/diy/ - Do It Yourself

July's power bill will be approximately $300, with a tier 4 price of $0.44/kwh. It is 109F today, and will be 109F tomorrow. PG&E sucks.

Let's assume the author of this post is mechanically minded, has a solid background in DC electronics, is handy with a soldering iron, and has an engineering degree.

The posted picture is a 6"x6" solar cell that should produce ~4.3W in theory (0.5V, 8.5A ish). Ebay has posts where 112 of these are being sold for $137, which would be 400+ watts.

How hard would it be to tab, solder, and otherwise connect a quantity of these on say, a 4'x8' plywood sheet? I'm talking about the physical aspect of making a (very large) panel from individual cells.

48" x 96" should be good for 7x14=98 cells (42" x 84" actual cell size), which is ~48V and 8A for 390W.

Does anyone have any experience with building solar panels from cells?