which is
almost 3 HP (3 horsepower)!!!
Considering that the results are quite satisfactory, conclusion is that DIY solar panels are definitely
worth making. The collector, at the very least, can be used for additional heating of your home, and
it is up to you to calculate and figure out how much money you can save