Solar Panel Idea

[Joshua Irelan]

Has anyone thought of taking a compact folding solar panel and converting it to a perment one? like building a wooden frame around it and mounting inside the frame then adding plexi glass on top and sealing it? Would this work or would this just be stupid?

 

[bullfrog !]

For the amount you would spend you could I believe get a 250 watt used panel already to go for less at San Tan Solar.

 

[Happy Camper]

At mentioned by bullfrog, there are some very cost effective solar panels available on the used market.

Cost per watt is going to be much less than buying anything new, regardless of type.

What is your possible use case for the solar panels?

 

[Happy Camper]

I have one of these and it's great.
ALLPOWERS Portable Solar Panel 100W (Dual 5v USB with 18v DC Output) Monocrystalline Solar Charger Foldable Solar Panel for Laptop, Generator, 12v Car, Boat, RV Battery https://a.co/d/b1RnzTI

But for the same cost I could buy 1000w of used panels from Santan.

https://www.santansolar.com/product/blemished-canadian-250w-solar-panel/
Both products, and all the other solar panels, have their place. It really depends what you're needs are.

 

[Joshua Irelan]

I was just thinking of already having a spare foldable that could become a permenant instead of having to worry about rain etc. i wouldn't imagine 1x2 frame and a what 20-30 dollar piece of plexi. Give it more use instead of tucked away hardly used. Was wondering if someone has done it before and how did it work out. Did it lose any efficiency or power?

 

[INTJohn]

Has anyone thought of taking a compact folding solar panel and converting it to a perment one? like building a wooden frame around it and mounting inside the frame then adding plexi glass on top and sealing it? Would this work or would this just be stupid?

Dude;
Just try it. Build the thing; what ever ur idea is. See wha happens. Who cares if it turns out stupid. *** most of what Humanity does any way is stupid.
Do ur idea ; post some piks and report back how it went. Sumbody somewhere has prolly thawt and or done sumthin similar. Don’t worry bout it maybe being dum.

Damn dude; I live in a vehicle at a beach spending all day walking up & down it looking for seashells or whatever washed up with changing tides. Then I sit in the Van listening to blues, rock & roll wondering where I’m guna park 4 the night. Then I drive there; feed my face; prolly drink too much gin; go to sleep. Next morning I make kawfee drive to a beach and do the same **** all over again. Talk about stupid……sayin.

just try out ur idea.
jonny boi

 

[maki2]

Thatis just one of those pretty easy DIY ideas where if you can think of it you will soon find out it has already been done …a lot of times. But not necessarily by anyone who is actively reading your posting. But most likely you can find some YouTube videos showing it.

 

[Frood]

I was just thinking of already having a spare foldable that could become a permenant instead of having to worry about rain etc. i wouldn't imagine 1x2 frame and a what 20-30 dollar piece of plexi. Give it more use instead of tucked away hardly used. Was wondering if someone has done it before and how did it work out. Did it lose any efficiency or power?

The problem with most of the folding portable solar panels I have seen is that they are water resistant and not waterproof and are not meant to permanently be outside or used in heavy rain conditions.

I see now that I missed part of the original topic too... Unless you already have all the materials to do this on hand it seems like it would be awfully expensive and time consuming. I would definitely check the cost on it but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. I think building a better supporting frame for the mobile panels instead of making them permanently installed would give you the best of both worlds... Move the panels around to best use the sun and able to position them better than just leaning them up against something or using the typically cheapish built in kickstands they seem to have.

 

[Happy Camper]

Dude;
most of what Humanity does any way is stupid.

As a member of humanity, I approve this message.

 

[MinnesotaDave]

I was just thinking of already having a spare foldable that could become a permenant instead of having to worry about rain etc. i wouldn't imagine 1x2 frame and a what 20-30 dollar piece of plexi. Give it more use instead of tucked away hardly used. Was wondering if someone has done it before and how did it work out. Did it lose any efficiency or power?

Somebody did it on one of the Cheap RV Living's youtube videos and Bob liked it. I wish I had the link but you'll have to search if you want to watch it.

 

[towboater]

Dude;
Just try it. Build the thing; what ever ur idea is. See wha happens. Who cares if it turns out stupid. *** most of what Humanity does any way is stupid.
Do ur idea ; post some piks and report back how it went. Sumbody somewhere has prolly thawt and or done sumthin similar. Don’t worry bout it maybe being dum.

Damn dude; I live in a vehicle at a beach spending all day walking up & down it looking for seashells or whatever washed up with changing tides. Then I sit in the Van listening to blues, rock & roll wondering where I’m guna park 4 the night. Then I drive there; feed my face; prolly drink too much gin; go to sleep. Next morning I make kawfee drive to a beach and do the same **** all over again. Talk about stupid……sayin.

just try out ur idea.
jonny boi

jonny boi U left out the part about hanging with the Hootchie Cootchie girls all afternoon

 

[lkettles]

Dude;
Just try it. Build the thing; what ever ur idea is. See wha happens. Who cares if it turns out stupid. *** most of what Humanity does any way is stupid.
Do ur idea ; post some piks and report back how it went. Sumbody somewhere has prolly thawt and or done sumthin similar. Don’t worry bout it maybe being dum.

Damn dude; I live in a vehicle at a beach spending all day walking up & down it looking for seashells or whatever washed up with changing tides. Then I sit in the Van listening to blues, rock & roll wondering where I’m guna park 4 the night. Then I drive there; feed my face; prolly drink too much gin; go to sleep. Next morning I make kawfee drive to a beach and do the same **** all over again. Talk about stupid……sayin.

just try out ur idea.
jonny boi

Your life sounds perfect to me!!

 

[eDJ_]

Building a project from a kit or scratch is an excellent way to learn about the technology of that project. If you have some friends who know about the stuff who can help you some then so much the better. Young guys in school days have a great asset in their friends in those years, but once married and working that resource tends to drift away.

If you are on your own and your funds are limited (and possibly your time is just as scarce) it may be worthwhile to source used & existing things that work and could serve your purpose. If you have the luxury of "plenty of money" then you can purchase new stuff & have it installed where it is certain to work. Often extended warranty are offered on new installations where for a few extra dollars you are in business and will have the savings in time for other endeavors.

Today you can watch a lot of Youtube videos where kids are building these projects & filming their progress sponsored by "Daddy's" money so that you can learn for free in the hours where you can't really do anything during that time of the day.

 

[INTJohn]

Your life sounds perfect to me!!

Shhhh! Don’t say it out loud.
To me it’s not perfectly stupid but stupidly perfect…….

jonny boi aint sayin; jus sayin

 

[maki2]

I am not sure why so many older persons talk as if they were the last good generation because the truth is that they are not. It the responsibility of older generations to be the mentors that make a difference in their lives. If they are not taught how to do things we of the older generations are the ones to blame for how they turn out.

 

[NctryBen]

I am not sure why so many older persons talk as if they were the last good generation because the truth is that they are not. It the responsibility of older generations to be the mentors that make a difference in their lives. If they are not taught how to do things we of the older generations are the ones to blame for how they turn out.

Wise words… but younger folks are listening less and less to older people…
It’s the ones who listen who do well…

As far as the op… I agree to at least try it… remember if you do it may ruin at least something on your panel… but that’s what I’ve done with stuff like that. Experiment! A person learns something way more doing then looking for videos put out by self proclaimed experts…

 

[dhuff]

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” ---Socrates, 470-399 BC

And thus is ever was...

 

[user 22017]

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” ---Socrates, 470-399 BC

And thus is ever was...

I agree that it seems like the older generations have been saying things like that for a hundred years or more. But most likely that quote is not from Socrates. See: https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/respectfully-quoted/socrates-469399-b-c/

 

[Ken in Anaheim]

Ruff life makes for ruff men. Ruff men make life easy. Easy life makes men weak. Weak men make life ruff. And the cycle continues.
Toughen up!

 

[maki2]

There are articles on the internet about installing plexiglass over solar panels. The results are not all that positive. It interferes with the refractive light absorption. The panels can accumulate condensation between them. The acrylic type of materials can haze, scratch and yellow. With all the wind blown desert sand surface scratching on that plastic will for sure happen unless you opt to buy the much more expensive scratch resistant versions of it.

. The solar panels are designed with certain surface characteristics. When you install plexiglass over them they are no longer in the optimal conditions they were designed to be used in. There are times when re-engineering helps and times it reduces performance. Creating a frame to suspend the panels from would be fine as long as there is air movement under them. But encasing them inside a “protective” cover does not seem to me (after doing some reading on the subject) to have any real benefit for performance and the material used to cover the panels has its own issues for longevity. When a “fix” creates as many issues as it solves is it worth the cost and effort to implement it? Perhaps so if you have the time, money and love to experiment with things. But a good scientific minded person always creates a “control” test subject that has no such changes so they can get a more accurate, side by side look at the real results instead of just saying “I think it worked”. Some projects are immediately obvious when you make such changes as adding a layer of plexi if you already had used a product in it’s original state for a while. But how would you know if you if it works better or not if you had never used it before other than by reading previously collected and trustworthy data for that change?