waterproofing front of cells with epoxy

[skywurz]

Hi all

I was wondering if anyone has tried not using glass or acrylic and just epoxied the front of the cells glued to a ridged backing. Im looking a building some rather small/manageable panels due to work space constraints and it will not be cost effective to buy a bunch of small glass/acrylic for each panel.

[Mike90250]

acrylic will turn a nasty yellow on you in a couple years.

[skywurz]

acrylic will turn a nasty yellow on you in a couple years.

AFAIK that's just a myth due to people mistakenly using polycarbonate instead of UV protected acrylic

[inetdog]

But your run of the mill epoxy will either absorb too much light or suffer UV degradation. That is one reason that encapsulants are used instead.
You could also risk cracking cells from differential expansion.

And an air gap between cover and cell can cost you 8-16% in reflection losses.

[peakbagger]

Epoxy is degraded by sunlight and turns yellow unless there is a UV protectant applied to it.