JohnRob:
Question. It is possible you could use the raw rectified voltage to power the cell? you could still PWM the output if you needed variable. And I guess you could use phase control on the input of the transformer.
Not sure about the answer to this question. I have not found a whole lot of documentation on this cell and am not very familiar with how they function.
After digging around a little more, refining my search with the help provided here, I found some products such as this:
Advantages: waterproof (so can install outdoors), inexpensive, will meet power requirements.
Disadvangtage: not as educational and fun as putting something together myself?
Thoughts on how something like this might work for my situation?
Thanks!