Harbor Freight Solar Panels

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2000UZJ

2000UZJ

10 Year 15 Year
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I have read quite a few good reviews on them with only a few bad. I was thinking about mounting them to the roof rack and running power to a battery, which will power a fridge, and a fan for sleeping inside. Charging phones, etc as well while the vehicle is off. It could also be used to power small LED Lights mounted on the roof rack for night time camping, with a waterproof switch mounted on the outside.

Any suggestions/thoughts?


http://www.harborfreight.com/interests/solar-1/15-watt-12-volt-solar-panel-96418.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/interests/solar-1/7-amp-solar-charge-regulator-96728.html
 
15W is useless to try and keep up with a fridge & other stuff. Save your money!

You need to be thinking 100W or more to keep up with a fridge in hot weather and other charging duties.

In Oz you can purchase 120W folding (hinged) panels with 'ok' charge controller delivered for around $160. Unfortunately those bargains don't seem as common here.

cheers,
george.
 
george_tlc said:
15W is useless to try and keep up with a fridge & other stuff. Save your money!

You need to be thinking 100W or more to keep up with a fridge in hot weather and other charging duties.

In Oz you can purchase 120W folding (hinged) panels with 'ok' charge controller delivered for around $160. Unfortunately those bargains don't seem as common here.

cheers,
george.
Click to expand...

Thanks George,

I did find a few 100W and 120W panels on eBay for around $160-170. Do you have a charge controller in mind that you would recommend? I would love to get this project on the way. I know HF had 45W kits for ~$100. The panels are small enough to mount underneath the rack and use as a battery tender. I have thought about that just to get a idea on how everything works.
 
I like a folding panel since it takes less room and can be deployed where the sun is assuming you have 20 - 30' of cable (choose appropriate gauge). I prefer to park my vehicle under shade if possible or where the noonday shade will hit it - helps the fridge efficiency etc.

For a charge controller, there's a pretty decent one from Hong Kong/China that is a TRUE MPPT device. You can score them for less than $100 on ebay. I think I got mine delivered for around $80 - took a few weeks to score it.

This is an example of the unit that I recommend:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-STOCK-2...076?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5651743294

BEWARE - most of the cheap SO CALLED MPPT units on ebay are NOT MPPT...

cheers,
george.
 
"amorphous crystal"? wow! that must be special! errrr... no. First, you can't be amorphous and crystalline at the same time AFAIK. Second, if they really mean amorphous as in thin film, which is likely what they mean, it's the lowest efficiency of the big 3 types. "Superior performance"? Don't think so. You'll see it's actually pretty big for a measly 15W.
 
This solar panel stuff gives me a headache! I would like to go solar panel for ease of charging the battery, and charging small appliances (phones, computers, cameras, etc). I need to do some reading this weekend and get caught up on solar panel terms.

The fridge isn't necessary, however it is nice to have. My plan was to mount a small marine battery in the cargo area (in the future drawer build) and have the solar panel charge it while wheeling and run the fridge off vehicles power. At night I could shut the truck off and switch over to the battery in the drawers. Now that I told you guys that, do you think the 45W kit from Harbor Freight could charge a small battery for that reason?

In terms of mounting location, I would like to mount it on the front of the roof rack, the rack I have has large spacing between the cross members. I could essentially mount the panel underneath the rack, assuming I can expose the panel to efficiently capture sunlight. I'm clueless with this stuff...lol
 
1) buy mono-crystalline panels - best efficiency and not really at a price premium these days.
2) buy a decent charge controller - TRUE MPPT is a good choice to get the most out of your panel.
3) ANY shading of a solar panel will drop output dramatically - so FULL sun is what you want - not under any roof rack rails.
4) You DO want to be able to move the panel a few times per day to track the sun if you want to get the most out of your panel.

Just charge both batteries while you are wheeling and run fridge etc off the combined batteries. The alternator will easily keep up with it all AND charge both batteries.

Switch to one battery when you turn off the vehicle. If you are just sleeping the night etc, then a 1/2 decent aux battery will more than easily keep up with the fridge and other low draw stuff like chargers for ipods/phones etc.

I certainly would not both using a solar panel to charge a vehicle battery while driving along - use the alternator.

I use solar when camped since we may stay in one place several days without starting/moving the vehicle, so a panel that can keep up with average power draw (fridge etc) while camped is essential.

Anything less than 100W panel is really a waste of time in terms of purchasing/setting up/wiring etc etc.

I've made do with an 80W panel and an MPPT charger for two trips to the oz bush now (2 weeks each) and ran the fridge 24/7 off the aux battery charged when driving and topped up while camped for a couple of days.

Typical setup from last year in the west oz bush. As you can see, having the panel on a cable allows moving it to where the sun is.

metzke2.jpg


I've previously used a 40W panel and that was basically not capable of keeping up with the fridge (older Engel) so every 2nd or 3rd day required moving on and topping up the battery. An 80W panel will keep up with a modern Engel etc (the fridges have nearly doubled in current draw efficiency over the past 20 years). In oz a 120W panel only costs $10 or $20 more than an 80W (prices have dropped a lot in the past 2 years) and if doing it again, I'd just buy a 120W panel. More than enough power and will still do a decent job on overcast days. Again, buy MONO-CRYSTALLINE.

cheers,
george.
 
George,

Those mppt controllers you've linked don't have at-battery temp sensor from what I can see. Even if the contrller is placed near the battery with similar ambient temp the controller or battery could be quite different. It seems the charge profile could have a big error or worst cause damage to the battery. Is that a concern with the less expensive controllers? I know moringstar has a remote temp sensor option but their controller comes at a premium price.

Thanks for the good info. As always, very helpful.
 
The controller I linked to does measure ambient temp inside. That should be pretty close to battery temperature if they are in the same general area. That controller also switches from bulk charge to float charge - all the voltages are user configurable via the LCD/menu system.

It's actually a pretty decent controller for the money.

A big lead acid battery isn't 'that delicate' that a few mV here or there will cause a big problem. Look at car alternators that pump our 14.4 - 14.7V... Batteries still last for many years.

cheers,
george.
 
well, just for giggles I checked the owners manual for that panel. Not surprisingly, there is 0 information. Nothing about what kind it is, no specs besides the alleged 12V 15 watts rating. No power curve, no fill factor, no efficiency, nothing.
Stay away.
 
I wish Unisolar made one of their flexible panel rolls that would fit on top of an LC, but their shortest is 112"X 5" which if I'm not mistaken is too long. That one makes 68W. So about half that size would stick right down the center of a cruiser from sunroof to tail and make 34W, which would be nice juice for a second battery. The price would only be about $100, and they're supposed to be one of the best solar films in the business.

You could even apply three side by side covering the whole roof, making 192W, which would power a lot of gear. They're rated for 180MPH winds so no worries driving around with them stuck to the roof. They also don't need to be pointed directly at the sun to make max power, so affixing them to the flat roof is fine.



















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