Do you get what you pay for?

[Pest]

I'm about to join the solar club. :wings:

I can't find a whole lot about quality of products from different places, many members here have all gone different routes and seem okay with what they did.

Here's the hold up:

I'm looking at www.amsolar.com , they look to have good product, but...

I'm also looking at www.solarblvd.com , they have much cheaper product, as much as 50% cheaper than amsolar (excluding cables and mounts).

By going the cheap route, am I looking at future problems? I'm just concerned since this a big investment sight unseen.

Any input appreciated!

 

[dwh]

Those are both dealers. AM seems to like putting their name on their chosen panels, but I'm not sure who actually makes those panels.

Looks like most of the charge controllers they sell are Morningstar, but they also make their own under the Heliotrope name:

http://www.heliotrope-pv.com/hpv22b.html


Best thing is to decide on good quality gear, and then find the best price. For solar panels, Sharp, Kyocera, BP, Canadian, Evergreen are all good quality. For that matter, pretty much all commercially made PV modules (solar panels) are pretty decent quality.

For the charge controller..for a small system (under 200w), I wouldn't spend the money for MPPT...PWM will do pretty much just as good a job but cost a lot less. Well..for a quality charge controller that is.

I know a bit about solar, and I might put solar on my camper this year (haven't done it yet since I like to park in the shade and solar is useless in the shade) and what I'm almost certain to use is a 135w Kyocera panel and a Morningstar Sunsaver PWM charge controller with optional remote battery temp sensor and optional remote meter. Probably going to go with the Sunsaver Duo which can keep both the house battery and the engine battery charged independently. NAWS has a good deal on that charge controller with the optional remote meter included:

http://www.solar-electric.com/modubachco25.html

I'd still have to buy the remote battery temp sensor for 30 bucks, but that's cool. The Morningstar Sunsavers are solid, epoxy filled bulletproof little units.

Another nice thing about Morningstar units is that there is a serial port adapter and software which allows the charge controller to be custom programmed with a PC.

http://www.altestore.com/store/Char...ollers/Morningstar-PC-MeterBus-Adapter/p6749/


I could see maybe buying a cheapo solar panel - but under no circumstances would I use a cheapo non-brand-name charge controller.

 

[Martyn]

On solid panels our experience has been that most of the big players produce good quality product. What we found differs is the quality of the frames they are put in. The less expensive units have very weak flexible frames that are unsuitable to solid mounts to a vehicle or to be set up like an easel.

 

[orangeTJ]

Those are both dealers. AM seems to like putting their name on their chosen panels, but I'm not sure who actually makes those panels.

I'm not sure who makes them either.

Here's my install at AM Solar:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58484


DWH summed things up pretty well with regard to controllers.

Ditto on what Martyn said about frame quality.

 

[Pest]

Thanks guys, those are exactly the answers I was hoping for.

 

[Rando]

To give you some more anecdotal evidence - I have an off-brand 80W panel from a company called Ramsond. It was slightly more than $200 including shipping. I have had it for about a year and have been happy with it. Electrically it easily meets its specifications (4.7A @ 14V in full sun), and it appears to be well put together. I have taken an many rough to very rough roads mounted on my roof rack and it is no worse for the wear. A friend is bought two of their 50W (~$150) panels and they also meet spec and appear to be well built.

If you were going to mount 3kW of these on your roof at home I would spring for Kyocera or Sharp or some other established manufacturer whom you know will be here in 25 years to honor their warranty. But for your camper, a cheaper panel maybe a better investment. A rock will likely break the glass on a $500 panel as easily as a $200 panel. To some degree solar panels are a pure commodity, as long as they meet their specifications, go for the lowest $/W.


I concur about spending a little more on a well known charge controller though. I poorly engineered charge controller can drastically shorten the life of your expensive battery bank.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I got a Kyocera 130 watt panel back in '07 for 710$ plus shipping and it has been performing well with a blue sky 2512i charge controller.

One thing I did was re enforce the frame. Each of the 4 sides were only connected to each other on the verticle edge.

As I inserted Stainless clevis pins on these corners to allow tilting and locking the panel, I used angle aluminum to hold the clevis pins tight to the corners, and also re enforced the corners. which is very noticable when picking up the panel for removal or tilting.

I have not suffered any galvanic corrosion due to dissimilar metals and I am in a primarily salt air environment.

My point is that if you get a panel with a cheap frame, you can beef it up somewhat so it can better handle expedition vehicle usage.

Kyocera is a good named panel, but I'm glad I re enforced my corners.