Solar Panel - Part III

Hey guys, I am back. This time I'll talk a little bit about batteries and electrical circuits and will try to keep it short and simple. I've decided that instead of boring you with the basics of physics I am gonna provide you guys with the links of the websites that will fulfill your thirst for knowledge, however, if anyone doesn't understand anything, they are more than welcome to drop me an email/comment.

Circuits in series adds the potential difference across each component with the current remaining the same while circuits in parallel have same potential difference with different current across each component. Click here for more details.

To learn some basics about deep cycle batteries, you can visit here.

Let's start building a 60-watt solar panel. First things first, considering someone like me, who had no components. The components required to build a solar panel are:

1. Solar cells


2. Rosin flux pen/liquid


3. Tabbing wire


4. Bus wire


5. Plywood
6. Plexi-glass
7. Diode/charge controller
8. EVA Sheets/UV Guard

I bought most of the stuff from ebay. However, you can also try Amazon or other places/hardware stores.

I bought a bunch of 1.75-watt solar cells - 0.5 volts and 3.6 Amp per cell. Since I was doing it for the first time, I bought 50 of those because I knew I'll break a few of them while soldering or tabbing. These cells are very delicate, a little pressure and they crack. The cells I bought were 3-inch x 6-inch in area.

The top and bottom of these solar cells are the negative and positive side respectively. We'll talk more about these when we start tabbing and interconnecting the cells. Till then, have a good one!