1kg Almost Whole 3x6 Solar Cells for DIY Solar Panel

I have not used all of them yet, but so far so good.

The cells would be a great deal. If they were clean. You break alot of them cleaning them. So don't buy these! Spend a little more and get clean ones.

Shipping:I was a little nervous about purchasing "broken but usable" cells, but I went ahead and took the plunge. I also purchased the tab+bus+flux+diode kit from ML Solar. Both items (the cells and the wiring kit) arrived very quickly. The cells are packaged very well. They come divided in three packs of cells all surrounded with large bubble wrap.Results:I have used the first pack of cells to make my first solar panel for charging my 12 Volt battery. (See the uploaded picture) I have enough cells to make two more panels of the same size/voltage with a few left over cells that I may do a mini 5 volt system for USB charging.Personal thoughts:If you purchase these cells know that you are getting broken cells. They are all either chipped, cracked, or printed at an angle (Talking about the silvery lines on the front of the cell). The cells are mostly all usable. I found 2 that where unusable and didn't produce voltage,about 3 that were "too broken" to use, and I ruined a few more from accidentally breaking them and from soldering down a crack. If you find a cell with a hairline crack where you should solder tabbing wire -Don't solder the crack! It took me a while to figure this out but basically the solder can run down in the crack and essentially short out the front and back of the cell, rendering it useless.I totally recommend using these cells for your projects. They may not look pretty but the do a great job! (Currently charging my deep cycle right now) You get plenty of usable power for the price. Right now Amazon says they are out of stock. I hope ML Solar keeps selling these!I hope this review helps. Feel free to comment if you have a simple question about the cells, I'm not a solar expert but if you want a better picture or something let me know. :)

The power(amps) output from these cells are very low. The highest I got from a cell was about 600 mA, which is a far cry from the stated 3.6 amps. even cells that are unbroken had very low power output. i have used about half of the cells and still dont get up to 25 watts output in bright sunlight. The description should have stated that these were faulty cells before they got broken and that one cannot get any appreciable power output from them.

I ordered this, and didn't get around to opening it for a month or so. When I opened it, I found 4 well-packed packages; I randomly opened one, and found about 45 mostly good cells, with an unbroken equivalent of what I would guess is 40 cells. These are 3x6, so we're talking 160 x 1/8 = 20 sq. ft (1.85 sq m), good for about 200 W of power. That's not bad for solar: at the time, I paid $60 for this plus the tabbing (same company), so I paid maybe $300/kw. Running my whole house would therefore cost about $8k-$10k. If you have the time to learn to do this, and mount it and build it, it's a great way to cut costs and ensure that electricity is not a problem to habitability.Anyhow, this looks fine to me. I have no idea if I'll buy it again, but I'd say that if you want... these are currently really good.As with all broken stuff, YMMV. MMWG.

I've never built a solar panel before, so take my review as such. I will update this review as I test them further if there is interest. The pictures in seller description fairly shows what I received. Some were better than pictured, some much, much worse. The cells were wrapped in 4 secure shrinkwraps. I went through each wrap and counted almost no perfect cells and 117 keepers.My definition of keeper -If a cell is >90% intact with chips off in the same place, or if a cell was completely intact with cracking. The common intact cell flaw is cracking. Other intact cell flaws are missing backing spots, white lines across in spots.In the seller description picture I would keep the ones on the left side. I didn't count how many I discarded, but I discarded alot.

If you want to get into solar cells for a lower price this is a good option. with these you get a good idea of the look, feel and consistency of the cells and can practice and learn without worrying about destroying more expensive cells. most of these cells produce about 0.4 to 0.6 volts and are 3/4ths complete or better, most only have minor chips and fractures and still in good working order. These are a good value and you could make a panel of any shape, size and voltage using these by tabbing them in series, top side to bottom side.

Excellent value. Not much damage noted on any of the hundreds of working cells. Only problem is solder lands on the back of the cells do not easily solder (the top side wicks in solder nicely). The work around is to press on copper foil tape to back to directly solder to after removing the mask to gain access to the aluminum cladding on the back.