Last night I got home to find my solar panel in place :)

The battery was not charged well though. It was dark and rainy all day, no sun. So the battery was only at 12.45 Volts. I used my floor lamp with the 50 Watt light for almost 3 hours last night on my little battery with no problem. Just before I shut if off for the night I measured the battery - under load - at 11.24 Volts. Not too bad considering that it was not fully charged to start with.

Later, when I get things all set up, I will start using two lamps at a time on the one battery. If that works, then success is just around the corner.

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 finally got some time on my hands and started soldering my new solar panels myself. I laid them out on a table to find the best configuration for the cells. I will have to make two panels, each with 18 cells in order to make up the correct voltage and wattage. I will take pictures later and upload them.

Anyway, I cut the wood and started soldering the tabs on the cells. Then I started to solder the cells together in series to add up the voltage. They are each 0.5 volts. 36 cells will make up 18 volts, which is the correct voltage for a solar panel to charge 12 volt lead acid batteries. I am making two panels of 18 cells instead of one large one so that they wont be too large. Each panel will be about 18 inches by 22 inches.

More details and pictures later.

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