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Author: keith

Joule Thief Charge Curve for Low Voltage Solar Cell Experiment

Joule Thief Charge Curve for Low Voltage Solar Cell Experiment

I put a 0.5v 1A monolithic silicon solar cell on the front end of the Joule Thief circuit. Added a schottky diode and 2000uf cap on the output. I wanted to see how long it would take the Joule Thief to charge the cap bank. There are two 1000uf/50V caps in parallel to get the total 2000ufs. In full sun it took 3 mins 34 sec. to charge to 21.8 V.

Took voltage measurements every 15 seconds. Here is the data:

Here is the Joule Thief circuit that shows the connections for this experiment (to see a full size image click image then click image on following page):

Solar Joule Thief Circuit
Solar Joule Thief Circuit

Cheers!

Joule Thief Energy Harvesting Experiment w/Low Voltage Solar Cell

Joule Thief Energy Harvesting Experiment w/Low Voltage Solar Cell

Solar Cell Setup
I put a 0.5v 1A monolithic silicon solar cell on the front end of the Joule Thief circuit. Added a schottky and 2000uf cap on the output. I wanted to see how long it would take the Joule Thief to charge the cap bank. There are two 1000uf/50V caps in parallel to get the total 2000ufs. In full sun it took 3 mins 34 sec. to charge to 21.8 V.

Stored energy 1/2*C*V^2 = 0.48 Joules