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Step 8Getting more practical power from your panel
It is very easy to get a few solar cells and put them together into a panel,
but sometimes it gets expensive to get enough cells to make a useful voltage.
If you obtained one or two large cells, you may have a whole watt or two,
but only a volt or less, and that's sad. Not too many things run on less than
a volt.
Perhaps you got enough big broken cells to make 6 volts , but wouldn't it be
nice to have 12 volts? Then maybe you could keep a battery charged and
occasionally run an inverter on it.
In the last step I mentioned how time could be used to save up power for
another time when it will be used. And a small panel can make enough
power over a long time to run a big load for a short time.
In this step I am talking about matching the voltage of the panel, whatever
it may be, to the voltage that you find useful. Or generally, matching
supply and demand in a satisfying practical way.
It may be possible to design a 2 volt circuit for a 2 volt panel, but unnecessary.
It is possible, although as far as I know, using obsolete Germanium transistors,
to get any voltage out of a big half-volt cell, and I don't know a modern way,
so I'll leave that idea alone.
But there are many voltage doubler or multiplier circuits that work at slightly
higher voltages, and I see that I've made a few panels around 6 volts which
I'd like to get 12 out of. There is a voltage doubler chip still available called
ICL7660 or MAX1044 that is very convenient to use. So I will use it as an example,
since I'd rather have around a watt at 12 volts than at 6 volts.
There is something else I did that was very obvious in the picture for step 1,
where I had 3 "broken cell" panels around 6 volts and put them in series to get
around 18 volts... and since the cells were large that array has a lot of current.
But if I use just one 6 volt panel and want 12 volts, I use the voltage doubler
and get twice the voltage in exchange for half the current. AC transformers
do the same thing... almost the same power goes out as goes in, but at a
more useful voltage. Some circuits that do this are called "DC to DC converters".
but sometimes it gets expensive to get enough cells to make a useful voltage.
If you obtained one or two large cells, you may have a whole watt or two,
but only a volt or less, and that's sad. Not too many things run on less than
a volt.
Perhaps you got enough big broken cells to make 6 volts , but wouldn't it be
nice to have 12 volts? Then maybe you could keep a battery charged and
occasionally run an inverter on it.
In the last step I mentioned how time could be used to save up power for
another time when it will be used. And a small panel can make enough
power over a long time to run a big load for a short time.
In this step I am talking about matching the voltage of the panel, whatever
it may be, to the voltage that you find useful. Or generally, matching
supply and demand in a satisfying practical way.
It may be possible to design a 2 volt circuit for a 2 volt panel, but unnecessary.
It is possible, although as far as I know, using obsolete Germanium transistors,
to get any voltage out of a big half-volt cell, and I don't know a modern way,
so I'll leave that idea alone.
But there are many voltage doubler or multiplier circuits that work at slightly
higher voltages, and I see that I've made a few panels around 6 volts which
I'd like to get 12 out of. There is a voltage doubler chip still available called
ICL7660 or MAX1044 that is very convenient to use. So I will use it as an example,
since I'd rather have around a watt at 12 volts than at 6 volts.
There is something else I did that was very obvious in the picture for step 1,
where I had 3 "broken cell" panels around 6 volts and put them in series to get
around 18 volts... and since the cells were large that array has a lot of current.
But if I use just one 6 volt panel and want 12 volts, I use the voltage doubler
and get twice the voltage in exchange for half the current. AC transformers
do the same thing... almost the same power goes out as goes in, but at a
more useful voltage. Some circuits that do this are called "DC to DC converters".
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When I check my local Electronics store
they list 3 different versions
ICL7660CPA
ICL7660CSA
ICL7660SCP
dose it make a difference which one I pick ?