How To Build A Solar Panel - Part 7

Watch in HD
Watch The First Part of This Project First At:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4BKuH...

Visit Solar Tech Town for the full video:
http://www.solartechtown.com

I, Robert Smith, show you every step I take to building a custom made solar panel from scratch. I explain in detail about each item I use and why to use it, so the video is fairly long.

I will be hosting the majority of the video on my own server so you can view it all in one take. It will take time to edit the video, but the more of you that subscribe to the video, the faster I'll try to get it out to you guys as it just shows that people are interested and appreciate what I'm doing, as I'm providing this video for free unlike some videos you see on YouTube.

The method I described in this video is just one way to go about it, however, there are many ways you can build a custom solar panel. Some use aluminum or plastic frames, but I found for a beginner, working with wood would probably be easier and cheaper.

Overall, building a solar panel can be fun, but there are many factors that play into building a solar panel, and I as well still have an extreme amount to still learn about it.

So I hope that for those wanting to learn more about solar energy and wanting to take the adventure of building their own solar panel will find this video very useful.

To watch to full video just video, just visit: http://www.solartechtown.com

Again the video is fairly large, so to prevent from having to put 6 or 7 parts on youtube in 10 minute sections, I'm just going to host in on my server.

If you all have ANY questions, feel free to leave a comment under the video.

Thanks guys!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• how to build a
• solar panel
• solar energy
• diy
• robert smith
• solar cells
• solar tech town
• bus wire
• tabbing wire
• do it yourself

[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.

[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.

[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. :)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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