Solar States Blog

Solar States is at it again! With students at the Science Leadership Academy finishing up another great semester of solar design and photovoltaic research, we thought long and hard about what our next step should be in bringing solar education and industry to the Philadelphia area. But in the end, it came down to one simple question: what comes after high school?

College. And in college, the first classes you take are the intro classes, the 101 classes, with names like “Intro to Psychology” and “History of Early America.” This is Green Energy 101.

GREEN BY EXAMPLE is our newest course, teaching you the basics of LEED certification, weatherization, solar and other groundbreaking innovations. Taught by LEED expert Sam Klein (LEED For Homes Quality Assurance Designee), GREEN BY EXAMPLE can show you the investments you should consider and the ones you need to make in order to become LEED certified or just save your family a few bucks. And with guest speakers from the Philly solar and green building communities, we are making sure you are getting the most up-to-date information.

Before Philadelphia students and prospective installers can get on a roof and install solar panels, they have to understand the basics of home and commercial energy. There are natural, creative ways to plug the energy leaks that are harming your environment and draining your wallet. Come learn about them.

And even if you are afraid of heights; even if you can’t tell an inverter from a ballast mount; even if you have no interest in solar at all, wouldn’t you like to know how to stop your house from hemorrhaging energy and costing you a fortune? Get your prerequisite energy knowledge out of the way with Green By Example.

Ok Sales Pitch over. Thanks for your interest in our mission and if you are interested in signing up, we will see you in class!

GREEN BY EXAMPLE: An introduction to Alternative Energy, Weatherization and LEED For Homes

When: Saturday, June 6th, 2009 / Saturday, June 13th, 2009 / Saturday, June 20th, 2009 / Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Where: Northern Liberties Community Center, 700 N. 3rd Street (at the corner of 3rd and Fairmount Sts.)

Time: 9:30am-12:30pm

Cost: $350 for the entire 4-week program. There are 5 spots available to low-income participants.

On Friday our VanK came into engineering class with a peculiar smile stricken upon his face, staring at the boxes stacked chaotically on the front table. He lifted it up and ripped it open like a kid opening the first present upon waking up on Christmas Day. VanK revealed to the class that we had unexpectedly received solar cells from an unknown source, and would be experimenting upon the neat little contraptions to test for Efficiency, Wiring in Series/Parallel, Voltage relative to mirror useage, testing the output of the solar cells and seeing if they could power a simple motor, which came with every air-tight packaged solar cell. We divided ourselves into groups, and began working on the task relative to what each group wanted to do. My group, which consisted of one another and myself, decided to figure out the efficiency of one of the solar cells. We proceded to open the packaged solar cell, which resulted in the cutting of one of the wires, which I then stripped. I went back into the lab area to acquire a logger pro interface, the wires to operate it, and a voltage reader and light detector. When I came back, the solar cell was disconnected from the motor and my friend and I proceded to test how many volts one solar cell could produce. I hooked everything up, the voltage meter to the solar cell and interface, the interface to the laptop and outlet, and the light detector to the interface. My friend held the light detector at the same level the solar cell was at, and I began recording the data we needed, the solar cell registering about .13 volts and the amount of light in that area registering 420 luxs. When we finished collecting the data, I proceded to analyze it, and sent my friend on a cleanup duty. I converted the luxs to watts, and measured the volts per watt. Thinking I was done, I packed up for the day, and head about the room for the remainder of the period, checking out what other groups had done.

Today, on Tuesday, the first time this week we met up for engineering, the film crews were here shooting all of our endeavors. VanK was asking us what we were doing, and we proceded to raise our hands and inform him of our works. I raised my hand after my good friend, Gianni and another kid were done relaying what they and their group had found, and I told VanK, when no one else had anything to say really, that I was doing the efficiency of the solar cell, and that I had not come to any conclusive data, and that I would make some conclusions today, but that I would need to convert volts to watts. I asked him how, and he told me to get a current meter. I didn’t fully understand why until I realized that converting volts to watts requires that you know the amperage of the solar cell as well. However, before I realized that, I went off to help another group with wiring four solar cells in series. When I was done, I did a little google searching, found what I needed to know, and got all the venier and logger pro equipment I needed. Since the wires to the solar cell were too short to reach around the entirety of the current meter, I decided to attach a copper wire to the red wire. I connected them into the current meter, and recorded the solar cell’s amperage, measured in amps, or amperes. I found the data that I needed, and converted the volts into watts by multiplying the volts by teh amperes. Happy, and satisfied, I continued my endeavor of surveying the other groups of my peers, the wired in series solar cell being put into direct sun light, and hooked up to a motor, upon other things as well.