Opinions about HF 45 Watt solar panels - Page 5

 



My brother is running 12 HF sets on his roof in a 48V.series parallel
arrangement hooked up to a Outback MX60 charge controller and GTFX3048
inverter.
He should be getting 540 Watts but around 200 is typical.
But for those worried about them being cheap, they do fell flimsy at first
but they have held up well to quarter sized hail, 60 MPH winds, and
squirrels haven't touched the wires.
I bought 4-Photowatt 80s with a Morningstar SS10-24 and easily match or
surpass that performance with much less surface area.
If I had it to do over again, I would like the Evergreen 200 watt panels.
I like the guys at Sunelec, they work best over the phone and are very
helpfull.
Just my two cents worth.
Take care
Randy

 

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:40:23 -0500


    He'll only get 540 watts at high noon on a clear day near the
equator with the panels pointing straight at the sun.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays
C:>WIN                                      | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/

 



...and then only on the sixth Thursday of every month.

Vaughn

 



There's a support site for those interested in and /or using the HF 45
watt panels: http://solarpanelkitatharborfreight.ning.com/
and a number of videos on youtube.com
search for harbor freight solar

I'm trying to decide if some solar education is worth $160 - the
$159.99 price is good through Monday (July 5).  The HF panel would at
least charge the battery enough to provide power for the home network
(DSL modem, wireless router, laptop) for a couple of hours in the
evening - then I could check email and read newsgroups when the power
is out ;-)

I have a decent battery (from FreeCycle, cost $0) and a somewhat
better charge controller than the HF panel comes with (it's an
EPHC-ST5 from futurlec.com, originally $27, but as a leftover from
another project it's effectively $0).  The controller specs are here:
http://www.duxlite.com/enlarge/controller/EPHC-ST-Specifications.pdf

My AC generator education was $80 (a used 5KW unit on Craig's List
that needed some TLC) - I've almost convinced myself that up-to-date
power knowledge (solar) is worth it...

John

 



--
MikeK

   Like I said in my original post;
"Thinking about using it to drive solar water heater pump."
I think 20 watts is enough to drive the pump, but I'm still learning.
                                          MikeK
 PS. I'm not one that expects to run my home on solar collectors.
 I used 3,542 kWh last month, It will be more this month.