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Lion Energy has Lion Energy GO 20 Portable 20W Solar Panel on sale for $8.50 when you apply discount code BN during checkout. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member xjimmyx for sharing this deal.
About this Item:
Lion Energy has Lion Energy GO 20 Portable 20W Solar Panel on sale for $8.50 when you apply discount code BN during checkout. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member xjimmyx for sharing this deal.
About this Item:
- 20W Solar Panel with Monocrystalline cells
- Dual USB 11.8" connector wire from panel to Lion Cub GO with max current output of 8A
- 2 USB 5.34V @ 4A outputs
- Dimensions: 18.4" x 14.3" x 1" (L x W x H)
- Weight: 3 lbs
Editor's Notes
Written by qwikwit | Staff- About this Deal:
- This matches a recent Frontpage deal.
- Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars from 32 reviews.
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Update: This deal is still available.
Lion Energy has Lion Energy GO 20 Portable 20W Solar Panel on sale for $8.50 when you apply discount code BN during checkout. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member xjimmyx for sharing this deal.
About this Item:
Lion Energy has Lion Energy GO 20 Portable 20W Solar Panel on sale for $8.50 when you apply discount code BN during checkout. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Community Member xjimmyx for sharing this deal.
About this Item:
- 20W Solar Panel with Monocrystalline cells
- Dual USB 11.8" connector wire from panel to Lion Cub GO with max current output of 8A
- 2 USB 5.34V @ 4A outputs
- Dimensions: 18.4" x 14.3" x 1" (L x W x H)
- Weight: 3 lbs
Editor's Notes
Written by qwikwit | Staff- About this Deal:
- This matches a recent Frontpage deal.
- Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars from 32 reviews.
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+73
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Top Comments
In afternoon sun I got about 24W (13.3V at 1.8A) from the 2 in series which is less than I expected for the conditions, but maybe it was a bad connection (I was using alligator clips to temporarily connect the wires). A 100W rigid panel in the same conditions was getting 75-80W.
If you leave your phone or power bank you'd want them out of the sun. If you put it under the panel's shade make sure the panel is propped up to allow airflow underneath or your phone will bake.
First of all, taking the cover off the back of the panel is a destructive process. The plastic cover is screwed to the PCB from the side that's facing the panel on two opposing corners, and the PCB itself is glued to the panel making those screws inaccessible. You could probably drill out the screws by going through the back of the cover, but I wasn't in the mood for making a replacement cover. I did manage to get the end cap off which is just a snap-in fit over the USB A ports and I was able to see that each USB A output is fed by individual buck converters (2x inductor + 2x unidentified 8 pin chip). So they're not just linear regulators at least, which is nice, and the dedicated buck converter for each port means you can sustain higher current when both ports are in use.
I then tested it with a variable load in full southern california sun at solar noon with the panel pointed straight at the sun, and found that each USB A port voltage starts falling below 5V when it pulls anything north of ~1A. It holds 4.8V pretty well up through 1.8A, and once you get up to 2A it drops to about 4.5V. I was able to push it up to just north of 4A before the voltage fell off a cliff, but at 4A the voltage had dropped to very close to 4V. Long story short, any device plugged into the USB A port is unlikely to ever pull much more than 1.5A just due to the voltage drop, even at peak solar output.
That's not the whole story through, because I repeated the load test with a power bank charging from the other USB A port. The power bank was only pulling about 1.25A at 4.95V, but it kept pulling that amount even as the other port approached 4A. Even better, it maintained 4.95V until the load from the other port completely swamped the panel's output, at which point both ports dropped to < 2V of output. The peak output I saw is very close to if not slightly over the 20W peak output claimed for this panel. Unfortunately, due to the way USB charging works (e.g. devices tend to pull as much as they can until the voltage drops to around 4.8-4.9V), it's very unlikely that you'll hit 20W even with 2 devices charging in full midday sun. The buck inverters just aren't up to the task for 2A of output while maintaining 5V, but that's not the panel's fault...with a proper regulator connected to the unregulated micro USB ports I'd imagine 20W is pretty doable.
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256 Comments
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I know positively my tiny 5W foldable panel I had could charge a large power bank from empty in about 8 hours. That required at least 2-2.5A output to accomplish that time. I'm positive a 20W panel could do 3A x2.
Don't ever buy foldable solar panels, solar modules are very brittle and a thick frame like this is better especially when porting around. I've had foldable and bendable panels in the past before and I've always gotten the unsettling cracking noises when grabbing too close to an edge.
On a day-to-day basis, I'll use this on my 10k and 20k banks. I've also got some smaller packs that this will work with, as well
I do have south-facing windows, so this should work well for me, indoors. There will be some losses through the window, but it's 100% out of the weather
Seems like a no-brainer.
I see no use for this other than sticking it up in the windshield and running some wires and using it as a battery minder type thing.
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I know positively my tiny 5W foldable panel I had could charge a large power bank from empty in about 8 hours. That required at least 2-2.5A output to accomplish that time. I'm positive a 20W panel could do 3A x2.
So the way I see it, 20K mAh each, x2, converted to kWh (40K mAh x 5V ÷ 1M = kWh) is 0.2kWh. So multiply that by my local rate of $0.10/kWh, and that means I save $0.02/day by charging both to full. $9.54 was my cost after tax, divided by $0.02/day = 477 days/charges. So realistically, at or under a 2-year return. Yes, I know this will basically kill my banks in that time span. That's why I stock up anytime I find any at around the $5 mark, or $10 for large ones. I have plenty still sealed and on standby to replace them.
I don't want a bigger solution. My setup HAS to be portable and be able to be brought indoors in seconds. Anything less/permanent panels aren't an option here, we get rain at a moment's notice and see softball size hail... This is more an experiment/fun than trying to go green. Another key reason is to have a way to charge phones if power is out for an extended period of time (which is more than I care to admit thanks to our extreme weather).
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On a day-to-day basis, I'll use this on my 10k and 20k banks. I've also got some smaller packs that this will work with, as well
I do have south-facing windows, so this should work well for me, indoors. There will be some losses through the window, but it's 100% out of the weather
I basically do the same thing, use these to charge and deplete power banks to save a few bucks on the electric. Especially during the summer variable rates that can peak to almost $0.50/kWh on my plan. It does make a difference.
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