Building your own panels
I've been getting a LOT of emails about
this. Feel free to email me
about the building of panels. It's not that hard,
just time consuming and needs a steady hand to do
the soldering and connecting of the cells.
Last update: 06/09/2008
Building solar panels isn't as hard as it might
seem. If you can connect your battery bank
together, you can build your own panels. Panels are made up of individual solar cells
that are connected together and then put in a case
that you make that protects them from weather and
damage. One important aspect of building your panels is that you need to keep in
mind the final output that you want. In other words, if you want a 2 amp (42
watt) panel that will charge a 12 volt battery bank, you're going to need a higher
voltage output than 12 volts. Most commercial panels will produce about 21
volts (open circuit - nothing connected but the voltage meter; once you connect
a load, the voltage will drop). You can build them in a series of sets of cells
and then parallel connect them to get the desired output. I know, that sounds
daunting but it's really not. Consider: you purchase a solar cell that puts out
2 amps at .5 volts. Okay, you can build a 2 amp panel from that. You'll need 42
cells to get your 21 volts (you want to connect them in series like flashlight
batteries; + to -). Now, if you want a 4 amp panel, connect two strings of cells
in parallel (+ to +. - to -). The important thing to remember is that it's the
same as a battery bank. Parallel connections as power, series connections add
voltage.
Crappy
graphic of panel construction |
Connecting the cells takes some patience and
learning how to solder the small tabs (they look
like little strips of aluminum foil) to the cells,
one side of which is positive and the other
negative - just like a battery - takes some
practice. To make the panels, you can use aluminum for
the frame and back, wood, plastic - basically
whatever is solid, can be made water proof (not
just water resistant) and can last a long time.
Solar cells can last 20 years or more.
The costs of individual cells vary all the time. I suggest this supplier of
solar cells:
Plastecs
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