Yes, an overcast day will drasticaly reduce your output. You might get 1/4 of your normal current even when the clouds are barely covering the sun and it stills apears fairly bright out.
As far as running things directly off of the panel, you could run a computer fan off of the smallest of panels. I've also ran my cell phone directly off of a 5 watt panel a few times. I'm willing to bet that an mp3 player would work pretty good, especialy if it has no screen. Remember, just because something says it only uses 600ma, doesn't mean that it won't use more at start-up or any other time for that matter.
Rgagnon, Think of panels as providing amps. A bit of haze will make the amps fall like a rock.
Please be careful with connecting a panel direct to a device. Most of the time, the device takes much less than the sticker says. A 3.6V 100ma device can easily be blown up if connected directly to a solar panel. Trust me. I have blown up a lot of stuff.
The best idea is to charge a 12V battery and use the battery to operate the device. G-[ Parent ]
No, everything is fine with them, the thing is, 2 of the panels are 2 years old and the third is more(bought it used). I used to get just under 2 amps with the first 2 panels when they were new, but as thin film tends to do, they deteriorated. The third panel never put out more than about 0.7amps.[ Parent ]
I mostly got the flexible panel for its portability and wasn't figuring that it would be as good as a rigid one. The one I got folds up to 9"x6"x0.7". If nothing else, I suppose that it should at least be good for charging small batteries. How sturdy are rigid panels for travel?
I'm not sure if I'll be buying any larger panels. The sad thing I've found as I look more and more into photovoltaic power is that it remains very cost prohibitive and most people will not likely ever see a return on investment. It's one of the reasons why I'm more focused on portable uses.
Does the Cigarette Lighter Adapter provide any protection to devices hooked up to it? Are there any batteries that can be charged and used at the same time? The instructions on the powerpack said that should not be done.
I'll be keeping a log at http://solardiary.com/ [ Parent ]
At best it is only going to work in full sun, the panel volts hold up fairly well in shade but the current falls rapidly.
Big panels, small loads and full sun, otherwise it is a no go area.
At present thin film panels and the amorphous ones are not reliable technology, they may get better.
Wind up radio may be better than direct solar.
Flux[ Parent ]
