solar recommendations

GunsMadeAmericaFree

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,324
318
136
Can anyone recommend some trustworthy solar panels, in the range of 2 to 40 Watts for small projects?


I don't really trust the ones I've seen on Ebay - they are often much smaller in square inches than I would expect for the wattage they are advertised with - and I'm pretty sure they AREN'T the new 35% efficient cells at those prices....


Thanks!
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,554
4,050
126
My solar experience is with roof-top residential panels and batteries. So, I am not able to exactly answer your questions, but maybe I can help guide you. And you aren't going to get past 25% efficiency, not at this time. Anything past that level is solely in the lab stage right now. They might be available in a year or two. Look for Perovskite Tandem solar. Some thoughts / questions:

1) What is it that you want to do with the power? That will drastically impact the best choice. What exactly do you want to power and for how long?

2) Can you go without power and if so, for how long? Solar is great but unreliable. That is where batteries come in.

3) What will you do in bad weather? Those small portable solar panels tend to be not weather-worthy. Meaning they can fly away in high winds, be destroyed by rain / humidity, or have their output permanently lowered by hail.

4) Big brand names of portable solar panels to look for include Jackery, Bluetti, Goal Zero, Anker, Ecoflow, and Renology.

5) Wattage ratings are typical maximum ratings*. Meaning, unless things are perfect, you will get less than the rated power. So, if you need 40 W of power, a 40 W panel won't cut it even on a blue, sunny day. Things you might not even think about will lower output just enough to notice. For example, you might not see any clouds but you might be underneath a plume of small wildfire particles. Here is the current map.


* On cold days, the cloud edge effect can get you slightly above the rated power as the clouds cool your panel and as soon as the cloud moves away the silver lining gets you a short focus of more intense light. In that moment, you can briefly exceed the rated power.
 
Last edited:

GunsMadeAmericaFree

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,324
318
136
I mostly want to trickle charge some batteries. I have some 3 amp (5 amp if I put a heatsink on it) voltage reducing buck converters that I've purchased, and I'd like to get some small, inexpensive solar panels that would be good to trickle charge batteries.

I am assuming mostly LSD NIMH AA, (unless some other tech has come out in the last 15 years, and is better?) and perhaps one setup with a car battery, just to power a couple of reading lights if the power goes off for a while. I'd also like to experiment with charging up a battery during the day, so that a very tiny radio/mp3 player could play off of it.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,788
12,783
126
www.anyf.ca
I find small solar panels tend to be way too expensive per watt to make sense financially unless you are very limited in space or want something portable. So if you have physical space for it I would go at least with a 100w panel. I have 4 Renogy 100w panels on my shed and they've been there for several years now. I have power running to a bunch of plugs in my house and charge my tool batteries and AA batteries etc off them. There's also feeds going to my server rack. Eventually I want to automate switching power between solar/hydro based on the solar battery voltage. My inverter is 3000w so I can even run big loads for a short time if I have to.

In general they seem to be mostly made very similar across brands, so get what you can get. But buy from a reputable solar store, I wouldn't do Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon etc. Local electrical distributors sometimes sell them too.
 

drnickriviera

Platinum Member
Jan 30, 2001
2,423
217
116
I have some Renogy 50w and ecoworthy 25w panels I use with pwm charge controllers to keep my equipment batteries topped off. Keep an eye out as eco worthy had a sale a month ago and was able to get the panel and charge controller with sae plugs and alligator clips all in one kit. Most of these cheap charge controllers have a usb type a port built in
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,554
4,050
126
I mostly want to trickle charge some batteries. I have some 3 amp (5 amp if I put a heatsink on it) voltage reducing buck converters that I've purchased, and I'd like to get some small, inexpensive solar panels that would be good to trickle charge batteries.

I am assuming mostly LSD NIMH AA, (unless some other tech has come out in the last 15 years, and is better?) and perhaps one setup with a car battery, just to power a couple of reading lights if the power goes off for a while. I'd also like to experiment with charging up a battery during the day, so that a very tiny radio/mp3 player could play off of it.
In that case, I don't think you have to worry about many of my points above. You wouldn't be charging in the rain for example.

I'd go with whatever you find on sale. Stick to one of the brands I mentioned and look at Black Friday sales.

