Whilst solar is becoming more and more popular, it is a face that not all solar panels are built with the same quality or output, despite labeling and marketing many manufacturers boast impossible stats, and add plenty of hype to sell more panels.

Solar panels offer campers a powerful, silent, clean and fuel free way to keep camping self powered and inexpensive.

This will be a no mucking around guide to what you need to look for when shopping around for a portable solar panel.

Panel types

Permanent Fixed Solar Panel
Permanent Fixed Solar Panels are durable and sturdy, making them excellent for keeping the battery setup charged whist driving, stopped at camp or even whilst parked through the day, taking the load of your alternator and saving fuel.

With the choice of Aluminium framed glass topped versions which offer a stable and sturdy setup for minimal cost, to the Semi-flexible variants, which are a lighter and lower profile, and can be shaped to conform to gentle curved profiles, meaning they can be mounted nearly anywhere.

The Adventure Kings DC-DC Charger uses solar priority charging, so in the case of permanently mounted panels, it will charge your auxillary battery using mostly solar and top the rest up with surplus charge from your alternator. This means if you prefer to drive all day, your solar will definitely still benefit you by relieving the strain from your vehicles alternator and drive train, maintaining 2x batteries!

Whilst glass tops aren’t invincible, and all permanently mounted solar panels will require the vehicle to be situated in direct sun light, making summer campsites a little warmer, they have the added benefit to charging your batteries whilst you drive offering a larger total charging potential!

Portable Folding Solar Panel

Portable solar panels can be left at home when not in use, if you are an occasional weekend warrior, then you don’t have to permanently carry around the extra weight that a permanent panel requires.

They can also be situated to face the sunshine throughout the day, resulting in higher yield and more charge for your setup (solar panels prefer to be perpendicular to the rays of sunlight to absorb the most energy).

the portable varieties include folding solar panels and folding solar blankets, which offer a range of solutions for different setups. The folding panels offer a more cost effective solution and offer more power for their size, plus most will come with folding legs for adjusting the angle towards the sun.

Solar blankets on the other hand are more portable, durable and lightweight and easier to transport and store.

EFFICIENCY

As mentioned before, keeping a panel pointed directly at the sun is important for extracting the most efficiency out of the setup, but you can take a few steps to improving efficiency and getting the maximum output from your solar setup.

The first is maintaining good ventilation, as solar panels absorb the suns energy, they get hot, and just like all other electronics heat reduces their efficiency, a sunny winter day will yield higher overall outputs as the cool air will keep the panel within optimum temperature for operation.

Whilst not every panel in the Adventure Kings Lineup comes with a solar regulator, most will include a PWM regulator, whilst efficient and cost effective, there have been more recent updates to solar technology and energy management with what is known as an MPPT Regulator. The updated MPPT regulator can be up to 30% more efficient in less than ideal conditions by maintaining the output amperage using algorithms and monitoring both the input and output ensuring efficient and fast charging.

Construction

There are three main types of common consumer grade cell constructions available are; Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline and Amorphous silicon.

Each silicon cell type will present their own pros and cons;

Starting with Amorphous, the pro’s are that they perform well in low light/ cloudy conditions, plus they are thinner and much more flexible than their counterparts. These positives are offset in many ways by their expense of production, and their reduction in efficiency in overall conditions requiring around twice the surface area of monocrystalline style panel, the top shelf Amorphous panels are around 10% efficiency meaning they can turn around 10% of sunlight into usable energy.

Next up is Polycrystalline, these are excellent value for money as they cost very little to produce, and whilst not the top specification around, offer far better efficiency when compared to Amorphous cells, the are distinguishable by the patchy blue colour, which resembles a blue camouflage, because of the inconsistent material density polycrystalline is less efficient than the benchmark offering a maximum efficiency of just over 22%.

Finally, we have Monocrystalline cells, more efficient for its size it performs far better than polycrystalline in low light and warmer conditions. Because of its monolithic silicone cells, it is more efficient in a wider range of conditions boasting a massive 26.5% maximum efficiency even though it costs more than polycrystalline to produce.

This is hardly an exhaustive list of all the possibilities when setting up a solar panel system, and with all the variations between panel size, output, efficiency and choice of regulator you could nearly write a book. But this guide will give you a good starting point to make an informed decision on your solar panel setup.

To find out more about the latest gear in the range of 4WD Accessories from Adventure Kings, head over to www.4WDSupacentre.com.au call our expert team on 1800 88 39 64 or visit one of our fully stocked showrooms to see the gear in person and discuss the best options for your setup with one of our cheerful and helpful team members!

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