25 April 2014
Back in June 2013 we had a nasty storm that blew all the solar PV panels off my garage roof. The panels all landed in my neighbours back yard and only one of them broke. In this case "broke" mean the glass shattered and it separated from it's aluminium frame.
Today I "fixed" it enough to allow me to put it back up on the roof. It' not going to be anywhere as good as it was before - but I can't just throw it out.
Here's what I did:
1. Pulled off the aluminium frame, being careful to remove broken bits of grass that flake off the edges.
2. Glued the floppy glass encrusted panel onto a sheet of plywood using Bostik Tuf As Nails.
3. Covered the panel with a sheet of clear vinyl from a sign writer's supplier. Two metres cost NZ$20.
Now I have a weather protected PV panel that still produces a bit of power. It's not good enough to add back in to the rest of the array so I'll use it for project that requires just one panel.
Attach:IMG_7741-800x600.jpg Δ|Broken panel glued to plywood.
Attach:IMG_7742-800x600.jpg Δ|Close-up showing how badly the panel glass was shattered. All those glass edges will scatter a lot of light which will reduce the efficiency of the panel.
Attach:IMG_7743-800x600.jpg Δ|Close up of the panel wrapped in clear vinyl
Attach:IMG_7746-800x600.jpg Δ|The whole panel all wrapped.
Attach:IMG_7747-800x600.jpg Δ|The back of the panel.
So - it's ugly, but it still provides power. It might be good for a small stand-alone solar power project like this one.
//
Feb 2016
Well... sadly the current output from this panel has faded since I "fixed" it. It's now to got so low that I've removed the panel from the roof.
Shame it didn't work, but it was a good experiment.
Cheers, Paul