Solar panels tend to be higher voltage and lower current (but it does depend on model). Usually people buy them in pairs and then you can wire them in series or parallel depending on if you need more voltage or more current. But, that doesn't apply to you. Just be certain that your buck converters can handle the incoming voltage and you'll be set (especially the open circuit voltage).

Lithium Ion AA batteries are on the scene now. Other than that, the low self discharge batteries should be good.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,307
16,389
126
Why not get larger used panel? Even with degraded output it should be more economical than new gear.
 
Reactions: Ken g6

GunsMadeAmericaFree

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,324
318
136
I thought about getting a batch of used ones, but the place wanted about $700 for shipping - nearly 4X the actual price they were asking for the panels.

Regarding the Lithium ion batteries, why are so many places showing them rated in milliwatt hours, rather than milliamp hours? When I did a conversion, they come across with a lower rating than the old NIMH LSD batteries. I thought they were much more energy dense? From what I see, it doesn't seem worth paying 3X as much for them. Any thoughts?
 

drnickriviera

Platinum Member
Jan 30, 2001
2,423
217
116
Link to those batteries?
just go to battery hookup or battery clearing house and see what they have a good deal on.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,788
12,783
126
www.anyf.ca
I would not bother with lithium for a small setup, it's much more involved to wire up and you need some decent EE knowledge on BMSes etc. You need to make sure all cells are same capacity, and then you need to setup circuitry to balance charge/discharge them etc. Some people have done it by extracting cells from old Tesla battery packs or tool batteries and building out their own battery packs and there are some open source Arduino stuff to help but for a small setup I'd just use some regular FLA batteries from Canadian Tire or whatever the US equivalent is. Even UPS batteries can work fine for a small setup. With lead acid you don't need a BMS or anything like that, the cells mostly self balance themselves. You just need to do an equalize once in a while which simply charging the battery at a higher voltage for a bit, most charge controllers should have this function built in. Do not setup equalize if you use sealed batteries though.
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
8,466
1,086
126
i have one of these and have talked to the guys that own this company, they are pretty cool and have some interesting larger stuff. I think these are also buy one get one. usb output. have been messing with it for a few months and have been impressed for its size and weight.

I also have used a bunch of renogy products and have not had any issues with them.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,554
4,050
126
Regarding the Lithium ion batteries, why are so many places showing them rated in milliwatt hours, rather than milliamp hours? When I did a conversion, they come across with a lower rating than the old NIMH LSD batteries. I thought they were much more energy dense? From what I see, it doesn't seem worth paying 3X as much for them. Any thoughts?
I don't know exactly why there is a change in specifications, but mAhr was always a highly misleading measurement. That is because the capacity depends on the type of use. There is no one capacity rating for a battery--but they still list just one on many batteries. The end effect is that you can only use mAhr when comparing batteries of the exact same chemistry for the exact same type of usage.

See below how the mAhr capacity of an alkaline battery changes drastically with the drain applied.

From here: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/L91.pdf

There also isn't just one lithium chemistry. There are quite a few that are readily available. So any generic trait like "energy dense" may only apply to one type of lithium battery. Generally lithium batteries are lightweight, work well in more extreme temperatures, and have a long storage life. Capacity, actual weight, energy density, and fire safety vary drastically from lithium battery type to lithium battery type.
 

GunsMadeAmericaFree

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,324
318
136
I just found a place in our state advertising these for $25 a panel. They could be almost 10 years old. I've found a couple of places that say they actually only made about 205 Watts, not 285. Even so, I'm guessing that after 10 years, they might make about 100 to 110 Watts each. Is $25 a panel a good price for one of these? The company is out of business, but was bought by Sunpower. Evidently, Sunmodule cells were made in Germany and the U.S. I'm just not sure how trustworthy 8 to 10 year old panels from a bankrupt company are.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,788
12,783
126
www.anyf.ca
That is a super good deal. Panels do degrade over time but you still get a majority of the rated output even after 25 years. Although there could be a reason why these are being sold sooner, maybe they are degrading faster, but still a good deal regardless provided they're actually producing. I picked up a bunch from a nearby solar farm last year, they were selling off all their panels since they were degrading faster and they basically got a warranty replacement. For a solar farm a few percentage degradation adds up but for a home owner it's less of a big deal.
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |