expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • May 24, 2022
May 24, 2022 6:22 PM
Item 1 of 7
Item 1 of 7
expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • May 24, 2022
May 24, 2022 6:22 PM
ACOPOWER 100w 12V Portable Monocrystalline Solar Panel Suitcase Kit
+ Free S/H$150
$300
50% offAmazon
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Your math is a little bit off, even at rated power.
100watts / 12 = 8.3~ amps.
In full sun you're likely be getting about 75 Watts.
So 75 / 12 = 6.25 amps
And then you have to take into account the efficiency of the charge controller. If you use a pwm charge controller you can have efficiency as low as 60-80%. With An mppt charge controller, let's say average is it about 95% for an unspecified generic charger.
75 * .95 = 71.25 watts
Lithium-ion batteries are about 99% efficient when they charge, so 1% goes out the door as heat.
71.25 * .99 = 70.54 / 12 = 5.88
So considering the math alone, to charge a 100ah 12 volt battery from zero (never let it fully discharge by the way) With no ongoing power drain on the battery at all it will take you about 17 hours to fully charge the battery.
100ah / 5.88ah = 17 hours. In theory.
In practice you're probably always going to be somewhere in the middle 40-60% of a charge if you're using it actively. The actual charging rate is going to vary pretty dramatically too, some days might be a little bit overcast and you might be only getting 40 Watts, others you might be in the mid-90watts.
If you want to charge faster, just get some more of the exact same panel and Link them together, then divide that time by x panels.
When sizing a battery Bank you always want to oversized the capacity by 20%, because lithium ion batteries degrade faster when they're at a 100% charge. You want to have a Target recharge of about 80%. In fact many lithium ion charge controllers have the option to set a percentage value on when to stop charging in order to extend the functional life of the battery. Most lithium ion batteries integrated charge controllers will cut off current when the battery starts reaching approximately 8 to 10% of its charge and the voltage starts to drop. So for all practical planning you want to consider that you're only going to be using 70% of the rated amp hour capacity of the battery in a non-emergency situation. If you think you're going to need 100ah of actual use, your best off getting a 200ah battery or two 100ah in parallel and having a 40ah buffer.
⚡🔋
The real world output will vary dramatically depending upon a number of variables, including the angle of the panel to the Sun, if the panel is clean or not, the temperature of the environment and the panel itself, even humidity can have a significant impact on power output. In some areas, with everything else being exactly the same, you just simply get more light.
And that's all before you even get into the issues that crop up in the design and build of the PV system. If you have six PV panels that are in parallel at 12 volts and each have a 20'ft cable going to a bus that feeds into a charge controller, you could easily have 15% energy losses. If you compare that to six 12v panels in series providing voltage to a charge controller in the middle of them for a net of 6 ft of cable, you might have energy losses of only 1% or 2%.
I've purchased 20 of the ACOPOWER 100w mono panels for some very specific use purposes, and I haven't had any problems with them yet.
They typically produce between 75 and 90 Watts in full sunshine. I've used them around vents and skylights on top of a trailer, on the top and back of a camper, to provide remote power and light to long range wireless mesh networks (I have about 5 acres that now have 500 megabit 2.4g wifi coverage) to run 12 volt fans in a greenhouse and a myriad of other uses.
Anyway, in my experience ACOPOWER products haven't been amazing products, but they have been GOOD products, especially for small scale specific use. You wouldn't ever use the 100 w panels or especially this folding portable panel for actual home power generation except in an emergency. Full solar panels are much less expensive per watt. But as an off-grid and portable power source, they work great.
If you're looking for a portable option but have a little bit more room, I would recommend rather than getting this, you buy a couple of the 100 watt panels. ACOPOWER sells them directly on Amazon for $85 and about once every two weeks they have a $20 off coupon that runs for 2 to 3 days before dropping down to $15, then $10, and then being removed for a week or so before coming back to $20. So you're paying $65 for a 100 watt panel, get two in separate purchases for $130 and you're getting over twice the power of this foldable 100w, but for $20 less. Just be patient and check the Amazon listing a few times a week until you see the $20 off coupon.
You can find a little bit more about that particular panel on a thread that I contributed to last month;
https://slickdeals.net/f/15756952-acopower-100w-12v-compact-monocrystalline-solar-panel-module-panel-only-66-free-shipping?p=1548
And a direct link to the actual panel here
smile.amazon.com/dp/B01G53TUIS/
ACOPOWER 100w 12v Monocrystalline Solar Panel Module with Connector (Panel Only, Compact Design)
¢¢
Good luck. 👍
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Edit: Think i'm going to wait for a Renogy sale to happen....looks like two 100w panels for around 150 has happened.
(acopower threads can get deleted here as their numbers are low.)
"It is IP65 water-resistant that will protect from water splashing."
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An IP65 rated enclosure gives protection against low pressure water jets from any direction, as well as condensation and water spray. It's suitable for most outdoor enclosures that won't encounter extreme weather such as flooding.
Edit: Think i'm going to wait for a Renogy sale to happen....looks like two 100w panels for around 150 has happened.
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Looked it up, I paid $340 + tax from their eBay store, Nov. 2020; $317 today on eBay store.
If you want something bigger there are tutorials on YouTube for unfolding 200 watt suitcase using 2 standard 100 watt panels.
Either is a little overkill for just charging usb devices. For that you can just use a smaller standard panel.
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