20 Watt Black Frame Mono-crystalline Solar Panel and Battery Charger
Manufacturer: Solar Tech
Seller: Amazon
Customer Rating:
 

List Price: $199.00
Sale Price: $159.50

Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This is a 20 Watt Mono-crystalline Portable Waterproof Solar Panel in black color (very rare) aluminum frame to charge your 12V battery or to run your science projects. The rare black color frame looks very nice. It is in a factory new package and is 100% brand new. The solar panel is assembled by Suntech, one of the highest quality solar cell makers. It is also waterproof. The working voltage for charging is 18V. If you need to use it to charge a car battery, you may need a charge controller to prevent the battery from overcharging. Connections included: alligator battery clamps. There are three types of Solar Cells on the market. All our Solar chargers use the best - Mono-Crystalline Solar Cells. Amorphous or Dual Junction Solar Glass are the cheapest but are only 7% energy efficient and have 5 years service life. They are big and heavy. Poly-Crystalline have 25 plus years of service life under direct sunlight and are 13% efficient. Mono-Crystalline have 25 plus years service life and are up to 20% efficient. This is the same type used in solar car racing. This type of solar cell is now in a worldwide shortage because only a few companies can manufacture this solar cell.

Product Details
  • Assembled professionally with Suntech Mono-crystalline solar cells (in a worldwide shortage
  • TUV certified junction box with cable with MC connector
  • By-pass diode to minimize power drop caused by shade
  • Anti-reflective high transparency tempered glass
  • Class II black color coated aluminum alloy frame

Video Reviews
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Customer Reviews
Solar PV System Casa de Baja
 
Review Date: May 27, 2008
Reviewer: L. Anderson, Baja, Mexico
Location:
K55, Baja California, Mexico

Purpose:
Reduce dependence on buddy's noisy & smelly gas generator during weekend trips to beach shack. Week of rest after every usage.

System [June 2008]:
-> 60W total [~3.5Amps]. Two 20W [18Vmp] panel & two 10W [18Vmp] panels of the same mono-crystalline construction. [16AWG]
-> Morningstar MPPT 15 Amp Charge Controller. [14AWG]
-> Two [2] new 12V ~100AH deep cycle batteries [parallel ~200AH, 1/0AWG]
-> 700W AC inverter [4AWG]
-> 3.5KW gas generator to 6Amp AC batt charger for extra charging capacity when needed

Current Load:
-> Three [3] 12V x 26W fluorescent fixtures
-> Two [2] 12V x 15W fluorescent fixtures
-> One [1] 12V x 11W fluorescent fixture
-> One [1] 12V x 13W fluorescent fixture
-> Yamaha 2.1 speakers, 25W
-> Dual-port 12V car cig lighter adapter for mobile phone/iPod chargers.

Notes:
Panels are fixed @ slight SW & angle of ~35° from horizontal due to wind concerns, more than output, but very close to local latitude of ~32°. I was at the Baja house when the winds started the raging fires in SoCAL [2007], it was bad.

Voltage reads 20-24+V @ 3.4-3.6 Amps pre-load between 10:00AM & 3:30PM in June. Current load is lighting- OFF & ON 3-4 hours per night. Usually only one or two is ON at any given time. Lights work very well, almost like normal house. iPod is self-powererd to Yamaha 25W 2.1 speakers on inverter for 2-6 hours during day. Currently, we must use generator for TV/movies/games.

Expansion:
Another 20W panel for 80W total went in Dec 2008- another 80W will conclude a 160W system. Goal is 3 to 4 times per month...lighting, music, & occasional 26" 60W LCD using 15W DVD player & 25W 2.1 speakers for movies when surf is flat. [~700-800 Watt-Hours/day]
This solar panel works
 
Review Date: January 3, 2008
Reviewer: Alan Abbott, Kewanee, IL
I like this product. It is simple. Out of the box in early January in northern Illinois I got 15-16 volts and 0.2 amps from this panel. That's what I expected for this latitude and time of year. I'm relieved to have exactly what was advertised on the Amazon website. I just wanted a panel to charge up a 12V battery and see what I could run on it. By all descriptions this panel should work, we will see. For the money, I have not seen any other panel with a 20 watt peak output.
Good value for the price!
 
Review Date: June 17, 2009
Reviewer: Carl R. Collins, Seattle, WA United States
I'm very pleased with the performance of the panels and with the way that they look. They perform quite well in portable applications and this is why they come with alligator clip connectors installed from the factory. Works great for charging batteries in diesel generators, car batteries, and even charging a deep cycle battery bank during the day for running a laptop at night. If you're planning to run your whole house or do something substantial with solar power, get yourself a solar array with 120 watt or higher panels wired in parallel in a 12 volt system. These portable solar panels are good to tinker with so you don't have to tinker on very expensive solar array systems that are better left un-tinkered with.
Power point is a little wierd...
 
Review Date: August 18, 2008
Reviewer: William Yerazunis,
The panel took about a week to arrive; the packing was "wierd" (bubble wrap wrapped
around the cardboard! ) but it was intact.

The frame is aluminium, however the backing is plastic and the front side is glass
(not Tefzel). The whole thing is sealed with copious amounts of silicone rubber.

The wierd part of this panel is that it's _not_ exactly a 12-volt panel. In
full noonday sun, it puts out 20 volts open-circuit, at 1.03 amperes. This is
somewhat higher in voltage and lower in amperage than many would prefer; you will
need a charge controller at the very minimum as this _will_ cook a 12-volt
battery if used for a long time. Be sure your charge controller can handle
it- most charge controllers are rated for 16 to 18 volts input and this panel
puts out 20 volts or a bit more.

The panel comes with a pair of 6-foot wires (with something written on them
in Chinese), one red, one black, and permanently attached to a box centered in
the back of the panel. The other end of the wires go to a pair of alligator
clips, but as warned above, don't just clip these onto a lead-acid battery
for long term use unless either the battery is really big or you have a
charge controller.

A downside: lead-acid batteries typically charge at 14 volts; any additional
voltage is wasted. So, this panel loses about 30% of the energy produced
if the charge controller is not an active (buck-boost) or maximum power point
tracking (MPPT) controller.

On the up side, the 20 volts open circuit stayed pretty solid even when
the sun went behind clouds; what dropped was the amperage (down to 0.2 amps
when the array was shadowed, down to 0.1 amp when the sun was _behind_ clouds.
But the voltage stayed up, which means that even on a cloudy day your panel
will get something into the battery, maybe only 10% of a good bright day but at
least something. I think (but am not sure) that this is because it's a
monocrystalline panel.
Mostly satisfied, except one thing
 
Review Date: June 12, 2009
Reviewer: G. Craig, Scottsdale, Az.
I purchased four of these solar panels. Three of the panels worked correctly right out of the box. The fourth one did not work, and upon some inspection, I found that one of the solder joints to a wire was not soldered. The solar panel had no power output. I repaired the solder joint myself, and now the fourth solar panel works correctly. Overall, I am very satisfied with the way these panels function. In the sun, they perform as expected. I will probably buy more of these solar panels in the future and would recommend them to anyone wanting a compact, powerful solar panel.

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