Building Solar-powered Inland Cruiser

CDK · Oct 29, 2012

Did nobody notice there's a gap of 7 years between posts #5 and #6?

Liighthead · Oct 29, 2012

Jeremy Harris said: ↑

The panels I used (pretty much like all the ones I've seen) are completely waterproof so there would be no advantage in putting them behind another clear layer. I used Sunflex panels, that are slightly flexible and only around 5mm thick, so they were easy to bond directly to the top of a canopy.

Adding another clear layer, either of acrylic or glass, would also reduce their output. Even the standard glass or plastic weatherproof covering reduces output, when compared to a raw silicon cell, by around 5% or so. The glass used on PV panels is usually toughened low iron glass, with a high transmissivity, to keep losses down.

I did try acrylic sheet with some home made panels and found that it was only a couple of percent worse than low iron glass though, so if you're looking at making panels you might want to consider it. Polycarbonate is also an option for a DIY panel, although the losses would be slightly greater than with acrylic. Polycarbonate is pretty tough though, so that property might outweigh the slightly higher loss.
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thanks
was thinking of putting 2 under acrylic on the front deck.
in the case that their waterproof then it would be their to protect it
and yeah i totally agree on pollycarb its pretty amazing stuff haha acrylic just came to mind first

and no i didnt notice the 6 year difference haha

erik818 · Oct 29, 2012

Has anyone given a thought to how speed scales with size for a solar powered vessel? I assume that you´d like to maximize the factor (panel area) / drag, but I don't immediately see how this factor is affected when scaling.

Erik

philSweet · Oct 29, 2012

Did nobody notice there's a gap of 7 years between posts #5 and #6?
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Crap. I though I'd learned to check that every time.
I was in a hurry when I banged in my response, guests from England visiting. They were supposed to fly to New York today, spent most of the visit trying to reroute them. Hurricane Sandy has the east coast airtravel buggered up.

Some one should ring the guy up. He might actually have a chance today. Highly unlikely seven years ago.

Red Dwarf · Oct 29, 2012

CDK said: ↑

Did nobody notice there's a gap of 7 years between posts #5 and #6?
Click to expand...

That is why I called it a zombie thread, but no one got it.

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Building Solar-powered Inland Cruiser

CDK retired engineer

Liighthead Junior Member

erik818 Senior Member

philSweet Senior Member

Red Dwarf Senior Member

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