This instructable will tell you how I went about building a 12v Solar setup to run my Air Cooler during our hot Summer and a 12v 120 litre Fridge/Freezer during the cooler months.It will include some of the things I got right and the things I got wrong while building my "Sun Suckers".Please keep in mind that I am not qualified in this area and that my methods were based on a "research then trial and error" system.Please use the ideas presented as a guide and improve on them wherever you can.I won't be covering "in detail" panel building as such but will include helpful stuff (mostly discovered by the afore mentioned "trial and error' ) that wasn't covered in the many panel building Instructables and articles I read while doing my research.
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step 1Get The LED Out Contest.I've entered this 'ible in the above contest because the Solar Tracker relies entirely on 2 LED's to do it's work. The LED's are directly responsible for adding approximately 40% to the systems output. If either of the LED's were to fail the Tracker would not work.
step 2Learning. Think beyond today.If you spend as much time as I did scouring the web for every bit of information available you'll probably get as confused as I did at first. There's a lot of good info out there but there's a lot of rubbish too. As a rule of thumb the greater the number of people say something, the more likely it is to be correct. Usually. But not always. There are already some "Instr…
step 3Choose your materials wisely.This is the most critical step. As mentioned earlier, the materials you choose to construct your panels with will determine it's lifespan. Don't shortchange your Panels like I did mine There are commercial products available for mounting Pre Tabbed Cells which include "Tedlar"(R) http://www2.dupont.com/Photovoltaics/en_US/products_services/backsheet/tedlarPVF.html .…
step 4Wots Watts?? Tabs?? Which Cells to buy?? Soldering Iron?? Solder??Watts are calculated by multiplying the voltage of the cell by its rated amperage. Simple. Well not really. The formula for say......a panel built using 35 0.55 volt, 3.6 amp cells would be this: Voltage of each cell (0.55 v) X rated Amperage of each cell (3.6 a) X 35 cells = 69.3 Watts . A nice sized panel and well worth the effort. Smaller amperage cells are ob…
step 5Before you Solder.The Cells need to be soldered together in what is called Series , that is, the positive side of each cell connected by tab wire to the negative side of its neighbour (see diagram) To achieve this the (untabbed) Cells all need to be tabbed, that is to have flat Tab wire soldered to the front (negative) side and then to the back (positive) side. The Solder . Buy a roll…
step 6Soldering the Tab Wire to the Cells.This is where all that Soldering practice will pay big dividends. Depending on the cells you've bought and the type of panel you're building you may need to solder Tab wire to the Front, the Back or both. Front busses take more work so I like to do them first. UnfortunatelyI don't have any pics of the process. Ok....your Irons hot so lets go! Apply a small amount of…
step 7Choosing Your Construction Materials.Parts of this step are pretty much a repeat of an earlier step. I have done this to emphasize the importance of materials choice. If you can afford it go for the Tedlar products and the best non reflective glass you can get your hands on and follow the instructions that come with the Tedlar materials. The end product can be mounted on a timber or metal frame. If y…
step 8Building Your Panels.My blog at is pretty much a description of my Panel Building experiences from my first few Panels. In it I give details on joining cells correctly and constructing panels on a tight budget.
step 9After the Panels are Built.Now that you have built and tested your panel/s you need to harness all that Free electricity you're suddenly producing. Solar Controller. The Controller is the brains of the system. Your panels charge your batteries through it and it supplies that power to your appliances. It controls the amount of charge that goes to your Battery Bank and protects your batteries f…
step 10The LED Solar Tracker.Your Panels will produce much (30 to 60%) more electricity when they're kept pointing directly at the Sun as opposed to sitting in the one position all the time. To achieve this you need to buy or build a Solar Tracker and mount your panels on it. You have 2 choices here....you can opt for a "Dual Axis" tracker that will follow the Sun from East to West then, when the …
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