is this worth the money

[BrianK]

I would like to know if this setup is worth the money?

 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90599

[troy]

It's not a bad price, but it's not a steal either.  Those are almost certainly amorphous silicon panels.  That type of panel (as opposed to monocrystaline, or polycrystaline panels with individual cells) has the shortest lifespan, and also take a big drop in performance in their first year of exposure to the sun. Crystaline panels are often guaranteed to produce 90% of original output when they are 25 years old.

You'll also never get 45 watts out of it except under carefully controlled laboratory conditions (true for all panels, they're rated under best possible conditions which you'll never see...) but Harbor Freight seems even extra generous with their ratings. I have one bolted to my roof right now, their so called five watt panel.  I've never seen more than 3.2 watts, and that was under very good conditions (absolutely clear sky, solar noon on a very cold winter day, with snow in front of the panel likely having a reflecting/concentrating effect).  Typical output was less than 2 watts.  Obviously not the same panel, but perhaps representative of what you could expect.

Best regards,

troy

[richhagen]

Hello, I have some panels similar to those, the problem with mine is the "weatherproof part"  The panels didn't put out a lot of power, but did reach charging voltage at lower light levels than my polycrystaline and monocrystaline panels.  The backing on the thin film panels began failing after the first year.  If I were investing for the long term, I would pass on these panels and invest in a monocrystaline or 2nd a polycrystaline panel packaged in tempered glass and EVA or some other long term encapsulant.  Most of my panels like that don't show their ages at all and aside from some dust settling on them from the atmosphere, look the same as the day that I put them up, even the ones I bought used.  

The first monocrystaline panel put up by anyone anywhere was put up at Bell labs in 1954 or so was still producing power in 2000 or so, probably still is unless they took it down and put it in a museum or something.  Rich Hagen

http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/belllabs_photovoltaics.html

http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.bell%2Dlabs.com/

[tecker]

  Two hundred plus shipping wyhat maybe 250 for three amps and a couple of lights .

probably would give you three hours of light per day ( with good sunlight ). for a bit  more you could find a single panel . here's a link with such apanel .

http://www.oksolar.com/n_cart/search.asp?cat=Solar%20Energy&subcat=Solar%20Panels&page_numbe
r=7

[johnlm]

I too bought a couple of the Harbor Frieght 5W amorophos panels (at $40 per panel)that I use in parallel to keep the battery on my camp trailer charged when Im not up on the hill.  The best Ive gotten out of them is about 3 watts each. The little 1.5 W units sold (by Harbor) as a dash mount and plug into the cig lighter hole to keep a trickle charge on your car battery actually put out closer to their rating than the larger panels do.  These can be had on sale at $10 per panel.  

johnlm