Description
- Perfect for off grid 12 volt batteries charging system and a variety of DC applications, designed for maintaining 12 volt batteries in car, RVs, cabins, boats, marine, battery operated gates, back-up power and remote power use.
- Solar panel kits, package included 20 watts solar panel, 12V/24V solar charger regulator controller and two 6.5ft cable with alligator clips and O-ring terminal for battery charging connection, easy to fix and install.
- With the 10A solar charger controller, it can prevent the battery from over charge, over voltage, discharge and short circuit, reversed polarity protection, battery is fully protected.
- Small in size and light to take, it is easy to carry for camping or other outdoor activities. Easy to install with pre-drilled holes on the back of panels for fast mounting and securing.
- Built with strong tempered glass and aluminum frame.12 months worry-free warranty
Abraham hamilton –
I put this charging the 2 batteries that power our lighthouse lights. The light runs a total of 7 hours. This cell fully tops the batteries off within 2 hours after getting morning sun. I don’t know how the Chinese do it but they do! Neat Lil kit!
Amazon Customer –
This setup is perfect for the beginners out there and I’ve really loved this kit for the price. It’s super easy to connect everything! I even had this in my car for a little while mainly to start out with because I didn’t have a suitable battery. I did finally buy a used lead acid battery that I am using but only temporarily.
The panel itself appears to be well made and I have checked the voltage straight from the panel and I get 20 volts and you wouldn’t want to connect this straight to your battery. And that is why you need a controller to lower the voltage and to apply either a steady current or a pulse charge which is just on off, on off etc.
Haven’t had any issues with the panel. It’s definitely glass and can break so treat it gently. Haven’t had any issues with water as of yet but I anticipate that it’s waterproof.
My only complaint is that when I set the float voltage to the battery on the included PWM controller, no matter what I set it at, in full sun the controller always charges the battery at 14 volts. And the same goes for when I set the output voltage, it will always be at the same voltage as what it’s displaying on the screen and in full sun that’s 14 volts.
Most of the time if you are running something that is supposed to run from a 12 volt battery it’s not a huge deal as most devices work fine at 14 volts because they are designed to, as when you’re charging a 12v battery you want to charge it at least 13.8 volts which is typically what you see from your alternator in a vehicle. But if you’re planning on running anything else just make sure you know what you are doing.
As I mentioned, I am now using this on my house to charge batteries and I am planning on upgrading to Lithium batteries. I had to add some wire to the panel and I chose 16g for that and I’m not having issues.
I’m using this for HAM radio so that I can always have a backup power source and this kit works great for this purpose! I would recommend this to anyone who just wants to keep their small lead acid batteries or lithium batteries charged.
One thing to note is that the included PWM controller can only handle 10 amps. This means you can run a HAM radio but only one. Just do not exceed the amperage and you’ll be fine. But I imagine that you could connect a inverter or something else as long as you connect it straight to your battery and bypass your controller. I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t work. Just always be mindful of your voltage and amperage.
Derek W. –
my vehicle sits for long periods of time – I don’t go to the office hardly ever and when I do drive to the grocery store, its the 35miles per gallon commuter that I take instead of the 14 mpg weekend warrior truck. Unfortunately, this means that my battery dies after about 30 days due to accessories drawing power like remote starter, antitheft system, etc. I ordered a 10W solar charger that did NOT do the job and the battery still died while connected to it in sunny arizona. I returned that charger and ordered this one. Well, once again my battery didn’t have enough power to start the engine, and instead of jumping to start it, I attached this solar charger and let it sit. After 24 hours the batter once again had enough power to start the engine. Im happy with the power this produces and if left attached, it keeps my batter charged enough for starting – although my neighbors hate me because now I move my car out of the community / guest parking even less since I don’t need to start it as often to re-charge the battery via the alternator 😀
Abraham hamilton –
Added this to a seldom used parade vehicle to help increase the stamina of an auxiliary battery for accessories during the day. It works surprisingly well. My only issue was one day I disconnected the battery from the system to hook it up to a trickle charger. When I hooked the battery back up to the solar system it was still charging, but the screen on the controller no longer worked so wasn’t sure if voltage was being properly regulated. I was able to exchange it, and have since made sure to disconnect the solar panel from the controller if I am disconnecting the battery. No further issues! Have already recommended it to friends.
Derek W. –
Some things to be aware of: When the battery is disconnected the controller will reset to the default parameters. Out of the box it appears to be setup for a regular car battery. Before you install it, look at a video on setting the controller up for your application as the manual is a little vague.
On a bright day it charged the my battery from 30% up to full. I did get the setting wrong initially and it kept charging with the float voltage going to 16.5V. I disconnected everything and it reset to factory defaults which were correct except that they have the total discharge setting for the load too low. I set it according to the YouTube video so that the total allowed discharge was 50%. The system works very well especially if you look up the recommended angle and direction on the NREL calculator.