Thread: Solar Panel question

Well assuming you would get about 3 amps tops, that would certainly 'top up' your battery after a night with a fridge running off it..........depending on the draw of your fridge, but a medium size fridge.

64W is a bit small IMHO, and $700 is too much. You mentioned cheap ... how many dollars?? Amorphous panels tend to be physically somewhat larger than polycrystalline for the same output.

Personally I reckon if you're going down that road, you wouldn't want to be much less than 80W, else you're not going to run the fridge off it successfully.


Cheers

Originally Posted by Rosco

64W is a bit small IMHO, and $700 is too much. You mentioned cheap ... how many dollars?? Amorphous panels tend to be physically somewhat larger than polycrystalline for the same output.

Personally I reckon if you're going down that road, you wouldn't want to be much less than 80W, else you're not going to run the fridge off it successfully.


Cheers

$500, or less if I can beat him down some more.

$500 is probably around normal for that panel. Although rated at 64w, you will only get that amount of power in clear sunshine, panel with no shading, normal to the sunlight and at 20degrees. You could expect in realistic situations to get 2-3amps, which will help, but probably won't run your fridge by itself.

If you are looking at something just to keep the battery topped up when the vehicle is not used for long periods, you don't need that big a panel - 10-20w is enough. I have a 5w panel that keeps my tractor battery topped up with no problems.

John