How Do You Make Small Solar Panels?
The introduction of reasonably priced, individual solar cells opened the door to using solar energy to fit very particular applications. Building a small cell takes only a little carpentry and wiring. This allows intrepid do-it-yourselfers to build small solar power systems to provide energy to remote, small applications. Make an estimate of the electrical consumption of the application. This model will use a garden pond pump as an example. Wattage is a figure of power consumed and work done per hour, and a typical pond pump uses 25 watts. The pump will be placed on a timer and run twice a day for two hours each time, for a total of 100 watts per day. Divide that daily consumption by six. The standard for determining how much power you can count on a solar panel to produce is its combined output during the six hours of peak sunlight that an average day produces. We need our panel to produce 100 watts in six hours; therefore will build it for a wattage of 100/6, or 16.6 watts. Shop for
