Recycled Solar Power

This is about a Solar Power Plant made from recycled parts. It is a work in progress. It all started at the landfill where someone next to me was throwing away 11 solar garden lights. I had 9 at home from garage sales. I had an old picture frame and some plywood and paint. I had to buy 4 diodes from radio shack. I started by taking all the lights apart and using the solar cells. I saved the circuit boards and LED's for future projects. The plastic globe made nice little hot caps for the garden.

Step 1:

Comments

[jimbo13]

if you tested it with a volt meter and no load connected then that is open circuit volts, so real volts with a load would be about 18 volts.

[Gelfling6]

I've done this with a bunch of much older solar lights.. these had a small 6V Gel Cell, (which usually was well cooked/dry) and a BIG 4"-Square solar panel which would generate up to 8V. (never really got the chance to measure the mA output.) I used to run a 9V transistor radio off one two in series.. No ideas where the heck I put it, though.. Yes, these are totally reusable! I almost had a fit when someone dumped a whole bunch of these style lamps off at the local recycling center, and before I could collect more than 3, the town employee grabbed the whole bunch, into a pail, and put them in the electronics bin. (which made them Hands-Off.. The town collects electronics for (they say) payment from the recyclers. (if they think they'll make millions on the gold, I'd hate to see how much they'll spend on the excess scrap they can't..)

[earthwindwater]

Nice Up-cycling! One tip to save you some money on the next one. You don't need a diode on all runs. You only need one at the end after you combine all the circuits. It is all you need to keep the battery from draining.

[divudi2]

yes, formula is very much correct

[yogadavid]

Could you please tellme what Diod you used. Thanks for instructable. I have quite a few garden lights and there are very few instructables on using garden pannels for arrays.

[aleutianwind]

Hi I don't remember what the diodes were. I got them at radio shack. You only need one for this size project. I found out I was using too many and they used too much power.

[coolsciencetech]

watts=amps x volts I believe

[johhnyboom]

Correct

[shadow4742]

im sorry i didnt get that last part, could you repeat that?

[Nerdz]

You may only need 1 blocking Diode, not a total of 4. Using 4 Results in a loss of power. Assuming you used silicon diodes, thats 2.8V Loss. At High Currents it could result in a few Watts of power Loss from your panel.

[killroy]

I have the same question as koulis1 and jimsss what diode did you use and what was the voltage of each solar cell from the lamps.

[aleutianwind]

Hi. I have taken this panel apart and added the parts on to a piece of plywood with a big mess of other solar cells i have collected and a recycled 8-D battery.  The diodes came from radio shack and were cheap. I can't find the package and don't remember the size. Most of the wire was from old light cords. The inverter was to large for those batterys, a 100 watt cig.lighter inverter would be better and could just be plugged into the socket. The voltage was around 19 to 23 per string of 5 cells so i would guess they average out around 4 each.  Oh Don't use hot glue! What was i thinking, By august the rows had sagged in the middle.

[hancer]

[koulis1]

I have the same question as jimsss. What diode did you use ?

[jimsss]

what diedo s did you use

[mattccc]

i was thinking of this idea too

[FeedTheGrid]

Well done. I like the hot-caps in the garden, too.

[emdarcher]

I cant believe people where giving and throwing away those solar lights! I wish I had got those kind of neighbors in a way

[explosivemaker]

...very much agreed....

[DIY Dave]

Cool

[strmrnnr]

Good Idea. I have another idea for you. If the panals were wired with strong multistrand wire you could mount the panels to a piece of heavy canvas or leather and then you could fold it up and take it camping with you.

[julesfl]

Wonderful project! Recycle the solar panels, cool, and portable!!

[collins75s3c]

Your project is excellent. To find the max watts for your panel, use an ammmeter to measure what is called short circuit current in full sun. Most DVM's have a 10 amp current position on them. Connect the DVM (set on amperes) directly across the output leads of you panel. Multiply the open circuit volatge times the short circuit current to get the max watts that the panel can put out. You will get slightly less than this, as the voltage falls when the panel is loaded.

[muzza.wood]

Hi, This is very interesting and thanks for your effort. I have a question about the wiring. What sort of diode would it be? and what kind of cord was it spliced into? Thanks ./muzza

[PKM]

I have no idea how many watts

A low-power incandescent lightbulb is a convenient resistor that you can use for measuring power. Connect the panel to the lightbulb, then measure the voltage across the lightbulb (multimeter in parallel) and the current flowing through it (multimeter in series), then multiply the two together. I would expect a few watts from the size of your panels- the average garden light solar cell seems to be rated at 150 to 200 milliwatts, so 20 of those could provide 3 or 4 watts in good sunlight.

[Lftndbt]

LoL, here lies the death of the solar garden light. People expect them to be missing in the morning. I sell solar garden lights. For some reason I have never thought to harvest the solar panel out of them, before throwing the damaged ones out. I will be sure to follow your I'ble once I can get some.

[chichimus]

Thats Great. I was thinking of the same thing today while cleaning out the garage :) I am going to ask around work if anyone has any defunct lights.