Emptying a storage room I find this old solar panel that we used years ago in the house in summer, when the electricity still did not arrive. We had this solar panel and 2 or 3 car batteries and some (if we could) for trucks. During the day we charged the car batteries, slowly but steadily. And we used the rest to have light at 12V even televisions at those 12V.
This is the Solar Arc ASI 16-2300. It has 35 cells and dimensions of 1,225 mx 0,305m, that is, 0,373625 m2
Testing in August between 14 and 15 in the afternoon I have obtained 20V and 2A maximum, so we are talking about a power of 40W P = V * I
And if we take 40W in 0,37 m2, it is equivalent to saying that in 1 square meter it will generate 40 / 0,373625 = 107,06 W / m2.
Taking the average irradiance of 1000 w / m2 that is used for the calculation of the HSP (Peak Solar Hours) we obtain an efficiency of 107/1000 = 10,7%
Technical characteristics ASI 16-2300
Empirically we have just obtained
- 20V
- 2A
- 40
- 10,7% efficiency
From the file that we see, and from which we get the name of the model, I try to find more information about this plate.
They are 30 years old and I have found a paper that I attach about their degradation due to the weather in a 10kw installation and apart from this there is nothing else-Analysis of the degradation due to time of solar panels with c-Si photovoltaic modules in a 10Kw plantDownload
They speak of the decrease in efficiency of 3% when starting to work and after the progressive loss and especially of the types and causes of degradation in the plates due to time (yellowing, degradation of the tracks, etc, etc (
At least from here I get some information:
ASI 16-2300 board are sc-Si modules with 35 cells of 102,5mm diameter, using PVB (poly-vinyl-butyral) for the encapsulation and tedlar / aluminum / tedlar for the back.
I have already discovered something else, the technology used. The modules are of sc-SI (crystalline silicon)
How to take advantage of it
Nowadays it does not give much, in the end it is 40w that I can use as we did 30 years ago to charge a battery. If not, I can think of some uses: Ñ
- Charge mobiles and tablets.
- Power Arduino and ESP32
- Feed Raspberry, although I think it is just Amperage. I don’t know if 2A peak will work fine.
- Use it as a power supply to mine cryptocurrencies with ESP8266 or esp32, which is a project that I have been wanting to test for a long time.
- Run some lights for the chicken coop, small pond water pump, etc.
ESCSA brand RX 100 battery charge regulator
The solar charge controller or regulator is responsible for protecting the battery from overcharging so that it does not continue to enter energy when it is already charged.. What it does is dissipate all that excess energy. It indicates the charge it is receiving and how charged the battery is. The RX 100 is all aluminum.
¿Aph (Amps per Hour) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amperio-hora ??
It is an automatic charge controller for photovoltaic solar systems. What it really does is protect the batteries from overcharging so that they no longer receive a charge once they are at 100%.
It stopped working a long time ago and when you open it you see a disintegrated component. I’m not sure what it is and I can’t find regulator schematics or datasheets, or anything. If anyone knows, please leave it in the comments. It has 4 pins. I was thinking of some diode bridge. although here you do not have to rectify waves.
Photo Gallery
I leave photos many extra photos of the photovoltaic solar panel and the battery regulator.
