The nice thing about building your own solar array is that you simply can make it to suite your needs. Solar cells are typically available in 0.5V and a range of power outputs. They can be arranged in series to get any output voltage you require in multiples of 0.5V. If you are looking to charge a 12V deep cycle battery for an off grid application then you need an 18V panel which will consist of 36 cells in series (36 x 0.5V = 18V output). You need 18V so that even when the panel is not in full sun it is able to charge the battery.
In order to reduce the number of cells you need, you could try splitting your solar cells to get a higher voltage out of each cell for residential solar supplier la porte tx.
The second consideration is that the power output you need . To calculate how many solar cells you need, divide the total power you need by the power of each cell. For example, if you need a 200W panel and you are using 4W cells then you need 200W / 4W = 50 cells. It is important to note that the power output is not related to whether the cells are connected in series or parallel. There is also a spreadsheet available to help you with the household power consumption calculations.
First you would like to start out by planning your panel layout. This is usually done according to the space you have available for the panel, you may be restricted by length or width of the panel and you can adjust the other dimensions to suite. For the 9 solar cells, a sheet of glass 0.5m x 6m (20″ x 24″) was used and the cells were laid out as shown in the attached diagram.
The panel is usually laid out in rows and columns, it doesn't matter how many of each but it does make life easier if you make longer strings of cells in the direction of the tabbing wires and then connect them together with bus wire along the top and bottom.
The next step, and possibly the most time consuming step, is tabbing your solar cells. You can buy pre-tabbed cells and this is recommended if you are not familiar with using a soldering iron although most solar cell suppliers will supply you with un-tabbed cells. It is not complicated once you have the correct technique but you may need to practice on one or two cells first as the tabbing wire is not easy to remove in residential solar supplier La Porte tx.
Cut the tabbing wire to a touch (1cm / 1/2″) over the length of 1 cell for the top tabs and double the length of every cell for the interconnecting tabs. Now begin soldering the tabbing wire to the photovoltaic cell , see the attached video. First draw a line with the flux pen down the length of the silver tab lines. Line the tabbing wire over the tab lines and then run the hot soldering iron down the length of the tab. Do not leave the soldering iron in one area for too long as it will overheat and damage the cell. There is no need to add solder to the wire as tabbing wire comes pre-soldered.