was looking at a few different sites, here is one of them
Building your own panels can be an interesting experiment, but if you are looking for solar panels to provide significant, consistent output, you should buy factory made ones. I get lots of calls from people who built their own panels and get a fraction of the advertised output from them. Plus, factory built panels will last 40 - 50 years, with a 25 year warranty, how sure are you that you can build something that can withstand the outdoors for that long? The price of panels has dropped a lot this year, plus with rebates and tax credits, it's getting more affordable.
The okorder / and may also be downloaded as a bittorrent (put solar panel or solar energy into a torrent search engine).
I had a system installed recently, so I would suggest starting by getting a quote from a licensed contractor. Even if you are planning on doing the installation yourself, a contractor will have a lot of useful info. I got 3 quotes and they were all about the same cost. I was able to get a 2 year usage history from our utility so the contractors were able to suggest a system based on that. They were able to tell me about rebates and tax credits, were the best location would be and the estimated amount of production. They have a nifty gadget that can tell if there will be any shade cast on the roof at any time during the year. I decided to maximize my rebates and got a system that reduced my utility bill by about 50%, although my production has cut it much more than that, my highest electric bill was $35, and that was in Dec. with cloudy short days. I got a $0K rebate and a $2K tax credit. This year the fed. tax credit is 30% of the total installed price. My system cost $26K, I paid $6K out of pocket and I'm saving about $2K per year.
