I have getting solar panels from these solar lights at Walmart. Well some of them are broken, but the solar panels are still in good shape. So I wanting to put the together to maked a large solar panel big en ought to power a laptop
If you can how do you solder them together? Do you link them together just like a double A’s?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes
be sure you get the in and out contacts correctly
series will increase voltage, parallel will increase current
total power depends on total area
have fun learning electricity
Solar = technology of the future
look up solar power I think it is in hundreds of watts per square meter in sun shine BUT only about 20-30% can be captured as electricity. it is expensive
You will need a ton of those to run a laptop, like about a hundred if they are only 2 inches across.
Well, that kind of *is* how it is done. Just be sure you actually connect them to comply with Article 690 of the National Electric Code.
Also, you don’t *need* to solder them together. They come with cables sufficiently long enough to jump between adjacent modules when mounted either in portrait or landscape. And these cables have special connectors at their ends. Using the MC connectors or Tycho connectors is completely REVERSIBLE…unlike soldering.
You probably could get away with just one large-sized module powering a small laptop, though you may need two. Typical modules used in residential/commercial/utility scale applications are on the order of a power rating typically somewhere between 200 Watts and 300 Watts, when measured at STANDARD TEST CONDITIONS.
Standard test conditions:
Cell temperature of 25 Celsius
Irradiance of 1000 Watts/meter^2
Spectrum that corresponds to a sun spectrum filtered by 1.5 equivalent zenith air masses
That said…only when you orient directly perpendicular to the sun rays, do you get the nameplate power rating. If the rays are oblique to the module, you get reduced power output.
The PV module I most commonly use as a basis of design is the Sharp NU235. It operates with an open circuit voltage of 37 Volts and an operating voltage of 30 Volts…with a power output of 235 Watts at STC.
My laptop uses 196 Watts of power at a voltage of 16 Volts.
If you were to use a Sharp NU235 to power my laptop, without any power conditioning…you’d destroy the laptop.
You would need a step-down charge controller that can track the optimum power “knee” of the module, and that can trade voltage for current when being applied to my laptop.
OR, you can go with multiple 40 cell modules in parallel instead of a 60 cell module (like the Sharp NU235 is).
Agree with gintable. You need to do this according to guidelines and any local building codes for the safety of yourself while installing and safety afterwards. This is electricity.
These are quite cost-effective, and there are also incentives from Federal govt and many state governments to upgrade panels. Article discussing incentive, including links for state incentives/rebates is below.
The little panel in a solar lawn light is 1/4 to 1/2 watt at best. You would need an awful lot of them to power a laptop. I wouldn’t suggest it as a practical thing.
However, if you want to go for it, connect up the cells into an array that produces about 150 volts DC. There is no need to be compliant to article 690 of the NEC if this is just a standalone hobby project. Just be common sense safe. If you are not familiar with circutis, get someone to help you in person.
You would take that 150 volts and connect it NOT directly to your laptop, but to the power brick, the plug that goes into the wall. Polarity does not matter. A modern laptop comes with a switching power supply, and the first thing that the supply does is rectify the 120 VAC line voltage into 170 VDC internally. If you feed in 150 VDC directly, it will be used and regulated to power the laptop properly, as long as there is enough power in the 150 VDC.