less than $1 a watt DIY Solar Panel Part 2 Make your own solar panel series connection Bus Wire
by admin on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 | 25 Comments
This is part 2 and covers the basics for beginners + The cells I am using are all broken cells I purchased for a discount from Ebay. They were all fully pre-tabbed cells. They are the long tab or fully tabbed NOT the clipped tabs. This panel will cost about $60 completed and requires about 1-3 hours of work + resin embedding cure times which are best applied overnight. Part 3 will detail the embedding process and adding an optional blocking diode. How To Build A Solar Panel.
Part 1 :
DIY solder foil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znN-3SY7jQ
Duration : 0:12:57
[youtube tEYtfNOML8c]
Can you use normal …
Can you use normal insulated copper wire as bus wire?
Awesome man….
Awesome man….
Dan, I have a …
Dan, I have a commercially produced panel aluminiun frame and back that I need to rebuild. It uses clear plastic, I think its kevlar or maybe plastic sheet like that in 3M window insulator kits the combo is great for hail protection, over a 1/4″ silicon base all on top of the cells then a 1/8″ layer of silicon on the back of the cells to bond to the aluminiun back. Have you ran across one of these? If silicon is being used as the filler, how does one get this gel smooth and looking right?
how many watt?tanks
how many watt?tanks
@78UNKNOWN Yes, I …
@78UNKNOWN Yes, I did in the demo panel in the first video. I was out of Bus wire. Just match the Amps.
I can’t wait to see …
I can’t wait to see your next video!!
wow…thank u very …
wow…thank u very much bro…this was helpful
Yeh I have Punched …
Yeh I have Punched through a cell with the Flux pen of all things.
I have also Heat bonded a cell to my Non Silicon work mat….
@eirpcalc Actually …
It’s just like color and colour, aluminum and aluminium, mum and mom, Except ‘solder’ and ‘sodder’ are both spelled ‘solder’ 
@eirpcalc Actually as an English electronics student I can tell you you do pronounce the L. However in some other English speaking countries such as America the L is usually dropped
When you do the …
When you do the encapsulation it would be good if you quickly demonstrate the power loss that you incur from the glass casement. It would be interesting to see how significant this is.
@eirpcalc lol what? …
@eirpcalc lol what?! You got it back to front.
not sure if anyone …
not sure if anyone else asked but wouldn’t it be better to use the last tabs on the chains then have the bus come out? I understand the beginning and end being out so you can attach them to something. It just seems that it would be less likely to get messed up if they where actually at the panel. Great Videos one day I will get one of those giant fresnel and create havok (evil laugh)
This HD airsoft …
This HD airsoft video of Island Recon is decent! /watch?v=B3SObOvZVbc&feature=channel_video_title Thumbs up people if you think its good! <3<3
Dan and his wife …
Dan and his wife are so cool and I love all the green videos. thank you .
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my green lipp sync video
greengossipgrl@twitter
Dan please finish …
Dan please finish part 3 I really like The resin idea. Love the channel.
Great video. I’m …
Great video. I’m excited to see part 3.
this is freaking …
this is freaking awsome!!!!!
can you do a video …
can you do a video on lasers on solar panel and one with different colored light filters or a prism … i just was read a science fair project report saying that longer light wave lenghts created more power
I like how simple …
I like how simple the instructions are.
us noobs understand …
us noobs understand what you r saying
Can’t wait for part …
Can’t wait for part 3.
if you where to …
if you where to make 4 panels like this, would it be possible or easier to make 4 extra long panels skipping the bus wire.
@eirpcalc In the uk …
@eirpcalc In the uk solder is pronounced with the L, and lets face it, its english so its not wierd, you are.
The shadowing will …
The shadowing will definitely cause heating of the cells which can exceed 110 degree Celsius sometimes, and as you are doing makeshift lamination,this temperature will destroy it. Easier option is to use junction boxes with in built diodes but i guess you will have to change the “F” shaped bus bar scheme to may be a parallel one. where end rows are together and the middle ones are together, and then they go into the junction box.
@GREENPOWERSCIENCE …
@GREENPOWERSCIENCE Nice video buddy. I am studying solar energy engineering… As you are having two string of 18 cells each , I think its better to add reverse current blocking diodes on each of them. They are cheap also. It will prevent messing up the performance of whole panel in case of shadowing. So if you have 36 cells in series without the blocking diodes and there is some sort of shadow on even 2-3 cells, it will drastically limit your output current. (see above comment as well)