Ouch. How'd you get a torn pectoral muscle? Sounds like a heavy lift somewhere.
I've made a half dozen DIY panels the past few weeks...about one panel per week, but I became so adept I could made one every 8 hours or so (with lots of breaks in between). However, from what the experts say on this forum, I don't think I'll make anymore for a while.
The panels were made with the usual reference (the guy in Arizona who made the panel for his astronomy hobby in the desert), but instead of pegboard I used three 44" strips of hobby poplar wood from Lowes (48 inch strips 1 inch wide, then cut 4 inches shorter). I then glued the sets of 6 cells at the center of each cell using Liquid Nails (two sets of 6 cells per strip; 12 cells per strip then soldered the six p-contacts in the center). This way the cells are suspended between the acrylic top and the plywood bottom, and gave plenty of space for the tabbing and bus wire without disturbing the cells.
However, I don't get much power out of them. I expected 50 watts but only get about 30 or 35 each max (18+ volts, 2.5 amps tops). Would replacing the bare-metal bus wire with insulated 10awg copper wire help mitigate power loss? A mirror will probably help, but the angle of the sun is so high this time of year it might not be practical (I placed a small mirror near the panel when the sun was at a lower angle and it improved efficiency by about 15%).
One other thing I noticed; a lot of dust gets attracted to the partially-static-charged acrylic top, which can't help efficiency. It's a nuisance having to clean the panels every day; I wanted to make electrical power...not an outdoor version of the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze air purifier (dirt collector).
Anyway, it's been an interesting experiment so far, but just wondering if there's anyway to get past these minor problems.
Thanks,
Dan
