Series Wiring to Increase Voltage

• 1). Lay your PV solar cells side-by-side so that the positive terminal of the cell on your farthest left is next to the negative terminal of the next cell, and so on.
  
  
• 2). Solder short lengths of wire between the positive terminals of each cell to the negative terminal of the cell next to it, until only one negative terminal (on the left) and one positive terminal (on the right) remain un-soldered.
  
  
• 3). Bring your newly-created solar panel out into the bright, consistent sunlight and attach the digital multimeter to the un-soldered terminals, positive to positive and negative to negative.
  
  The multimeter should register a voltage equal to the individual voltages of the solar cells all added together, but an amperage equal to a single solar cell's amperage.
  
  

Parallel Wiring to Increase Amperage

• 1). Lay your solar cells in vertical rows with the positive and negative terminals at the bottom of the cells.
  
  
• 2). Solder short lengths of wire between the terminals of all the solar cells, positive to positive and negative to negative.
  
  
• 3). Solder a separate length of wire to any point of the connected positive terminals and another length of wire to any point from the connected negative terminals.
  
  
• 4). Bring your solar panel out into the sunlight, and connect the multimeter to the unattached ends of the separate lengths of wire, positive to positive and negative to negative.
  
  The multimeter will register an amperage equal to all the individual solar cell amperage added together, but only the voltage of a single cell.