Dummies Guide To Solar

[Yorkshire Andy]

In simple terms get the biggest panel you can ... Those compact fold out ones have a place that place is anywhere south of Spain unless it's a flag cracking UK summers day they simply can't get enough light to charge reliably

Id say minimum of 100 w panel for usb charging

Although there are losses charge a decent power bank .. why ... Every time the sun goes behind a cloud the voltage drops the phone beeps vibrated and lights up the screen. Likewise when the sun peeks back out I found mine was discharging faster that it was Charging

The one in my Amazon basket has a 54W version, £85, I might go for that. Even that is more than what I want to spend on prep stuff at the moment. I'm still recovering my savings after the roof saga.

The 100w I linked to on the radio thread was 85 quid on eBay with the discount code got a few renology bits they aint bad... It also in addition to the 3x usb outlets has mc4 plugs making it future resistant you can plug a power station / bank like My ecoflow river 2 into it with the correct adaptor

[jennyjj01]

In simple terms get the biggest panel you can ... Those compact fold out ones have a place that place is anywhere south of Spain
Although there are losses charge a decent power bank .. why ... Every time the sun goes behind a cloud the voltage drops the phone beeps vibrated and lights up the screen. Likewise when the sun peeks back out I found mine was discharging faster that it was Charging

The one in my Amazon basket has a 54W version, £85, I might go for that. Even that is more than what I want to spend on prep stuff at the moment. I'm still recovering my savings after the roof saga.

The 100w I linked to on the radio thread was 85 quid on eBay with the discount code got a few renology bits they aint bad... It also in addition to the 3x usb outlets has mc4 plugs making it future resistant you can plug a power station / bank like My ecoflow river 2 into it with the correct adaptor

All these panels boast unrealistic power ratings, especially Chinese knock off ones on ebay. For panels, stick to Eco-Worthy or Renology and you won't go far wrong.
The 100W Renology one that Andy Linked to at £99 is much better value than the 54W one, but bigger, of course. You need a bit of surface area to get the energy.

A 54W one might generate 30W at noon on a bright day. You are paying a lot extra to get a bit of foldability.

Andy says 100W minimum, but let budget and available space decide: A 30W hard panel can be used to charge your batteries while they are not in use, but in a power down scenario, you would be steadily depleting batteries faster than you are charging them, unless you used your devices very sparingly.

This thread will later get some posts about how panel voltage gets stepped down to 5V USB. It can be a very lossy process.

[Yorkshire Andy]

The one in my Amazon basket has a 54W version, £85, I might go for that. Even that is more than what I want to spend on prep stuff at the moment. I'm still recovering my savings after the roof saga.

The 100w I linked to on the radio thread was 85 quid on eBay with the discount code got a few renology bits they aint bad... It also in addition to the 3x usb outlets has mc4 plugs making it future resistant you can plug a power station / bank like My ecoflow river 2 into it with the correct adaptor

All these panels boast unrealistic power ratings, especially Chinese knock off ones on ebay. For panels, stick to Eco-Worthy or Renology and you won't go far wrong.
The 100W Renology one that Andy Linked to at £99 is much better value than the 54W one, but bigger, of course. You need a bit of surface area to get the energy.

A 54W one might generate 30W at noon on a bright day. You are paying a lot extra to get a bit of foldability.

Andy says 100W minimum, but let budget and available space decide: A 30W hard panel can be used to charge your batteries while they are not in use, but in a power down scenario, you would be steadily depleting batteries faster than you are charging them, unless you used your devices very sparingly.

This thread will later get some posts about how panel voltage gets stepped down to 5V USB. It can be a very lossy process.

£84.99 at the moment Jenny which is why I mentioned it

[pseudonym]

£84.99 at the moment Jenny which is why I mentioned it

Screenshot_20241125-174520.png

Cracking price.

