Harbor freight 25w solar panel

[shirazdrum]

Has anyone had any experience with the harbor freight 25w solar panel? the price is right at $159.

All i need is to charge a 12V battery in an RV. power usage is 75w for 3 hours a aday.(Every day).

would this keep up? what kind of charge controler should i get for this? HF controler?

Thanks

[zeusmorg]

 The deal on the 3 panel setup is usually a better one. That would also give you some leeway and more ability to keep up on cloudy days.

[ghurd]

Do Not get a HF controller.

A 25W panel will make an average of about 90Watt-Hours per day.

You want to use 225W-H per day.

No.  It will not keep up.

Depending on where the panel is located, if the load is also needed in winter, how critical the 75W x 3H is, etc...

It will need a panel(s) rated at about 100W to break even.

G-

[shirazdrum]

Ok, i went ahead and bought 4 Led-pack lights to replace my monster 50W Dc lights. my power usage is gonna be 12W-H . for 3 hours a day that's 36W total. does that sound any better compare to 225w?

Now what kind of controler? is this panel any good?

[wooferhound]

The Harbor Freight Kit comes with Two 5watt CFLs, that would get you down to 10watts total and you would have plenty of power left over for other uses.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90599

[ghurd]

Sure!  36WH is a lot better than 225WH.

The LEDs won't be nearly as bright as the 50W.  I expect you will want to go CFL.

The HF 25W is (probably) better quality than the HF 45W kit, but the kit is a lot better deal.  Often on sale for $160 ~ $180.  Sometimes a 15% off coupon too, for the retail stores.

The 45W kit makes about double the power of the 25W,

Plus like Woof said more extra power and those CFLs in the kit are not bad. And it comes with mounting brackets, etc.

Don't use the controller in the kit.  Get something "not" from HF.  Like an SG-4.

G-

[JamesJackson]

@5 watts should be adequate - if you are careful to not over do it - and use too heavy of a load on the battery.

I have a UniSolar 21-watt solar panel - hooked through a Morningstar PWM charge controller to a 17Ah battery. The battery gets charged daily, and then powers my set of three 5-Watt LED lights each night for about 4 hours. The LVD switch that I added - kicks the load off at around 11.90V (90% discharged). I got about 8-1/2 hours out of the battery recently with this arrangement. (Not continuous - the test ran with two interruptions - which gave the battery a chance to 'bounce-back' a little.)

So - anyway... you should be okay - if your battery is sized properly for the load.

Plus - be sure to have a LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect) attached - to keep the battery safe.

Regards,

James Jackson

[DigitalMind]

Do you have a link for that solar panel ??  I might want to get one, like you say the price seems right,  but I can't find it on harborfreight.com ...

Thanks !

Jason

Ps : Listen to Ghurd ..

[ghurd]

Item #96350 is 25W, #40086 and #96351 are both 50W, #96352 is 75W.

Prices seem a little steep to me.

G-