ok i'm goin to probably expeletive deleted some people in this post but my only intent is to give you a broader perspective. You should keep in mind that i am a disabled person who previously had great dexterity but now struggles to sign his name legibly. i nhave peripheral neuropathy, better nthan bein dead which i was 3 years ago. i disagree emphatically that it is not worth building your own panels. i have built 3 so far, tabbing every 3x6" cell myself even though it may take several minutes to do each tab. i will provide pictures later. the panels are 18 volt, 3.3 amp design and the meter reads about 19.2 volts. i will be connecting to the chinese grid-interconnect inverters you can purchase on ebay for about $100 each and connect 2-3 panels for each inverter. these panels work out to be 60 watts costing approx 2.10 PER watt. not very good considering i have sourced chinese-made, very excellent ul cert panels w/25 year warranties for $1.73 per watt. in 20-panel min orders. but these were first-try prototypes! they used acrylic (not uv transmitiing) plastic face and no encapsulant. so basically, not guaranteed for more than 1 year. i now have a much better design using monocrystalline6x6" A-grade cells with corner breaks, low-iron-tempered glass which transmits 93% usable light frequencies vs 81% for plastic or standard glass. i've tabbed enought cells for 10 168 watt panels so far.
These new designs will cost $1.41-1.50 per watt depending on sourcing of frame extrusions. the point is you don't know until until you try...and build it yourself. put your money and your sweat on the line. don't listen to these self-proclaimed "experts" whether they have "super moderator" or 1,000 posts to their name.
i learn with every variable i change and test. i also learn from "almost" every post i read here and elsewhere. finallay, if you're trying to put an array together and you can spend $1.41/watt for 2,000 watts or $2,820 vs spending $2.50-3.50 or $5,000-7,000, and you have the time to do it, is it worth the savings? I can't answer that without knowing your tolerance for risk and your financial resources. personally, if i had the money i would buy the commercial panels and experiment on the side. good luck
don't believe that you will break a significant number of cells in the soldering process. i had almost no experience soldering, seriously compromised dexterity and i estimate i have broken less than 1/2 of 1 % of the cells i'vve soldered.
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