How to Build a Model Solar House With Loads

This Instructables will walk through the process of creating a house with three loads powered by solar panels and a backup battery.

The house uses three solar panels for power, one is stationary and one is stuck in place, when access to sunlight.(These can be turned on and off)
It also includes one battery that can also be turned on and off.
The battery and solar panels can work alone or in combination with each other.
All of this power goes through the system to power three loads, a parallel circuit of three LEDs, one fan wired in series and one speaker also wired in series.

Supplies

Step 1: Begin Building Your House Out of Cardboard

The first step in creating a solar powered model house is building the house its self!

In my case I did not take any inspiration, but you can create any model building you want. In my case I just created this simple building to house the loads.

When creating a cardboard house or model of our choice it is important to keep the following in mind:

Make sure to prioritize access when building, think about making a "Barbie Dreamhouse" so you can access the inside. So create a three walled or three sided model.
Also remember to create a strong and sturdy building, the solar panels are a little heavy and need to be supported by what every is holding them.
Also use minimal amount of glue in order to keep the building clean.

Step 2: Plan Supply and Load Locations

This step is not a big one but definitely will help. Before you start randomly placing loads and suppliess you can plan accordingly to help you out later.

The first and one of the most important steps is deciding the location and placement of the solar panels. The first step is finding the best solar altitude and panel azimuth:

The solar azimuth in the position of the sun in the sky with relation to a compass (i.e. North, South). The sun goes east to west, and depending on where you are in the world can be in the northern part of the sky or the southern part. If you live on the equator, it will be in the center of the sky. The best positioning for a stationary solar panel is toward the side the sun's path is.

The panel azimuth is the position of the sun in the sky measured by an angle. Your solar altitude corresponds to the latitude of your location.

The place your LEDs, fan and speaker around the house. If you decide these locations now it will benefit you when it comes to wiring down the line.

Step 3: Wire Circuit Outside of House

Before throwing a bunch of wires messily into your building you should wire your whole circuit outside the house. You can do this simply on a table of on a flat sheet of paper to make it more clear.

First connect your solar panels into the car charger in parallel, then from the car charger solder a switch that can be connected to a block spliter later.

Next connect the battery to a switch in the same way as the solar panels just without a car charger.

Now with those two positive wires and two negative wires, one of each from each switch, connect them in parallel to the block spliter that has to inputs and two outputs.

A parallel circuit is pretty simple: You connect all the negative wires from all your inputs to the same negative slot, then put all of the positive wires from all your inputs into the same positive slot. And then you have a parallel circuit. Using a block spliter like I mentions will make it a lot cleaner and easier to manage.

In case you need to leave your work for any period of time remember to label it so you know what everything is.

Now for the loads we are going to take three wires out of each side of the block spliter, meaning you will connect three seperate negitive wires to the negative output side of the block spliter and the same for the positive output side. Now you should have six wires coming out of the block spliter. Take a block spliter with 6 inputs and 6 outputs and connection 1 positive to a slot, then 1 negative to a slot, etc. You will end up with 6 empty output slots. Now for the first two slots you will take the fan load and a switch. Wire the switch with the fan in series into these two slots. Do that same method of the next two slots using the speaker.

Now for the LEDs you want to place your LEDs in there locations in your building and wire them in parallel with a resistor on one side of the circuit and a switch on the other. Then connect that resistor into a slot in the block spliter the the switch into the last empty one.

And now all of your loads have been wired up to your supplies!

Take a photo of this setup with labels so you know how to transfer

Step 4: Transfer Into House

The next step is taking the wiring setup you laid out and moving it into your building. This is a pretty simple step but can get messy if you don't label or photograph the step before. Using the locations you decided before place in all your loads and supplies and connect everything in the same way you laid out before. You can use tape, hot glue or other methods to secure all of your supplies and loads into your building!

Step 5: Check Your Loads

Now using the battery power you can test to make sure all your loads are functioning, test them each alone, then each with each other, then all together just to make sure they always work. Make sure to remember that the long side of the LED is the positive and that is supper important in wiring.

Then test the setup with the solar panels outside in the sun with only them on.

After confirming that both setups work fully with no issues the testing is done!

Remember to not just test now, test throughout the process the make sure you don't mess anything up.