DIY Solar Panels: You CAN Build Them! by Patrick Minns MBA

Author:Patrick Minns MBA [Minns MBA, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Patrick John Minns
Published: 2015-06-21T22:00:00+00:00

Now to connect the strings as promised….

19a) there are two possible scenes facing you right now.

You are laying the STRINGS onto a substrate, sun-facing or NEGATIVE sides of the solar cells facing upwards, which then will be covered by tempered glass, Plexiglas, or acrylic sheeting. No encapsulating material used.

Or…

2. You are using a single piece of tempered glass, acrylic, or polycarbonate and that single piece IS the substrate. In this case you must lay the strings down so that the front, sun-facing side of the solar cells is facing downward and you are looking down at the back side, or POSITIVE side of the solar cell STRINGS. Remember, when you are done with the connecting and encapsulating, the solar panel will be flipped over and the side that is currently facing downward towards the floor will be the side facing the sun.

19b) sizing the Substrate- no matter the material, the substrate must provide a platform sufficient in size to hold however many STRINGS you are installing into the substrate. You can pre-measure the substrate width by multiplying the width of a single solar cell on one of the STRINGS, by the number of STRINGS being placed side-by-side on the substrate. For example, if you created four STRINGS using 3”inch x 6”inch polycrystalline solar cells, your calculations would look like this: 6”inch width x 4-STRINGS= 24”inches wide. Add some room for slightly imperfectly aligned STRINGS and temperature related expansion; two inches on all sides should suffice. This would give you a substrate width of 24” inches + 2” inches for expansion= 26” inch-wide substrate. The calculation for the length is the same although now that you have STRINGS ready to mount, you can basically take the length of any STRING, add three inches on the top, same for the bottom, and you now have a substrate outline that can be cut out of the substrate sheet (if using synthetic). Examine the photos at the page bottom; the middle photo depicts the placement of the bus wires in relation to tabbing wires and the end of the solar panel. The picture to the left depicts a substrate which has had the STRINGS installed and is simply waiting for a cover to be installed. Remember, we are NOT using encapsulating material so the waterproofing of that bottom substrate is very important, so follow the steps I outlined earlier involving painting a coat of silicon caulking all around the substrate even if it is primed and painted. Note also in that left photo, the sides of the substrate have rails of wood on which we secure the cover. The side rails must be wide enough to provide a good purchase for the cover you select since you will be both gluing AND screwing the cover down. The rails cannot be too tall or they will cast a shadow over the STRINGS as they sit inside the substrate collecting photons later in the day. The rails need only provide enough clearance so that IF a cover should sag, it won’t make contact with your solar cells as they would fracture for certain.

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