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Experiment on Solar Panels


crycry

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Hello,

I'm a physics student and I'm writing my EE in physics. My research question is "how does wavelength of light affect the energy output of a photovoltaic cell?" I will be comparing different types of lights such as incandescent light, fluorescent light, sunlight, and LED light. 

I bought a small 1W solar panel and now I need to find some ways to control the experiment. My biggest concern is controlling the intensity of all light sources. I believe since my independent variables are wavelengths of different types of light, I should keep the intensity same right? For example, I can't have one tiny LED light and 1 240V incandescent light because they produce different amount of light that will be used by the solar panel. Is there a way I could figure out the intensity of each light? Or is the intensity irrelevant in my experiment? I have no idea. 

I would greatly appreciate if you can give me some advise as to what I could try. Thank you:)

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Usually light bulbs have their brightness measured in lumens (candela * solid angle) So if you know the intensity for each light bulb, you can manipulate the distance to the solar panel to control the incident intensity per area of solar panel. 

Edited by kw0573
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