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I finally got all the materials together for my solar panel. Plexiglas at Home Depot was the most expensive single part, at $12 for a plate. I needed two of them. Also got some wood trim at only 98 cents a piece to use for the framing of the panel.
Plywood at Home Depot, precut is only about $5 each. I need two of everything because my panel will be too large otherwise. I will make two identical panels, each putting out 9 Volts.
In the above pictures, I got all my tools ready and started soldering - finally. I had to use a weight to hold the solar cell in place and another weight to hold the tabbing wire down while I soldered it into place.
Hopefully I will have this project finished soon.
I just moved to the country!
Now I can put my solar panels outside in the full sunlight and really begin testing. I had to have them in my sliding glass doors because my landlord would not allow me to put them outside anywhere.
Well, now I have an apartment on 1.5 acres of free, wild land in the mountains. When I get a warmer day, the panels are going outside in the full sun. I will set up sunlight tracking systems for maximum energy output during the daylight hours.
I was only getting some light directly on the panels during the mid day in my old place. This provided enough energy to power a couple energy efficient lights and my netbook in the evenings.
With solar tracking, I should get about 870 watt hours of energy during the ten hour long winter days and up to 1300 watts during the summer months.
I have an idea to increase the energy output even more. If you look up "Bedini Motor" or "SSG" on the internet, you will find a sort of "free" energy generator. It takes a small amount of energy to run it and puts out larger amounts of energy into batteries. I have been experimenting with this idea for a few years now and may try using solar energy to power the Bedini motor, which will charge batteries.
Above is a picture of a roller skate wheel generating electricity using the Bedini concept.
On Thursday last week, we got hit with a terrible snow storm. It dumped 3 feet of snow during the day and brought down trees. These hit power lines and cable lines. I lost power. That took out my water, light and heat. My car was under 3 feet of snow, so there was no running for supplies.
I had to improvise, so I took out some vegetable oil, a glass container and some twine. I made an oil lamp for light and heat.
The diy oil lamp worked surprisingly well. It helped warm up the place a bit and provided quite a bit of light. I made two of them and one had a double wick for more heat and light. The only thing I had to do was top off the oil once a day to prevent smoking. When the oil got a bit low, the wick was too long, making smoke. So, I just kept it full. The thing only burnt about a quarter to half inch of oil per 24 hours. That was a nice bonus. It is very efficient.
I posted all the details here:
Well, another power outage caused me to get inventive. Thankfully I have battery operated hand drills all over the place. I took an old table fan that was going bad, making noise, and converted it into a windmill.
Above in the photo you can see it sitting outside. I simply opened up the fan, drilled some holes in the armature, inserted magnets and put it all back together. Now it is charging batteries in the wind for free.
All the details can be found here:
