I've been wanting to build a DIY solar back up battery system

>>1133530
Obviously depends in how thick it is.

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>>1133530
Solar is pretty fruitless as it is.
My array drops off by over 50% if I neglect to clean my panels every few weeks/months. (Dusty driveway and pollen) I can't imagine that setting them up behind any obstruction is a good idea.

>>1133530
yes a screen will limit a cell, I bought a house with a roof top system in the sandy dessert they have to be cleaned daily or the very small sand dirt layer limits the cells to 87% normal capacity

>>1133530
>solar system on apartment

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>>1133585
>>solar system on apartment

If the patio wasn't screened in, a solar-battery power pack for emergencies would be perfectly viable (assuming a southern exposure).

>>1133537
Why not diy something like this
https://youtu.be/46xkvAhmwyQ?t=24s

seems fairly easy to do with some square tubing, a hose and an arduino

>>1133530
It does but I can't give you hard numbers. I had a Siemens 75 watt monocrystaline panel on a windowsill of a south facing window.. not angled properly. I think I was only getting around 65% of full rating max.

Do you have a smart phone like a Samsung Galaxy that can measure Lux? My S5 can. You might want to take some measurements under different conditions (time of the day, overcast vs full sun, angles, etc) behind a bugscreen.

I have very low power consumption in my top floor apartment, 2 hrs of direct sunlight on a pair of 240 watt panels generates enough (after inefficiencies & losses) to run my fridge and lights that I use during a day.

I'm hoping to get a basic grid-tie system set up on my west facing open balcony with excellent sun exposure in about 2 months.

I will eventually go battery backup (a pair of Trojan 6v 300 Ahr batts) as I already have a Trace C30 charge controller and a pure sine wave inverter. The battery cost is more than the grid-tie unit plus my power is very reliable, no outages in over 2 years. I just wish I could afford LiFePo batteries.. those are a game changer.

>>1133537
Easy solution: clean your friggin panels then.

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>>1133537
>>1133877
Yeah its just a lot of work for the $25
A month worth of power they make

>>1133937
>a lot of work

Yeah, I can see how hosing it down or running a squeegee over them 5 mins once a month can exhaust a person.

:^)

>>1134030
I had an aunt who, while designing the house they were going to build, wanted to remove the bulk of the windows in the house because she didn't want to wash them. As in the outside of the windows. That thing you do once a year, not to mention that thing that I'm sure my uncle did anyway.

>>1134214
believe it or not there are SOLAR POWERED WINDOW/SOLAR CELL CLEANERS. Activates when it rains, you hose the panels/windows down, it scrubs and cleans, then goes into a corner out of the way. Get a solar powered(with battery/capacitor) rotating brush, hook it up to two servos on the panel(s) with non-corrosive wires. Add additional servos for sunlight tracking. Control all those servos with an arduino or raspberry pi.
More setup and parts, BUT auto sun tracker with adjustments for the year. Auto screen/window/panel cleaner. Now you can do the set it and forget it fun. Double the fun by attaching heat exchangers to those solar panels and heat some water. It will also increase the efficiency of those solar cells by lowering their temperatures.

Hot water, electricity, if you design the setup and house right, all day reflective sunlight INTO house(less power to light up your home/heat it up during the day). Release heated water via radiator pipes during the night/winter.

>>1133585
Nothing wrong with that as long as you keep the system small and off the roof, so you can take it with you.
>>1133703
The problem isn't that you won't get enough sunshine, it's that installing a solar system on a property you don't own is asking for a headache when you eventually decide to move. You either do as I said above and take the system with you, or you rent the panels. Otherwise you'll end up eating the cost of the system that your landlord now owns.

>>1134266
>all those moving parts
>set and forget
More like set and forget and replace every six months

general solar thread? general solar thread.
I'm considering getting a 10w 12v solar panel and a 5v (3a) step down, and use it to charge a USB battery bank. I realise i wont get the full 10w out of it (especially with the step down), but even 5w would be enough for what i will be using. Has any one done anything similar to this?

>>1134740

I've powered a circuitboard with a 20v (I think it's 20) solar panel. Just plug it in and it works, maybe add a capacitor bank to keep it from turning on and off whenever a cloud passes by.

>>1134758
20v is well and truely over the USB spec, so i would need a step down. What is your panel rated at and what circuit were you driving?

>>1133585
I came here to say this.
Guy can't afford a house but wants to make a solar backup power system.