Buying A grade solar cells

[wjb1]

Hi looking for some help in buying solar cells to build my panels.
not real confident about ebay. Dont no who to buy from.

[russ]

Hi wjb1 - Welcome to Solar Panel Talk!

Let us see if any of our DIY types have any suggestions.

Russ

[Sunking]

You cannot buy A grade cells, the manufactures get them. All you can get is factory rejects.

[rollandelliott]

ebay has them

look up user mlsun
using advanced search feature.

look at the prices too at $1 to $1.25 per watt it's not that economical to get grade A cells.

[Mike90250]

I can describe anything as A grade on ebay, and charge you 2x as much. Does not mean anything, unless i can get you to believe me.
There's dozens of folks claiming to sell A grade cells. I don't believe one of them.

[rollandelliott]

yes anyone can try to sell anything, but he has pretty good feedback. if the seller was selling "b" grade as "a" grade his/her feedback would show it.

[Mike90250]

yes anyone can try to sell anything, but he has pretty good feedback. if the seller was selling "b" grade as "a" grade his/her feedback would show it.

Problem is, with out a lab to test them, a person has no way to tell, and as panel failures usually are traceable to something else, there is zero chance of being caught.

[rollandelliott]

can't one just hook up a voltmeter to one cell in sunlight and test them themselves? most b grade cells on ebay have sharp edges, very small chips and other visual defects, hence the discount.

[Mike90250]

Grade A cells have no microscopic flaws or cracks that propagate over the coming years, no funky metalization, and several other features (even AR & SA coatings, batch testing ( if too many parts in a batch fail, the whole batch is rejected))..

[Sunking]

can't one just hook up a voltmeter to one cell in sunlight and test them themselves?

Sure you can do that. All solar cells will have the same voltage regardless of the grade. It is the current that will get you.

[Mike90250]

most b grade cells on ebay have sharp edges, very small chips and other visual defects, hence the discount.

Actually, those would be grade C, with visible flaws. B's have flaws on the microscopic level.

[russ]

Makes me think of buying silk carpets in India - there are many terms that tell you what you are really getting that I don't remember now but I suppose some of them would roughly translate as, 'fools silk'.

As long as no one that knows anything about a silk carpet ever looks at them all is well.

Russ

[rollandelliott]

any diy web sites showing panels failing from bad cells?

do you folks have any websites or other data that shows panels failing from bad cells? all the diy web sites i've read talk about panels failing from bad encapsulation/water vapor, etc. Never read a story about panels failing from bad cells.

and yes I meant currnet not voltage in my previous post
just measure the current and that way you can tell if a cell is bad pretty easily.

[solaremp]

I have bought all my mono's from this guy. He has them cheaper on ebay. All the one I have recieved so far, (about 160), have put out excatly what he claims. he sends extra in case some get broken in shipment.
Sorry if we arent supposed to post product websites

http://www.everbrightsolar.net/mono-crystalline-solar-cells.html

[russ]

As this is something many ask about it can stay.

Does anyone have comments to make on Everbright Solar?

Good or bad will help others.

Russ