PV Gap

Virginia Said:

If you could collect 60watts of solar power from a solar panel that was getting its power?

We Answered:

If you could .
The sad fact: this is impossible.

Bill Said:

How can you power a television with a solar panel?

We Answered:

The newer LCD TV's have a line-switching power supply. If you look on the back, and it says something like "100 - 250 VAC" as the input, that's a sure sign that it's a line switcher. Generally, you can hook up such a TV to a DC voltage straight from a solar panel, and it will work. The trouble is, the DC voltage must be about 150 to 200 volts.

One possibility is that you could get three of these: http://sunelec.com/index.php?main_page=p… at about $60 each, and hook them in series. Those are amorphous panels, which is why they're so cheap. They will have good output for a year or two, then will degrade. More expensive crystalline panels will have solid output for decades.

Jay Said:

How big of a solar panel will I need to power a R/C car?

We Answered:

Your rc battery should have a amp/hour rating. Find out what that rating is. Charge the battery then run the rc car until it dies.


Then do battery rating/hours run. Then do that number times the volts to get the wattage.That should get you about right. Not taking in account battery performance.

If you buy a cheap multimeter you can hook it in line with the battery and check how many amps are flowing this would be more accurate.

I think you're goign to find the panel would have to be so large to run the car that it isn't going to work. Best you could hope for is the use the panel to charge the car. Charge for 2 hour drive for 10 minutes. Wiring it up would depend on the volage of the battery. IF it happens to have a common voltage you can buy the regulator with over charge protection.Then just hook it up easy. If it's not a common voltage it will be a little harder.