Solar panels.

[blue90]

Preferably mobile, are they any good? Im thinking charging leisure batteries and things like that, anyone want to school me on Solar? Batteries would be used to run a Cb and perhaps some 12v led lighting.

I take it running things straight off a panel would be impossible? Or has the tech moved forward since I last looked into it?

[Arwen Thebard]

We have this 120w unit.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120W-18V-Pow ... SwLh5dTV0b

Cheap and cheerful, does exactly what is says on the tin. We use it when caravaning on sites with no mains power, for charging our 12v leisure batteries, mobile power packs and phones etc for which it plenty powerful enough under reasonable light conditions. it is ideal for topping up and recharging a partially drained batteries, but would take longer than 24 daylight hours to fully charge a dead battery I reckon. We also keep it easily accessible when at home in case we have a power cut and need to charge up or run things off the batteries as well.

Good points Price, plug and play, easy to set up and use, built in charge controller, long enough cables and clips supplied, its quite light to carry, usb outlets built in.

Neg points No storage bag supplied, the solar cells are on the outside of the unit when it is folded up so could get damaged, (We made our own bag easy enough) you cant use equipment direct from the unit itself, you must have it connected to a battery.

Could we live without it? Yes, but glad we have it especially when travelling off the beaten track.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Minimum I'd plump for is 60w a decent panel will put out about 3 to 4a on a good day.... Had 30w on my shed at one point and it struggled in winter with minimal use

Buy cheap buy twice
I've the older version of this



https://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/cat ... cells.html


More info here

http://www.uk-preppers.co.uk/forum/view ... 10#p122286

If you can go bigger one I got all folds up on itself and cones with a semi rigid carry case

[DustyDog]

Look at photonic universe, you will still need a charge controller, I have one of their 200 watt panels on my camper, in winter it won’t run my fridge so you’d have to work out how much juice you need etc. In brighter days it keeps my 230ah battery full even with the fridge running.

[GillyBee]

Even a basic 12v solar panel could get you out of trouble with a flat car battery in a pinch but it may not cover your other needs.
Last May we had a dose of lockdown car battery trouble. Ahhh - No easy way to boost or jump start or charge the battery without spending ££ and waiting for delivery(Yes it was a prep fail )
Hang on - we have a briefcase solar kit around. Does that have a car charger? Nope but it does charge it's own 12v battery. A little rewiring and a few hours of a solar panel resting on the car windscreen (inside) and all was sorted.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Even a basic 12v solar panel could get you out of trouble with a flat car battery in a pinch but it may not cover your other needs.
Last May we had a dose of lockdown car battery trouble. Ahhh - No easy way to boost or jump start or charge the battery without spending ££ and waiting for delivery(Yes it was a prep fail )
Hang on - we have a briefcase solar kit around. Does that have a car charger? Nope but it does charge it's own 12v battery. A little rewiring and a few hours of a solar panel resting on the car windscreen (inside) and all was sorted.

My solar charger has 2 croc clips but I wanted it tamper proof couple of Anderson plugs and a cig socket plug I can swap between the 2 my boot socket is constantly live so can put it on my parcel shelf plug it in shut the boot