Where to buy small(ish) Solar PV Cells

Altoid

Hi,

I'm looking at ways to bring light and some small amounts of power to some sheds.

Wind or solar are the options but I don't have much to invest.

Is there anywhere in Ireland selling cells that would cover this - all my searches are just finding full domestic systems.

I can find the designs to set up the system - but not the best places to buy the cells - any suggestions?

Thanks,
Al.

freddyuk

Try the adverts.ie above?? Do you want "cells" or modules? I would not bother trying to make your own.

Altoid

Never thought of Adverts.ie - looking now. Thanks!

Not sure what a 'module' is here... so I don't know if that's what I'd want.

RangeR

I like solar. I have some ideas.

I bought this for the mother in law. It works very well. Although it's an outside light, there is about 4 or 5 meters of cable between the double lamp and the solar assembly. Depending on the size of your shed, you could get one, two, three of these. Place the solar panels outside. Drill a hole though the wall and put the lights on the inside.

The lights are sensor so will only come on when there is movement. In my experience, it's obviously no where near daylight but casts a nice light over about 8 to 10 meters. Enough to see around.

As for power. Will USB power suffice? I backed a Kickstarter Project a good few months ago. It was a battery with one usb in and two usb outs. It allowed for charging phones, tablets, other small devices. The product has been refined to be even better although I can't justify the purchase over the one I have. Maybe if my one breaks or something. It's the Expedition 3 from "No Outlet No Problem". I think it has a massive 11,000 mAh battery [standard smart phones are around 2000 to 3000 mAh batteries]. It's about €60. I have the V1 or V2 and use it all the time.

They also sell small to big ish solar panels, that could be used to charge your Expedition when not in use. Yeah, I'd love one but don't have the money at the moment. They only seem to have the 10 Watt one listed at the moment but they used to have one at least twice as powerful. It's less than $100.

For audio delight [not sonics ] I got this little solar powered [and wind up powered] Radio / Torch. Works very well. You are not going to get booming music. But if yer in your shed and you just want to get away from it all, throw in some earphones and you have free music/talk radio. This can also be charged via USB Expedition Battary

If you need more than USB power, maybe there are other ideas?

freddyuk

Altoid wrote: »

Never thought of Adverts.ie - looking now. Thanks!

Not sure what a 'module' is here... so I don't know if that's what I'd want.

A module is a solar panel. Solar cells are the blue squares inside a solar panel.
You need a small solar panel and small battery with small controller and a 5w 12v DC floodlight with a remote sensor. Work out how long you need the light on each day? When you know that you can size the kit correctly.

Bluefang

Be very wary when buying PV panels - there are a lot of cheap imitations being advertized out there, especially coming from Taiwan.

Stick to reputable suppliers.

Capt'n Midnight

Bluefang wrote: »

Be very wary when buying PV panels - there are a lot of cheap imitations being advertized out there, especially coming from Taiwan.

Stick to reputable suppliers.

beware of over inflated specs

peak power will be in the order of 100W / m2
so a 10cm by 10cm panel will only give 1 watt - angled towards the noonday sun in a cloudless sky

In Ireland we have a lot of clouds so mirrors aren't as useful here as in other places , but white paint is cheap for the surroundings

Capt'n Midnight

You have to derate solar panels according to the direction they are facing east-west and up-down relative to the sun.


Then you have to take into account the clouds
http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/sunshine.asp

On days with no sun, the surface receives on average 20% to 25% of the energy arriving at the top of the atmosphere.
...
The percentage of the energy arriving at the top of the atmosphere, which reaches the surface, has a mean value of 40% to 47% during the months March to September and 30% to 37% during the months October to February.
...
The diffuse radiation expressed as a percentage of the total is, on average, lowest in April and highest in December. On dull days, all or nearly all of the solar radiation reaching the earth's surface is diffuse, while on sunny days the diffuse may be less than 30% of the total radiation.

Diffuse light means mirrors won't help much.

Figures I'd like to know for wind and solar are the maximum length of times when they fall below thresholds. Or in other words how many days capacity you need to run off solar / the point at which it's cheaper to invest in more renewables than more backup.


You often see cameras / lights on poles powered by a combination of solar and small windmill - the swept area is very roughly the same size as the panel. But small windmills are very expensive per watt.


Fit CFL's or LED's in the shed to reduce the load

Look at plastic bottles filled with water as light pipes - waterproofing will be a problem but using daylight when possible