Optimizing Your Solar panel


Hate the high price of solar panels? Not getting enough juice out of your array because of cloudy days? Stop! Before you buy another panel, make sure you are getting the maximum that you can get from the panels you already own.

I wanted to get the most out of my panel and noticed that it was rarely working at maximum output. I recently got a DC refrigerator and realized I'd need three more panels to run it straight off my array.
While mirrors are common for passive photovoltaic systems and parabolic reflectors for solar heaters,I haven't noticed mirrors employed for active systems. Frisnell lenses are used to magnify sunlight on cells, but I didn't have any. It occurred to me to reflect beams of light onto my panel from the sides with mirrors. On cloudy days I could get much better performance from my panel with two mirrors set up as above. I still didn't max out my panel, but maybe with more mirrors I can. My testing equipment isn't that great, but I'm getting a much bigger reading.
Does your panel totally stop working on cloudy days? Does a small bit of shade keep your whole panel from working? If so, your panel is shade-intolerant. I'm using soft panels. They have no glass glazing, are flexible, unbreakable, and lightweight. They have bypass diodes between every cell, which makes them the only commercial module that is shade tolerant. Nor do they whimp out at high temperatures. There's a company called Uni-Solar that makes them. Mail order is cheapest. You can order them from Real Goods or Jade Mountain. They both have web sites.
Basically, I spent a few dollars on cracked, broken mirrors at the thrift store and got the equivalent of a couple hundred dollars more solar panels (on a cloudy day).

Makers of solar panels have emailed me, saying that such a set up will violate their warranties. What a bunch of wussies. They just don't want people to stop buying their overpriced and underpowered devices. They should spend their time trying to make a better product than harrassing people like me.

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