How to Make a Solar Panel Battery Charger

With some basic equipment and a bit of wiring, build a solar panel battery charger that keeps small appliances going. The advent of solar energy has made small solar panels readily available in all sizes. Build a solar battery charger as a science fair project to demonstrate the simple process of solar power.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• AA batteries
• Battery holders
• Terminal strip or soldering iron
• Blocking diode
• 6-volt solar panel

1. Put 4 AA batteries into the two battery holders.
2. Wire the holders together to make a series connection for the battery charger. Connect one positive wire from one holder to one negative wire of the other. Leave the other positive and negative wires alone for now.
3. Join the blocking diode and the battery charger. Use the ringed end. Connect this to the positive wire from the battery holder.
4. Connect the other end of the blocking diode to the solar panel.
5. Take the negative output of the solar panel, and connect it to the negative wire from the battery holders.
6. Charge the solar panel, and watch it charge the batteries.

Tips & Warnings

• Use terminal strip instead of soldering for connections to make things quicker and easier.
• Choose battery holders with the wire leads already attached. These are available at most hardware stores.
• Select a solar panel with leads already attached.
• Once you are confident, build a solar-powered panel battery charger by wiring smaller solar panels together in a series. Also build a larger version to serve as a solar-powered panel battery charger for the big utility batteries that power large flashlights and even small portable generators.