Let’s be honest: making a solar cell from scratch may not be your thing. Luckily, there are plenty of reliable online sources where you may purchase a solar panel kit. This is a great idea because you still reap the many benefits of building and installing home made solar panels yourself, but someone else has put all the parts in one place for you. We shopped around and located two decent sources:

     First, Amazon.com had a pretty nice solar panel system kit by Sunforce. It was for 60 watts and we noted that this particular kit is good for Rvs, cabins, boats and remote locations that may be off the grid. So it wouldn’t be a good idea to buy this and try to power your luxury mansion with it, but at least this would be a nice place to start. As of this writing, the kit cost about $299.

     Next, we looked at a website called parts on sale. The title seems kind of iffy, but we took a good look anyway. It was overwhelming partly because of the website’s layout, and also because they offer something for everyone. There were kits for cabins and Rvs, as well as larger kits. We liked the Adventurist System with MPPT Power Booster because it comes with a discounted battery and it can supply a medium sized cabin with all of it’s electrical needs. Note that the larger you go with your solar panel kits, the more expensive the backup power source (the battery) will be. 

     Sometimes it feels safer to go with a larger, well known online retailer, but we were impressed with the smaller, lesser known websites and how much helpful information they were willing to cover.