PV Gap

Courtney Said:

Can solar cells which are on your roof (especially the solahart hot water systems) of being damaged by hail?

We Answered:

Yes they can be damaged by hail. One of mine was and the insurance Co. paid me about twice what it was worth. So in the end I made a little cash from the damage and never replaced the solar module.

It was a small 24 watt cheapy SolarWind brand that got damaged. My other 8 good brand modules never even got a dent.

Tracy Said:

What are the steps taken to design a solar cell system?

We Answered:

The energy produced by the solar cell is related to the intensity of the radiation from the Sun at that particular time. Its called irradiance. Say you wanted to power that bulb for a day, you would need to calculate the total irradiance (which is energy per square meter) using this formula:

Edaydensity = (Imax)(Tday)/(pi/2) where Eday density is the daily energy per square meter, Imax is the maximum irradiance of the Sun, at around the afternoon and Tday is the total time that sunlight is available. If you want to go the easy route just choose 250w/square mater as the average density.

The second is to determine how much power a single solar cell can derive from that 250w/square meter and you'd figure out by looking at the efficiency. A bulk silicon solar cell can provide around 22% efficiency. Based on that you can calculate the number of solar cells required to power a 160W bulb. The rechargeable battery is charged using surplus power that the solar cell isn't using when its under operation. i.e. whatever's left over is sent to the battery. You can determine the surplus power by calculating the amount of power produced by the total solar cell array (power from all the solar cells) minus the power consumed (160W). The entire solar cell system consists of the solar cell which connects to a DC converter to produce DC current. But for household appliances and electronics, this DC current is connected to an inverter to produce AC current. The solar cell is also connected to the battery which stores the excess power.

Travis Said:

Does anyone else see a correlation between the solar system and human cell structure?

We Answered:

I think you are barking up the wrong tree there.

Bernard Said:

Any body have the equivalent circuit for a solar cell and a dc battery charging system connected to it?

We Answered:

you need to do them piece by piece.

Solar cell can be modeled by a variable battery with a large internal resistance. Do a survey online of solar arrays to get the values. For a large array, I'd use one that puts out 24 volts in series with 6 ohms, with the voltage varying as the amount of sunlight.

The solar array connects directly to the charge controller. When the battery is low, you will get about 2 amps out of the array, and that current will decrease as the battery charges.

Output of the charger can be modeled by a transistor in series between the array and the battery. When the battery is low it will be a short, letting the full power of the array go into the battery. A opamp will sense the battery voltage, and when it reaches 14 volts (for a lead acid battery) it will turn the transistor off, letting through enough current to keep the battery at 14 volts, a trickle charge.

and a battery can be modeled by a battery.



um just a question, why did you pick a project about which you know little?

Tanya Said:

is it possible that our solar system is a cell inside of another being?

We Answered:

I think of it sometimes as molecules. we could be just the proteins on the molecules. the universe could be just a drop of water the basis for all life as we know it.

Fernando Said:

Photosynthesis is used by plants and a semiconductor based solar cell both harness solar energy?

We Answered:

Same
Absorb solar energy
Transform into useful from
Best oreinted perpendicular to suns rays

Different
chemical vs electrical
self produced vs factory produced
ridged vs fexable

http://www.aurorapower.net/alternative-e…
http://hyperphysics.info/?cx=partner-pub…

I highly recommend using hyperphysics.info search for all your physics related homework.

Cheers!