"Home Brew Solar Panels"

[wdyasq]

And, how long have they been working?

I've been on this board for a few years now and am wondering if any who have made their  own panels from surplus cells are actually using them. If they are working, I'd like to know how they were constructed.

If they failed, I'd like to know that too. And, why they failed (in your opinion).

Your honesty will help those considering it. Your successes will help those building. Your failures can be a bad example and will save others time and money.

Ron

[JW]

Ya, like those guys (I know there were atleast 6) that bought solar cells on ebay. I think they were sold by weight or something like that. And the cells were individually soldered to make panels. Seems to me, there was a posting by one of them, not so long ago, that things were working out. Some links are probably in order here.

JW

[wayne]

Ron

I started building my own about a month ago and no real success yet. One big problem is they come with the front tabs on, then when I unwaxed them some or alot of tabs come off. I thought no problem so re-solder/cleaned etc and looked good. So my panels worked for a week the tabs opened up. So now have reopened them and using liquid silver to try to save the project. It is alot of work and would spend the extra money for good clean cells next, but not for me right now. I got some other waxed cells from another source and all front tabs stayed on. You can save money but buying pens at 20 bucks each and endless time. I was told cells should be sold in bundles of 10 and wrapped in tight plastic, so clean and no problems, but cost more. So ask me in a year from now and might of pulled all my hair out!

Wayne

[richhagen]

The ones I built failed after a short period of time.  They were constructed between two layers of glass, with silicone as sealant.  Moisture soon developed inside the panels.  



While they worked well enough when first installed, I took them down soon after the problems were discovered.  My conclusion is that if the cells are not encapsulated with some inert substance, such as EVA in commercial panels, it is difficult to maintain a good seal to prevent moisture, especially wher the leads come out.  Rich

[JW]

Has anyone tried polyurathane(SP?) clear-coat after soldering connections are done? This is the same type of epoxy-paint(clear-coat) used on standard 2 stage and 3 stage auto finish's. I think there are high-solids and medium-solids types. Not sure how the standard UV inhibitor's would effect performance. but that'd definitly protect from humidity.

JW

[roughrider3]

put some together useing lovered window from old house traler.

took the glass out used that frame and gasket to hold wire to solar panel

painting back you would have to get the back roughed up to hold the paint

pluss clean of oil and dirt,i dont whant to sand back of my panel to get paint to hold good enough to make a seal

[roughrider3]

took alook at some new panles i have made about same asmy home made one has a pice of glass covering the back side .very hard to make paint hold glass or silicone based products, it just wontstick for long.

[luckeydog]

I Built this solar panel about 2 years ago.

I first had the panel completely sealed. this ran into problems

with water inside the panel.

so I then drilled two holes at opposite ends of the panel

to let it breath. this took care of the problems with water in the panel

I do live in a very dry climate so humidity levels are relatively low

here in Colorado. I am not sure if this will work in a high humidity

environment.

[fungus]

If anyones interested; I have a file in my uploads by a company in the UK that was selling the cells. It seems to have some pretty good ideas on how to do them well: http://www.otherpower.com/images/scimages/5066/PV_solar_cell_assembly.doc

Unfortunately they dont sell the cells anymore and dont have the doc.