Doddy999
Free Member
Thought this might be of interest to some, I know its only useful if
on a site for a long while, but thought I'd share it.
How to boost any solar panel output by
75%
Solar panels are a great way to make some green electricity for your home or workplace but they''re kind of expensive and sometimes the wattage produced can be a bit disappointing. If you use a sun tracking system to keep your solar panels facing the sun you can considerably improve the watt yield but these are not cheap and on a small system they can add considerably to the cost.
Here''s a really cost effective and simple way to get 75% more power from any ordinary [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL].
The theory:
Most of the time a [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] is working well below peak power, on hazy days and when the sun is lower in the sky, early morning, late afternoon for example. The light levels are just not high enough, so to boost the light level I tried aligning a mirror to reflect more light onto my [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL]. It worked really well and after a bit of experimentation I found that placing a mirror at least twice the size of the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] on the ground in front of the panel could boost the output by as much as 75%.
Using a bigger mirror can reflect light onto your panel over a longer period during the day so you don't need to track the sun, just face your panel and mirror due south.
The practise:
I bought a really cheap [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] for £10.00 to test this idea, below are some pictures showing what I did and the meter readings just to show that it really does work. Pictured below is the 1.5w [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] facing south just placed on a wood board to stop the grass shading the panel. The meter is showing 0.07 amps, that's approximately 0.84 watts, it's late October and even on a very sunny day the panel is only producing just over half it''s peak power.
In the picture below you can see how the mirror reflects light onto the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL]. The panel produced 0.12 amps, about 1.44 watts, very close to the maximum rated output for this panel.
If you use a large mirror there is no need to align it to reflect light onto the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] just drop it on the ground in front of the panel for an instant 75% power boost.
Conclusions:
This is probably one of the cheapest and easiest ways to boost the power of a small [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL], but this method does have some limitations:
Currently solar panels cost around £4.00 per watt so that makes a 20w panel about £80.00. A 75% increase in power is the equivalent of a 35w [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL], which would cost about £140.00, that''s a saving of £60.00. Or a cost per watt of around £2.30 OK you have to find a mirror or polished sheet of metal but still it's a huge saving.
Developing a low cost [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] tracking system would further boost the efficiency but getting more light onto a [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] on an overcast day could have the most potential benefit. I'll continue to test a few different panels with different set-ups and post the results below.
on a site for a long while, but thought I'd share it.
How to boost any solar panel output by
75%
Solar panels are a great way to make some green electricity for your home or workplace but they''re kind of expensive and sometimes the wattage produced can be a bit disappointing. If you use a sun tracking system to keep your solar panels facing the sun you can considerably improve the watt yield but these are not cheap and on a small system they can add considerably to the cost.
Here''s a really cost effective and simple way to get 75% more power from any ordinary [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL].
The theory:
Most of the time a [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] is working well below peak power, on hazy days and when the sun is lower in the sky, early morning, late afternoon for example. The light levels are just not high enough, so to boost the light level I tried aligning a mirror to reflect more light onto my [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL]. It worked really well and after a bit of experimentation I found that placing a mirror at least twice the size of the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] on the ground in front of the panel could boost the output by as much as 75%.
Using a bigger mirror can reflect light onto your panel over a longer period during the day so you don't need to track the sun, just face your panel and mirror due south.
The practise:
I bought a really cheap [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] for £10.00 to test this idea, below are some pictures showing what I did and the meter readings just to show that it really does work. Pictured below is the 1.5w [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] facing south just placed on a wood board to stop the grass shading the panel. The meter is showing 0.07 amps, that's approximately 0.84 watts, it's late October and even on a very sunny day the panel is only producing just over half it''s peak power.
In the picture below you can see how the mirror reflects light onto the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL]. The panel produced 0.12 amps, about 1.44 watts, very close to the maximum rated output for this panel.
If you use a large mirror there is no need to align it to reflect light onto the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] just drop it on the ground in front of the panel for an instant 75% power boost.
Conclusions:
This is probably one of the cheapest and easiest ways to boost the power of a small [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL], but this method does have some limitations:
- You can use more mirrors to reflect more light onto the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] and increase it's power further but on a sunny summers day the extra light can build up a lot of heat that may damage the panel. In July I had my 1.5w panel running at double its rated power for twenty minutes, it got so hot you couldn't touch it!
- Placing mirrors either side of the panel to reflect doesn't work well because as the sun moves west it will cast a shadow across the panel. The only place that the mirror won't cast a shadow at any time in the day is on the ground in front of the [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL].
- On a dull day the mirror doesn't give much of a power boost at all, I tested a panel on a dull day in October; it produced 1% of its rated power, adding a mirror made no difference.
- If you're concerned about having sheets of glass lying on the ground you could use polished metal instead, I found it nearly as good as mirror glass.
- This method probably won't work if you have solar panels mounted on your roof, for obvious reasons.
Currently solar panels cost around £4.00 per watt so that makes a 20w panel about £80.00. A 75% increase in power is the equivalent of a 35w [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL], which would cost about £140.00, that''s a saving of £60.00. Or a cost per watt of around £2.30 OK you have to find a mirror or polished sheet of metal but still it's a huge saving.
Developing a low cost [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] tracking system would further boost the efficiency but getting more light onto a [URL="http://www.how-green-is.co.uk/article.asp?Uname=42"]solar panel[/URL] on an overcast day could have the most potential benefit. I'll continue to test a few different panels with different set-ups and post the results below.