DIY Solar Panels - Make your own Power!

You'll need:

Solar Cells (The 0.5 volt / 3.6 Amp type) - (Source these on Ebay)

Soldering Iron

2 x Perspex sheets at least 3mm thick (Plasticpeople website)

EVA material (as above)

Araldite or silicon sealant (Hardware store)

Hair Dryer (Your wife / gf or mum's bedroom)
or

Heat Gun (Hardware store)

Material for spacer 'beading' (Use your initiative)

This part will be covering the soldering, wire connections and EVA applying to the solar panels.

The cells are wired up in a series configuration resulting in a theoretical 8 volts from 16 cells. However in extreme sunshine this can result in a 10 volt reading.

For determining how many cells you need, that is depending on how many volts you want to put out.
One massive panel kicking out 25 volts + in sunlight will be enough to charge up a bank of car-battery's or deep-cell batterys.
This could be too unwieldy though, especially for mounting on an RV or camper.

Two smaller panels configured in parallel will boost up the amperage

Cost for all materials was approx 50 Euro's or thereabouts.

Last Edited by Watch Ryder on 12/12/2012 03:06 AM