How to Build a Solar Panel House for a School Project

Mimicking solar panel drawing power doesn't have to be expensive.

If you are looking for a "green" project for a science class or for the school science fair, consider putting together a project that shows the energy-building potential of a solar panel house. While building actual solar panels for a house requires expensive components and some specific scientific knowledge, you can mimic solar panels for a school project using some basic items. Even though the solar panels in a real home and the solar panels in your projects model home don't contain the same elements, they react to the sun and store energy in a similar way.

Things You'll Need

• Box
• Poster board
• Masking tape
• Utility knife
• Plastic wrap
• Insulation
• Small metal pans
• Black paint
• Paintbrush

Instructions

1. Create a small model of a house by taking any kind of cardboard box, like a shoebox, closing the lid to create a ceiling and trimming a piece of poster board so that it is about the same length as the box length and 2 or 3 inches wider than the box width. Bend the poster board to create a triangular shape, like a normal slanted roof, and attach it to the box top over the "ceiling" with masking tape.

2. Make a door on one side of the model house by cutting a 2- to 3-inch slit across the bottom edge of the box with a utility knife, slice up from 3 to 4 inches from one end of the slit you created, and then cut back across the box 2 to 3 inches to cut three-quarters of a rectangle. The door should still be attached on one side, allowing it to swing open and closed like a regular door.

3. Cut out windows, so that one large window is on one side of the house and the other sides have only small windows. Create either square or rectangular windows by cutting around the perimeter of the windows and completely removing the cardboard from that area of the box. Cut pieces of plastic wrap large enough to cover the windows and tape the plastic wrap down flat against the box, making sure the plastic wrap is completely sealed around the edges.

4. Add insulation to the interior of the house. Cut insulation so that it fits on all of the walls of the house and the ceiling, but does not cover the windows or the door of the house. Tape the insulation to the walls and the ceiling of the house.

5. Create "solar panels" by getting several small metal pans and painting them black. Make sure the entire pan is covered with black and no silver shows through. Let the pans dry completely.

6. Fill each of the "solar panel" pans with water. Place them in the house to mimic solar panels.

Tips & Warnings

• To show the results of your solar panel house experiment for a school project, you need a thermometer. Place the solar panel house in the sun, so that the large window that you created faces the sun directly. Put a thermometer just inside the door of the house and shut the door. Check the thermometer after one minute and note the temperature. Place the thermometer back inside the house and check the temperature of the house every 30 minutes or so to show the rise in temperature. Keep checking the temperature of the house for two to three hours, then cover the large window to block the sun. Check the temperature every 30 minutes to see the difference in the amount of time it takes the house to use the energy that it has stored.

References

• Design Coalition: Energy House Experiments

Resources

• Solar Panel Info: How Are Solar Panels Made?