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hi does anyone have any info on making a "proper" solar panel yourself from hardwear store stuff. the only ones i could find online were little ones that can't power anything. any info would really help. thanks loads

Purple

Do you mean solar electricity (photovoltaic, or PV calls), or do you mean solar heat?

The former does not really lend itself to easy hardware store stuff. The ones I know about are made from silicon semi-conducors, and involve fairly complex manufacturing techniques.

But solar hot water is probably more practical. The most efficient solar collectors on the market involve a vacuum tube (a little in the fashion of a thermos flask), and so may not be very practical to make yourself, but a simpler type could be made from an old radiator, painted matt black, and mounted behind glass. Water circulates slowly through this, collecting heat from the sun, and then flows through a coil in a water tank, where it gives up its heat to the water in the tank.

There is a brief how-to here.