Homemade Solar Jar
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 21:51 — john
Strzelecki1 shares her experience with homemade solar jar lights. Her intention was to place the jar on a windowsill inside a home, so they would recharge during the day and light up at night. Unfortunately, the windows had UV coating that did not allow the solar light to charge the solar jar. Using it outdoors, it unfortunately did not give off enough light with just one led. It also did not store a lot of solar energy during the day, so it doesn't stay on long after dark. This is a good reason to go with named brand solar lights versus generic or homemade solar lights. You can see more of strzelecki1's photos here.
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Re: Homemade Solar Jar
Can you tell us the name of the seller so we can spend our money carefully? Thanks!
UV not really a factor
UV blocking isn't the reason solar cells charge poorly inside a window, but the angle of incidence of the light against the window IS a big factor. And the angle of incidence of that (remaining) light as it falls upon the glass top of the jar will also affect the ability to capture energy from the sun.
Basically, each layer of glass which is slanted away from perpendicular to the incident light angle will drop your efficiency a lot!
So, keep the angle of ALL glass in the system as "square" to the sun as you can and you'll get the most charge possible. (That's why solar garden lights charge up so good, they are outside with a good angle for receiving direct sunlight. But if you put a pane of glass up vertically next to them, that pane of glass will reflect the sunlight away from the solar cell. And you'll lose power.
DIY-Guy
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