Ebay cells

[Deepsouthzack]

Thought I already posted This but don't see it so sorry if it double post

I Just got my 5 pounds of cells in today and thought I would give my review for others considering a purchase of these cells.

Relatively quick service.

I thought there was an obvious attempt to package them as best they could.

The tally

72. completely intact cells that look like they could be assembled today still    need to test output.
    
66. intact cells that have some sort of lead damaged, I.e.. missing a lead, loose leads or grossly misaligned leads., also a few with damaged back coating. I thing these are all repairable but am unsure how at this point.
    
    

If anyone knows how please tell me

74 fractured cells

these range from hairline cracks to large sections missing.

I assume these will have to be matched for output. I am guessing 10 - 25% salvage rate

Maybe 10-20 puzzles

Total around 45 per#

 less than I expected

I am guessing I can conservatively yield around 125 watts from this 5 pounds and possibly as high as 190 watts

I would guess another 150.00 in assembly + 200.00 for the cells =350.00 Vs. 469.00 for a factory 120 w = 119.00 savings as a minimum. and if I can repair more of them the savings add up quickly.

We will see

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Zack

           

[veewee77]

I, too, was disappointed in the cells I got from this company.

I had less than 40% that were usable.

The rest could be used on small projects or something. . .

Doug

[bruce1]

     My cells were $200 with shipping, so I must have ordered the 5lb package also. I assembled 4 panels, with 36 cells each. As I unpacked them, one bundle would be perfect, the next bundle I could only use one because of breakage. Its a sinking feeling as you open one bundle, remove one cell at a time and keep seeing another broken cell after another, money out the window feeling. I did find enough for 4 panels, and a heck of a pile of pieces that I'll mess with down the road. I ended up with 4 panels, I'd say 50-60watts average. I got about 200-250watts at the moment, but the sun is low this time of yr. I did OK, as long as my design works out long term. I have about $95 in each panel.

     My posting about how I sealed them up is here.......

         http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/11/6/11235/7751

     Let me know on that thread if you have any comments.

                              Bruce

[tecker]

I'm also trying to make the most of the cells that I bought I fell like I got my money back but when I recieved the cells I decided that a Quick panel was out of the question so I slowed it down to a check test build process. I think now I should be able to salvage them all in some form or fashion . If the process tests out I'll pass it on .

I made a jig for out door testiing of 4.5 and 3 volt strings .I can get power while I'm testing .I thing I'll make another thes weekend and I'll post the setup and some of the repair ideas . The thing that seems to work out is I can patch up a charge from the test proceedure.

[sandovalch]

Hi, I also bought 5 Lbs from these e-bay cells and had the shipped to my home country, Guatemala.

I unpacked them yesterday and found about 25% of them were not usable.

I have already 2 home made solar panels working, but before I bought the cells from siliconsolar.com. The cells were in much better shape and to a 98% they were usable. But the price is also very high.

For my 2 panels I used "durpanel" for backing and glass in front. Encased the whole thing in a aluminum frame and sealed the glass with silicone. The wood panel with the cells I left free for taking out when doing maintenance. Theres is of course a gap of air between the cells and the glass.

So far I am getting on a good day 2.75A, 16.5V from one and 1.9A 16V from the second one. Enough for powering my lights in the house between 6PM to 10PM.

With the solar cells I bought from e-bay I'm expecting to build 5 solar panels with 36 cells in each panel. But this time I want to use 5mm glass as backing.

I'm gonna follow you up how it goes!

Ch.S.

[tcrenshaw]

Thanks to everyone for posting about this item on eBay. I just found the 5Lbs boxes and don't mind the labor involved in building my own panels. I'm going to place an order for one of these 5Lbs boxes and hopefully I'll get at least four panels out of it. Eventually I'd like to get enough panels built to setup around a 30 amp array and eventually expanding that as needed. Eventual goal is to move to some remote property in Colorado and have enough power to run home appliances as well as charge a good size battery bank for evening and bad weather use. Any comments, suggestions of web sites and such for ambitious projects like this would be great.

Thanks,

Todd