How to build a small SOLAR PANEL that will light a 60 watt light bulb?
October 4th, 2009 | 
Author: Hi. I need to build a solar panel for a project. it should be able to light a 60 watt light bulb. also, it should be about 3×3 ft if it is 50% efficient. if anyone knows any websites or can help me, please answer! thanks.
Making your own photovoltaic (solar electric) panel is a nontrivial matter if you want to get 60 watts out of it.
If this is a science fair project, there are some possible paths that I’d suggest:
1) Make your own cupric oxide panel. With just one square foot, you can harvest perhaps 0.5 mW in bright sun – enough to power a solar calculator;
-or-
2) Buy a panel to light your 60 watt bulb. You could probably get away with a panel that is 6 square feet, but would use a car headlight as the lamp. If you wanted to light a regular household bulb, you would need electronics to step up the voltage, and you would lose a sizeable fraction of the energy just in the conversion.
-or-
3) Buy broken solar cell pieces, or individual solar cells, and solder them together into your own panel. This is a LOT of trouble, and is a finicky process to get working and keep working. And it may not end up being cheaper than buying a ready-made panel. But you can claim that you made it!
By the way, crystalline silicon panels are in the ballpark of 15% efficient, and a 3′ x 3′ one would produce in the neighborhood of 120 watts.
Posted in how to build a solar panel
I don’t have any practical experience building solar panel arrays to power a given device, but allow me to make this observation.
Solar cells, when exposed to sunlight, will each generate a given amount of power (watts), and by wiring these in series, you will increase the wattage.
Now, a panel three feet square will give you a certain amount of power, provided all the cells are wired correctly in series, and it may not provide enough juice to light the bulb. You can work around this by adding a step-up transformer (which takes the incoming power and boosts it to the desired level for output, with no moving parts). Voila! You’ve illuminated your bulb.
I will admit, though, you’ll have to do some math to determine what you need. A search on the Web will help you find the formulae and other information you’ll require.
Good luck.
References :
Making your own photovoltaic (solar electric) panel is a nontrivial matter if you want to get 60 watts out of it.
If this is a science fair project, there are some possible paths that I’d suggest:
1) Make your own cupric oxide panel. With just one square foot, you can harvest perhaps 0.5 mW in bright sun – enough to power a solar calculator;
-or-
2) Buy a panel to light your 60 watt bulb. You could probably get away with a panel that is 6 square feet, but would use a car headlight as the lamp. If you wanted to light a regular household bulb, you would need electronics to step up the voltage, and you would lose a sizeable fraction of the energy just in the conversion.
-or-
3) Buy broken solar cell pieces, or individual solar cells, and solder them together into your own panel. This is a LOT of trouble, and is a finicky process to get working and keep working. And it may not end up being cheaper than buying a ready-made panel. But you can claim that you made it!
By the way, crystalline silicon panels are in the ballpark of 15% efficient, and a 3′ x 3′ one would produce in the neighborhood of 120 watts.
References :