Flexible Solar Panels?

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

yeah, it is crazy what other stuff is out there at the moment. Ive just bought a household panel for on top of my trailer and one of these regulators

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/271215060...84.m1439.l2649

Regulator was $54 delivered from china and works an absolute treat. tells me load being used in amps when switches, fridge etc is turned on, can also turn it on and off from the regulator. Also tells me temp in my toolbox which houses batteries, amps beign put in by the solar, voltage remaining, percentage remaining and other things.

absolutely unreal.

Ordered one of these today to replaced my existing unit on my Solar Panel.

Thanks again prado2004



Sent from my iPhone thingy

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Very interested to see how this goes on your panel Craig.
It's certainly loaded with features for the price.

[yowie Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close yowie]

For someone that might know something about solar panels, I bought a 120 watt solid folding panel from Kulkyne Camping last year. Have not had the opportunity to use it yet (different things have stopped us from getting away for too long at a time).

Came with heavy duty wire and an Anderson plug attached so I can plug it straight into the van's plug and therefore connect with the van's batteries.

The regulators are attached to the back of the panels, then the 10 metres of lead to the Anderson plug.

I assume there will be a drop in power before it reaches the batteries. Would shortening the 10 metre lead reduce that power drop by much?

[Beach Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beach]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/360466559...84.m1423.l2649

I just bought these. At $200 its to good to pass up. I will be doing a bunch of experimenting at home with batteries, inverters, etc.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Nice one Beach. Yeh the price is to good to pass up. My only criticism on these is the stands that need modifying but for the price....

Can someone explain to me how (at least with the bit-deals panels anyway) the 120W, 140W and 160W panels can all be identical dimesioned panels with different outputs? Is it a tweak in the regulator? Identical panels, identical hardware (or so it seems) with the 120W being $175, $203 for the 140W and $250 for the 160W? That's the only reason that I went for the 120W as I couldnt justify spending the extra $70 for the same kit

[Whitey1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey1]

I think they space out the cells more on the lower wattage ones. They may have the same size framework(saves costs making them all the same) but the higher wattage panels just have more cells.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Cheers Whitey. I'll take mine out for a look and take some pics and post up. Perhaps Beach could do the same to see if there is anything obvious...

[Beach Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beach]

Will do Craig. You have peaked my curiosity. Enquiring minds and all that.

[Beach Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beach]

Measurements are right Craig. Here's a pic of mine inside the toolbox on the front of my trailer

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13011[/ATTACH]

My controller like this one finally arrived. The instructions are big average to say the least.

Whats the "load" connection for?

I will be hanging an inverter off a battery, so I'm a bit baffled by this one.

Any other hints and tips in wiring it up greatly appreciated.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Still waiting for mine to arrive... Ordered 1st October. Mmmmm

[Matt01 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt01]

Nice one Beach. Yeh the price is to good to pass up. My only criticism on these is the stands that need modifying but for the price....

Can someone explain to me how (at least with the bit-deals panels anyway) the 120W, 140W and 160W panels can all be identical dimesioned panels with different outputs? Is it a tweak in the regulator? Identical panels, identical hardware (or so it seems) with the 120W being $175, $203 for the 140W and $250 for the 160W? That's the only reason that I went for the 120W as I couldnt justify spending the extra $70 for the same kit

I bought the 140 w panel from bit deals and the max current output is 7amp not the stated 7.9amp. So I would have to agree, how are they getting different outputs from the same size panels??? They are not.
Apart from this issue, the only other problem was the soldering on the alligator clip, not to good. But given the price I would buy another one , just not 140w only the 120w.

[prado2004 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado2004]

I'm the owner of a solar company and also accredited as an off grid designer and installer. Hopefully this qualifies me to make some observations. Like many on this post, I've looked at various solar options.

