Anthony, the neighbor immediately to the east hauled a load of branches in and inquired if anyone had a chainsaw. Da Brudda volunteered to use his for the task. Male bonding began.

Can you possibly imagine a more perfect bonding scenario than warm weather, fire pit, branches, chainsaw, beer and testosterone? Only one way it gets better and we had that too: females talking female stuff while watching the back yard bonding in action. Of course they agreed how amusing the whole testosterone driven thing is. Meanwhile they weren’t aware we talked about how amusing they were sitting in the townhouse enjoying their estrogen driven bonding session. Speaking on behalf of males, never underestimate the power of male bonding. The youngest was about 4 (he was drinking root beer) and oldest in his 60′s (that would be me). There was no generation gap (bet you haven’t seen that phrase in a while).

All misbehaving Saturday evenings including this one must come to an end. Mercedes did what you would expect from a growing 10 year old and fell asleep in our bedroom. Heather and Janice shot knowing looks to each other and interjected comments while Jeff, Da Brudda and I indulged and solved the world’s problems. Eventually Heather (designated driver for good reason) decided it was time to take child home to bed and oh yeah, Mercedes too.

One thing about that area of West Fargo, street lights are a precious commodity and functioning ones are even more rare. It took Heather a bit of extra time in the darkness to make sure Mercedes (in zombie mode) was properly buckled in. That task accomplished she was ready to hop into the driver seat – except – where had Jeff gotten off to? Even though too dark to see him she had little trouble figuring out the flowing water sound from behind the vehicle was Jeff contributing to the storm sewer.

Don’t you love when you can assure someone they’ll never hear the end of that kind of thing? It just don’t get any better.

Not the Highest Quality Picture But You Get The Idea

First and foremost problem was the manner used to fasten the plexiglass front panel to aluminum frame. You see plexiglass and aluminum both expand and contract at different rates. Plexiglass is prone to cracking around holes drilled in it even though deburred. It appears my error was in not drilling the holes a bit larger in the “plexi” to prevent hole edges from pushing against the securing screws during cycles of expansion and contraction. Although not severely cracking the plan is to replace the original plexi come spring and adhere it in place using a non-silicone adhesive/sealant that will be permanent without screws.

Second problem was using aluminum channel (the type used as edging around plywood panels) rather than solid aluminum bar for the frame. The channel has less than desired rigidity after assembly and is less than ideal for accomplishing a water and air tight housing for the solar cells. With enough attempts I’m confident satisfactory frames could be produced using channel but advantages of solid bar stock for future panels is personally more attractive.

Third problem is actually not a problem but something to consider when planning and building your own solar panels. The 3” X 6” cells used in the first panel provide a maximum of about 63 watts from 36 cells connected in series. For charging and maintaining the 12V battery power needed in the back yard shed that small panel is quite adequate. Over the winter months the need is mostly for lighting from time to time and maintaining the motorcycle batteries. Cold as it is being this winter there will be little intensive work done in the shed. So the max. 63 watts provided by the smaller cells is proving to be a successful first solar panel experiment.

In the works is the next generation solar panel project/experiment. There are 6” X 6” cells available claiming 8 Amps (or 4 watts) per cell. Thirty-six cells in series would yield 144 Watts at ideal conditions (wild guess is in the real world between 85 & 125 Watts is more likely). The plan is to supply enough power for a 20′ to 30′ travel/camping trailer. Y’know what? Even for a do-it-yourself type doing it all on the cheap that strikes me as both a tall order and big dollar outlay.  Running a refrigerator and occasionally a microwave or other electronics will make charging a large enough battery bank a tall order. An air conditioner and electric water heater would make it an even taller order. None the less my fascination for this project continues.

So the second solar panel project/experiment is in process. The panel will: measure 30” X 60”, have solid aluminum frame, encapsulated cells and detailed text, graphics and video for each step of the process.

140 Watt 30″ X 60″ Solar Panel Layout

Over the past couple days attempts to add pictures have failed miserably. Some kind of blog software-hosting provider glitch I’m guessing. The hosting guru is digging around looking for the culprit but so far nothing.  I’ve postponed  this post long enough, time to publish it and edit pictures in when the problem gets resolved.

Ahhh! Sweet success!