I moved to my new place about a month ago and up until now, my panels were stuck on my patio where they got next to no sun. I didn't put them on the roof fight away because I was waiting for someone to lend me a ladder. Well, I finaly got tired of waiting and decided to put them up without a ladder (a very challenging ordeal) and here they are!
You can see from the picture why my panels were getting no sun with that tall, solid railing in the way. It still gets in the way as it blocks out much of the morning sun, (see that shadow? That's at 8:30am) but it's the best I can do for now and a huge improvment. In the picture, you can also see my anemometer and my solar powered motion lights.
I do have a small problem, though. The panel on the top was one I got for free because I was told it was no longer working. I opened it up and saw that there was a connection that had become loose. So I fixed it and the panel works like new when I have it hooked up to a battery alone, however, when I have it in parrallel with my other panels, all of their output drops to 0 amps. At least, that's what my controler says. Any ideas?
And here's a picture of my universal solar charger that I posted a poor quality photo of a few days ago. I made her myself and I love her! I keep it in my car with a 2.2watt panel. So far I've charged my cell phone and a few AA batteries with it while it sits in the hot, hot sun at work.
Pretty big on photo sizes. Bye.