How To Build A Solar Panel - Part 7

[greywolf210]

Are you saying pixelglass or plexiglass?

[SunGreenSolarEnergy]

With all the news recently about sunspots and solar flares I was wondering if these pose any risk to solar power systems?

[1981dasimpson]

with all the breaks and poor solder joints i am suprised you got the power you was

[DroDoctor1]

does it matter which side is used as my positive and negative connections

[pauluminous]

Very informative series! But a lot of extra work/costs in this part. Really no need to go all out on the wiring the casing needs to be weather proof to protect the cells anyways. Just stick the wiring to the sides, it's easier and better conductivity wise to just solder the +/- wires to the bus wire without that connector. Also putting the cells closer together (use skewers to line them up)will make things a bit more efficient.

Great vids nonetheless

[skonkfactory]

You'd have a much easier time with soldering if you kept the tip clean and shiny. Use a damp cellulose sponge to wipe the tip right before every joint, and then tin it with a little flux-cored solder. You'll be amazed what a difference it makes! If your tip is badly oxidized, clean it with some fine grit sandpaper but be careful not to take the plating off it.

[proverb311031]

you need to redo so of your cells the tabbing came up

[MegaSolidSteel]

how thick is your plexi glass that you got and how much was it

[joerond]

@MegaSolidSteel 3/16 should be fine and for 2 x 4 at home depot like 25$, just make sure its clear .

[noahzoryahoocom]

is there a specific reason to why you painted it white? why not black? is it so all the light is concentrated on the panels?

[RobertSmith3]

@noahzoryahoocom Yeah I didn't really have an exact reason for painting it white other than to help it match the look of professional panels. But I know Black draws heat, and white usually is good at reflecting light which is good. So it's up to you how you really want to go about it, but I know I see most panels with white frames so that's the path I went.

[soulshinobi]

@RobertSmith3 Since this is a custom job and tolerances haven't been calculated, I'd say white is a better choice because it won't get as hot as black, so you don't have to worry about thermal expansion as much. At an extreme thermal expansion could possibly break the seals made later with the silicone caulk; stress on the word extreme however.

[fadmaid]

@noahzoryahoocom i think white is better because the reflected light will help which is not so much if it was black. just my opinion.

[bearboneskentuck]

EXCESS

[bearboneskentuck]

stick the wire thru the hole before stripping it. Then put a bead of solder on your bare wire first before soldering to panel

[jass763]

hi robert,

please advise how to figure out which guage wire should be choosen...thanks

[maddogg862000]

What is Pixel Glass? :)

[STFOURNARIS]

man this video is very very helpful,God bless for taking the time to make it man. thank you

[MSGDREWRY]

it's hard to tell - is the neg coming from the bottom of the cell and the pos from the top of the cell?

[RobertSmith3]

You are looking at Part 7 of the entire video, I suggest going back a few videos to see how the connections were hooked up.

The top of the solar cell is the negative, and the bottom the positive.

[NewnotesJR]

@RobertSmith3

I did watch from part 1 and I was having the same difficulty, but after examining some of the up close shots you took, I was able to gather that your first column goes from back to front all the way down, the next goes from front to back, then the third goes from back to front again.

[NewnotesJR]

Okay, now I see, they're all going from front to back, it's just that the first column is sort of traveling upwards from front to back, the second downwards front to back as well, and the third is traveling back upwards again, all front to back leaving the lower left corner connected to the negative lead going out of the box and the upper top corner coming from out of the box to the positive lead, creating a series circuit of several chained solar cells.

[kaos552003]

why is your flux wire sticking up from your solar cells? did they not bond or what?

[RobertSmith3]

Sometimes you will have to go back over your tabbing wire with your soldering iron, or if it becomes an repeating issue, just add a little solder to it to keep the tabbing wire bonded. Again, I recommend investing in a better soldering iron to help along with this, but at the end of the day, I got it to bond and all is working fine. :)

[BeeTheMiracle]

cool video's Robert...thanks for the info

[reastag1]

wat about the rest of the video part 8,9,10 etc

[RobertSmith3]

Video 7 is the latest up right now. As stated in the end of all the videos, subscribe to speed up the process of getting the other videos out, and to be alerted when I do put the rest out. It takes a lot of time out of my day to edit these videos and add captions as well as music and upload them and add annotations.

Thanks :)

[tupac93013]

i wanted to make a swamp cooler with solar power and this video is helping me alot. thanks

[RobertSmith3]

That's cool. How many watts will the swamp cooler take?