Solar Power and electricity?

A Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter, also known as a VOM or multimeter has a switch that sets the meter to measure voltage, resistance (ohms) or current (milliamps). Multimeters are priced from about $15 to more than $100. The more expensive ones have digital displays, more settings and more features. They are sold at Sears, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes and other places.

The best way to determine solar cell output is probably to measure both the voltage and the current in the load and calculate the power from Watts = Volts X Amps. (One milliamp is 0.001 amp. You could also use a known resistance for the load and calculate power from Watts = Voltage squared / ohms or Watts = current squared X ohms. You can buy resistors at Radio Shack. You need to determine how much voltage and current the solar cell will generate and select a resistor that will draw that current when that voltage is applied. Voltage = Current X Resistance or Resistance = Voltage/Current. You also need to make sure that the expected watts won't cause the resistor to overheat. You can connect resistors in parallel and in series to withstan more watts. Four resistors of the same ohms connected two in parallel and the pair in series with the other pair of two in parallel make the same resistance as a single resistor but withstand four times the watts.

You might also think about how to determine if you various colors of light have the same brightness. If your red light is 20% brighter than your blue light, how will you know if the change is solar cell output is due to the difference in color or the difference in brightness? Light meters are sold in photographic equipment stores, but they may be pretty expensive. You might want to look on eBay.

If you are looking for quantitative answers, measuring the solar panel output is the least of your problems. The other answerers gave you these.

How, though, will you measure the energy level of your light sources?

A light meter or meters which can measure both infra red and ultraviolet can do the trick. One can obtain a light meter (WWW.lightmetets.com/ptofuvyd/q527.shtml ), but they are expensive, over $150), but they cost over $200. I don't know of a better way. Just reading light source wattage won't give you an accurate measure of the light falling on the solar panel.

Well firstly I would tell you that of visible light something near the violet end of the spectrum will generate the most energy while reds will generate the least. I would probably measure how much energy your solar panels are creating and that would be in units of watt-hours or, more conventionally, joules. A joule is equal to one watt-second, which means the amount of energy needed to power a one watt light bulb for one second. You could use a low wattage light bulb attached to your solar panel and see how long it will power the bulb after exposure to a certain color of light. Convert that to watt-seconds, or joules and you've got a comparable unit of energy.

I was unaware that solar pannels reacted differently to different colors of light.( Thanks though gives me something to check out)

I'm no engineer but I would assume white light, the combination of all colors.

Output is probably best displayed in volts, as wattage is a calculation.You will need a Voltmeter to display the potential out put from the pannel, if you connect the panel to a circut or load you may also connect an Ammeter in series to display current. Remember,

V

----

IR

Where V is voltage, I is current, R is resistance. The equasioon is the same for wattage I'm pretty sure. (been out of school a while)

Hope this helps...

Good luck

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energy is the product of volts and current

(you need a multimeter)

but if there's a source resistance maximum power

is when the load equals the source resistance

solar panels are not like a car battery !

Guide To Solar Power : http://solarpower.duebq.com/?BPM

you can use a ampprobe or an amp meter, also you can use a volt meter to measure voltage