Solar Panels... behind glass?

[wintr]

Which might be a stupid question because they are encased in glass... so maybe I shouldn't ask a stupid question...

But everyone I ask in meat space doesn't have a consice answer... so here goes.

I've got a little 5.5 watt solar panel that I'm using to trickle top off my 12 amp-hour AGM battery. I was considering leaving the battery in the trunk of the car and then just running the cable outside of the car. I'm just using the battery to recharge the AA's for my el wire.

And then I realized that the solar panel is a perfect fit to sit on the ledge behind my rear view window and the seat backs..

Does putting the solar panel behind another piece of glass reduce it's effectiveness?

Anyone got some input on this?

wintr

[Valkyrie]

I knew someone who kept a similar panel on his dashboard to keep his battery charged in his old car. It might decrease its efficiency, but the panel still catches the photons to make juice.

[wintr]

That's what I was thinking. Unless it's polarized glass (which would cut it down considerably) then I should be fine.

I just wanted to hear it from someone else. Thanks.

[MrMullen]

Yes, it will reduce the effectiveness, how much is not known.

Your solar panel uses varies parts of the sunlight spectrum to covert to power. Some of it more than other parts. So, one part of the spectrum may be totally converted to power while other parts, very little. That's where you see efficiency improvements in solar tech. They get better and better at converting all and various parts of the spectrum to electricity.

Here is the mystery part in all of this, we don't know any thing about your solar panel and we don't know what kind of glass you have or if it is tinted. I am willing to say that, unless your window is tinted you will see little effect on your solar panel. If your glass is tinted, then I would expect to see a big impact on how much power is produced.

Hope that helps.