So without a voltage chart this method is useless.

Need more white rocks... The bright sun was falling outside the stoned area.

I'm an electrical engineer who used to design LED fixtures. Optimizing the optical cavity in LED fixtures that have optical cavities was one of the things we focused on during designing the LED fixtures. The goal is to maximize cavity's efficiency, which is part of the LED fixture's overall efficiency (or efficacy as it is called in that industry). A couple of comments regarding your experiment: There are 2 types of optical reflectors: diffusive (brilliant white) and specular (mirror-like). You also get reflectors with a bit of both. For solar you mostly want a specular reflector (mirror). To get the maximum benefit of a bi-facial solar panel, the size of the mirror must be the same size of the solar panel. You also need to aim the sunlight such that all the light of the mirror illuminates the back of the panel 100%. That is why the size of the mirror and panel should be the same (except if you use curved reflectors in which case the curved mirror can be larger). Lastly, the sunlight should hit the back of the panel perpendicular. This is to minimize total internal reflection when the light transitions between mediums with different refraction indexes (air to glass on the panel). Total internal reflection cannot be 100% avoided even if the light hits the panel perpendicular. The only way to really eliminate it, is to apply a special coating to the back of the panel that does optical impedance matching between the characteristic impedances of air and glass (the same applies to the front of the panel). This is unfortunately way too expensive. To "bend" the light in the way I described, you need to construct a retro reflector. In this case the retro reflector will have a triangular look and mirrors on the inside. If you are interested I can email you a simple drawing. It is a bit difficult to explain. Anyway, using this technique you will maximize the output of any bi-facial solar panel. I'm curious myself of how much extra power you can extract with a retro reflector. I'm not sure that it would be practical though, since the retro reflector would be fairly large, but it is a cool experiment and you would probably be the first guy on YT doing it.

I want to help a friend that lives in a challenging area where they have no electricity. He would be SO HAPPY to have light at night. His needs are very barbone and so is the budget. I think that a couple of 20w 12v lights for 6/8 hours a day would do... Would this setup do it? Or is it better to use the inverter like you did?

MIRROR?

You really dont need the adaptor

With the cheap price of solar panels, in my opinion it is just better to buy an extra panel and not deal with all that extra construction. I mean paint your stuff white if you can, but that would be about it. Maybe collect pallet wood for free, and slap on some extra white paint and lay it under the panels.

I would love to set up a wire shelving unit as a mini indoor greenhouse and run the uv lights (and maybe heating pads) off this setup.

In my opinion, it seems like a simple and meager setup like this might be a good option for power outages to just get the lights on and charge phones or charge those small plug-in hand-warmer devices. Things like cooking, heating, cooling of the entire house should be done some other way.

Cute custom setup 😊

FTA

FTA

New subscriber! Commenting for the algorithm

Great to see this set up. Eric has a passion for Solar and seems to get every watt he can with mini systems as well as his main array. Really interesting

Nice test and well executed. Minimal gains for the effort but it seems in cloudy conditions bifacial do better gain wise over regular panels. Its all relative to the environment and location of the panels it seems.

It would be useful to test daily power output with both a reflector behind or below. I suspect the range of solar angles a rear reflector will work out may mean on average its less effective than one below even though its peak is higher

The test idea was good but the execution was not. Suggestion - rock test - rocks need to be on the right, left and especially 1 solar panel length behind to reflect. You need to redo this. White tarp - same thing, not enough space behind the panel. -angle tests need to be at the same angle as the panel and the same length. You might need to find the ideal angle of the solar panel based on the time of year in your location. You need to take into account that light is a wave. It’s scattering from many locations. You need to redo this.

You need at least a 150 watt panel. I've been solar touring for 4 years and have tested many scenarios. Yes that is very good equipment but it will take all day to charge. Have fun!

Dude. If you're gonna look at the camera LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!! Don't look at your viewfinder.

This was extremely helpful and very much appreciated!

Roob Mall

Excellent video. Brilliant straightforward, easy to follow instructions. Keep up the great work.

charging a laptop with a $105 setup is pretty cool, thanks! charging the battery in 2-3 days seems rough, but it would be better than nothing

What if I have six batteries connected together?

How do you get the 108 WH rating?

I would have saved the cost of the 12v female adaptor (cigarette lighter) and just spend that on more battery solar. You could easily make the inverter connect directly to the battery.

Seems like it's not worth it unless the bifacial panels are the same cost or cheaper.

i thought maybe 20 hours, i'm using a Samsung 3 door BF263 full size outdoors, run it 5 hours a day with salt/ice bottles in freezer working good with 1000w of panel and lead acid lithium mix, but tempted to go smaller after seeing this! thanks

aloha from the puna rainforest where simple living earth friendly is encouraged. i have been field engineering my own stuff forever, and was adding another panel to one of my systems. couldn't find an answer to what really happens to electron flow when connecting different panels together, but, FOUND YOUR SOLAR POWER CALCULATOR and it was so helpful! thank you! I am retired elevator technician and love probing the unknown often finding great surprises as to what others believe from experts telling them. the sharing of this type of information has unlimited potential to get away from capitalism's financial slavery outcomes. i dream of a total sharing tribe with everyone living their passion and sharing it. smiling.

Lead Acid batteries are terrible for storing energy for long term, either use Lifepo4 or Li-ion they stand for longer time.

Only used 200 WH /day, you are a big winner here, Your AC must have running at the lowest setting?

Having watched other tests, bifacials really seem to work best when its overcast.

I would be interested to see the results if the panel was mounted above water.

Im finding that putting stuff under bifacials is just not worth the effort for the output in a ground deploy.

Had one off ebay (Yeah i know!) it didn't charge at all with the sun. 7 days solid in the sun with no luck. What a waste of time & money. You got it,made in China. lol

So when re connecting the wire back to the solar panel (MMPT) @5.30 it's NEGATIVE ( - ) first then POSITIVE ( + ) SECOND?

How did you make such place with pebbles? Is it something like "washed concrete" when the top is washed off with water or is it handmade?

1:45 please add a Statisfying 'Dingdong' Sound for the fade-in next time 😁

skip the inverter use usb.. in most cases you should be okay with just usb..

I suppose there is a reason for that, but why not use a mirror behind?, just for testing.

What if you just stripped the cable and wrapped them on your battery no adapter required.

Thanks a Lot.

I would have like to see a piece of polished stainless steel used I'm this test

If all you used it for was charging USB devices, it would work pretty well even with a small solar panel. For lighting I would invest in USB rechargeable lanterns or other lighting accessories that don't draw much current. Add everything inside a $10 ammo can. Put everything inside except for the solar panel. Permanently hardwire all the connections to the battery and make sure it's all fused

It’s a great back up generator for small things that need it

Wireless charging on a power bank is the goofiest thing I've ever heard, especially on one that is outdoor focused. They're probably consuming as much power as they're producing just checking for a phone to charge

Lol an inverter that wattage can’t even power a coffee maker… literally need a 3000 watt inverter to do remotely anything…

I've actually seen the situation at 7:24 happen. When I was deployed, I was involved in swapping batteries in the Giant Voice towers. One of our guys accidentally touched the wrench handle to the grounded cabinet door while undoing one of the positive terminals and welded it together. We knocked it off with a hammer and quenched it with some water with a nice satisfying sizzle sound. Definitely no joke

Shopping on Amazon for PV stuff is not cheap at all i could get a 250w panel for about 80dollars

Great video. Exact application in the exact shed I have! Thanks