[Frnc]

Ok, the Renology one sounds good. Price has gone back to £99, so I might leave it a bit. It says a charge controller is needed to charge batteries. I looked at their page on charge controllers and it's mega complicated. I thought I could just plug my powerbanks and battery chargers straight in? https://www.renogy.com/blog/solar-charg ... oose-one-/
On the ebay page it says "It is important to ensure that the open circuit voltage of the panel will not exceed the max DC input voltage rating of the powerstation or charge controller."
Is a powerstation the same as a powerbank? I have three powerbanks and two battery chargers. I have no idea what max DCinput voltage rating they are.

[Yorkshire Andy]

You can it's got 2x usba (one fast charge one standard ) and a usb c built in

[jennyjj01]

Ok, the Renology one sounds good. Price has gone back to £99, so I might leave it a bit. It says a charge controller is needed to charge batteries. I looked at their page on charge controllers and it's mega complicated. I thought I could just plug my powerbanks and battery chargers straight in? https://www.renogy.com/blog/solar-charg ... oose-one-/
On the ebay page it says "It is important to ensure that the open circuit voltage of the panel will not exceed the max DC input voltage rating of the powerstation or charge controller."
Is a powerstation the same as a powerbank? I have three powerbanks and two battery chargers. I have no idea what max DCinput voltage rating they are.

Yes. Discount code has gone away.
A Powerstation is a big hefty battery of car battery size and usually a few £hundred. They take direct connection from many larger solar panels such as the Renology, which they can do because they have an inbuilt charge controller. Max DC Input voltage will usually be much higher than one solar panel could provide, so not really an issue.
They say you need a charge controller, but only if you are going to try to charge something like a car battery.
The Renology one is a multi featured panel that can be used in many types of set up: Standalone to charge USB devices: With a cheap (£10) charge controller to charge car type batteries, or can plug into a
bigger powerstation such as a Jackery.

[Frnc]

Ok, the Renology one sounds good. Price has gone back to £99, so I might leave it a bit. It says a charge controller is needed to charge batteries. I looked at their page on charge controllers and it's mega complicated. I thought I could just plug my powerbanks and battery chargers straight in? https://www.renogy.com/blog/solar-charg ... oose-one-/
On the ebay page it says "It is important to ensure that the open circuit voltage of the panel will not exceed the max DC input voltage rating of the powerstation or charge controller."
Is a powerstation the same as a powerbank? I have three powerbanks and two battery chargers. I have no idea what max DCinput voltage rating they are.

Yes. Discount code has gone away.
A Powerstation is a big hefty battery of car battery size and usually a few £hundred. They take direct connection from many larger solar panels such as the Renology, which they can do because they have an inbuilt charge controller. Max DC Input voltage will usually be much higher than one solar panel could provide, so not really an issue.
They say you need a charge controller, but only if you are going to try to charge something like a car battery.
The Renology one is a multi featured panel that can be used in many types of set up: Standalone to charge USB devices: With a cheap (£10) charge controller to charge car type batteries, or can plug into a
bigger powerstation such as a Jackery.

Cool. What about a portable powerbank, and a AA battery charger? Will I need a charge controller for those? I assume they count as USB devices?

[jennyjj01]

Cool. What about a portable powerbank, and a AA battery charger? Will I need a charge controller for those? I assume they count as USB devices?

You assume correctly.
If your solar panel has USB out, that's the USB feed for your powerbank or AA charger*, so no extra charge controller needed. You need a charge controller if you are connecting from solar panel to something like a car or motorbike or leisure type battery.
Cheap PWM Charge controller takes the 18V nominal output of the panel and matches it up to your 12V car battery. Actually wasting the 6V different and burning off a lot of free energy as heat. There are expensive and less wasteful charge controllers, but out of scope here.

*Some AA USB chargers also waste a lot of energy stepping down from 5V to 1.5V

For superbly cheap and efficient connection from a basic 18V panel to USB devices, you can make your own effective charge controller from one of these.... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09KV6NMRB/ ... F0aWM&th=1