My comments:
1/ mono vs multi/poly is a solar holy war with no basis in fact. Some have claimed mono is better in shade. Sorry that's complete baloney. They are called solar panels for a reason and a leaf or bird poo sized shade on any panel will cut output by 25%. In reality, there is no real difference between the two. A 120 watt panel is a 120 watt panel no matter whether made from mono, poly, lama wool or geranium petals. When comparing, look at the dimensions, weight, quality of the hinges and support legs. Here's a white paper on the topic of mono vs poly: http://rfisolar.com.au/media//The_Gr...y_Nov_2010.pdf

I am not saying I know more than you because I definitely don't. However a mate bought a 190w panel off ebay, it was suppose to be mono but when it arrived it was poly. We could tell because the cells didn't go to the edge like monos and it looked nothing like the pic. He emailed them and it turned out they had no monos in stock (even while advertising) so of course he wasn't happy. ended up getting his money back and getting one from another. In relation to differences between mono/poly, we tested them and in our case there was a difference. In full sun both panels produced about 8-9 amps per hour however when the panels were placed half in the shade the poly panel dropped down to pretty much nothing where as the mono panel still produced 4-5 amps per hour. For this reason he opted to get his money and get a mono panel as when you are camping there is always some shade from time to time.

Just my 2c worth, but we tested it in real world conditions with my regulator which I have provided info about in the last few pages, it tells the amps going into the panel and we used the same regulator for both panels and same cabling so nothing differed apart from the panels.

Hope this helps guys & once again not starting a debate or trying to poke the fire!!

[prado2004 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado2004]

Ordered one of these today to replaced my existing unit on my Solar Panel.

Thanks again prado2004



Sent from my iPhone thingy

Anytime guys, glad to be able to give something back. I still think anyone who is selling folding kits for more than $300 is taking customers for a ride, even the bosch ones....

Yes regulators are better (sometimes) and folding legs are better etc but its not expensive for aluminium so the extra $200 is hard to justify. The one I bought a while ago for $200 on ebay even had a better bag than my mates bosch one.... After getting the rivet gun out, some aluminium I had laying at home mine is now more solid than his and creates more power. As it should though as his is 120 watt and mines 140. He paid $500, mine was $200....

I am a big believer in real world testing, I even went to my local 12v camping solar store, discussed in great depth with the guy about my findings after him telling me the ebay stuff was rubbish and he didn't have a response.

For the price guys, have a crack don't get ripped off. Its just like the household panels, before a 5kw system and 20 panels was $10 grand, now its $5 grand. $5k divided by 20 panels is $250 and a 5kw inverter price fits in there somewhere.....

I am a realist, definitely worth doing the sums. Toyota charges us enough for our cars, no point getting ripped off on other accessories where we can.

An update on my regulator craig, its done 5+ trips now, corrugated roads, hot conditions (in a toolbox), beach driving and nothing wrong with it, hasn't skipped a beat.

You will love it!

[Jaster Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Jaster]

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone has bought solar products off these guys in Perth? Pics look like some I have seen on Ebay. Not bad prices for all capacities. Just wanting to know if anyone has had dealings and if you have these panels whether you would recommend them, any issues etc. Would still look at upgrading regulator though.

http://www.mickeybluaustralia.com.au...olar-panels-2/

[Chris220220 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris220220]

My controller like this one finally arrived. The instructions are big average to say the least.

Whats the "load" connection for?

I will be hanging an inverter off a battery, so I'm a bit baffled by this one.

Any other hints and tips in wiring it up greatly appreciated.

I have a bit deals solar setup. Had a couple of controllers.
Load the output terminal. I put the multi 12v outlet on it and connect the fridge and everything else to it.
Mine is not on the panel so easy to use that way. The load will supply a constant voltage to devices connected,
whilst charging the battery on the battery connection. With the metered regulators you can see what you getting in amps from the panel, what your charging the battery in amps and voltage as well as what current the load is drawing.
Like this:
Solar panel/s------Regulator-------- load(fridge, lights inverter)
. |
. |
Battery

Lines down go regulator to battery (I hope)