What is Reddit's opinion of Renogy Solar Panel, Single?

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I'm buying 100W panels (renogy 100W monocrystaline easy to find on Amazon) for messing around with. I bought these which just a week ago were $173 each.

Holy shit. Thanks Trump...

You might want to look into solar providers and see if you can get a loose 300W (60-cell) panel or two instead. They cost more per unit but would probably be cheaper per Watt.

I was planning on buying my new set (I have 3 already bought 3 more to make a 3S2P setup) in July ... glad I didn't wait.

edit to add: Some tips

• Buy a spool of "marine" 10AWG and loose MC4 connectors. Much cheaper to make your own cables than buy retail.
• Just buy a 40A MPPT. It costs "a bit" more than a 20 or 10A MPPT but will give you a lot more room to grow/configure
• You'll probably want at least ~2kWh of raw storage to start (be it lifepo4 or SLA) So budget for that
• And "at least" a 1kW inverter (ideally pure sine). If you want to do more than 1kW then ensure your batteries are in at least a 24V configuration

The manufactures of flexible panels have stopped selling and have issued a recall. Some panels are still on the market. I would use regular ridged panels. This is one example, https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_2?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1476885430&sr=1-2&keywords=solar A good starter battery bank would be two six volt golf cart batteries in series for 12 volts. GC2 Would give you about 230 AH rating.

would these panels be compatible with the yeti 400?

http://www.amazon.com/RENOGY-Monocrystalline-Photovoltaic-Battery-Charging/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423686580&sr=8-2&keywords=solar+panel

i was thinking about getting 2-3 of them ~ and what adapters would i need to hook these to the yeti?

Let's see here. They charge $145 for a 100W panel. Amazon wants $140 for a Renology panel or $120 for an off-brand.

They don't list the battery they are using, but Batteries Plus lists theirs at $250.

This is the closest that I can find to their inverter at $189.

Here's the charge controller. It's a $14 cheapie PWM. And the cables are $15 a piece.

So where are we? Using the cheapest prices I've listed, $240 for panels, $250 for a battery, $190 inverter, $15 charge controller and $30 for cables comes to $725. So they want $235 dollars for a case and their time.

FWIW they list the thing at $840 on their website as opposed to $895 on eBay.

Solar pannels are always getting better, just do some quick checks on the internet(amazon for me) and compare the efficiency of the panels. If the efficiency it is not directly stated divide the panels power by the panels size. Ex 100Watt panel / (47.3" X width 21.3" ) = 0.1 watts per square inch.

my example pannel

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=renogy+solar+panel&qid=1567164957&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyOTkxVTJMUUY4VVFQJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjA0NTQwMUlFN1BMRk4xM0JaVCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTA0NzM4MTNSOFFYRlY1TUJITiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Renogy 100 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Panel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8WqIzbVEDP4QY

1. “We’ve got the best solar resource in all of Canada in Southern Saskatchewan,” is like saying "I'm one of the fastest people in my Weight Watchers class. Solar is barely viable in Arizona. Arizona is sunny every day. Arizona doesn't have dark, dark winters. Arizona doesn't have snow blanketing everything for 6 months (including any solar panels). Never mind snow... do you live in Saskatchewan? How long does it take to scrape your window of hoar frost? because that shit kills solar efficiency.
2. $5kW of solar for $5000? Maybe in the US in the year 2050. In Canada, we pay the highest prices for solar int he world because our government puts nearly a 300% tariff on them.. Yes. That's right. Our "renewable friendly" government is actively discouraging solar investment. The result: a solar panel that costs $139USD costs us $321CAD. And that's before HST. A 5kW plant in Canada will cost no less than $20k in kit alone... then you need to hire our Canadian most-overpaid-tradespeople-on-earth-thanks-to-regulation to install them. Another $5k. So you're off by a factor of 5.
3. Your 6500kWh number would be reasonable if it weren't for snow and frost, which will knock off 5 months of yield (albeit during low sun months) that will reduce your number by at least 1500kWh... Call it 5500kWh total to be generous.
4. Your plant now makes you $750/year... or 3% return on capital. At inflation of 1.5% (10 year trend), that's an effective return of 1.5%. Your bank lender will charge you at least 3% interest on a decent line of credit, giving you a payback period of infinity years.... not a good investment.
5. Anyone with $25k to burn on an investment can expect a a mutual fund to deliver at least 8% return... meaning my loss on the solar investment is 8-3 = 5% losses a year. You've lost over $80,000 you could have earned over 25 years. That's shart.

Not viable now, not viable ever. Not in Canada. What's more, wind is worse... Manitoba has mothballed its retarded St Leon 100MW half-billion-dollar-boondoggle wind farm that the hippies crowed would be "super viable!... the best wind regime in Canada!" (Weight Watchers metaphor again). It produced nearly zero power at peak times. It's a joke.

Stop encouraging waste. You are doing the environment a disservice.

If cost is an issue, I'd suggest a crappy solar setup just to keep lights and fans going. There's also some DIY methods to greatly increase the efficiency of your cooler. With a highly efficient cooler and enough access to refill your ice there's not a lot of need to invest in a proper mobile refrigerator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFDnwzJ8dhQ

For some quick and dirty solar: http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-10-pc-kit-68751.html

If you need more than 45W of power, add one of these buggers: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1468960577&sr=8-3&keywords=solar+panel

You can tie it into your current vehicle battery or split it up and get a dedicated battery or two for your power needs.

> fortune

It would only cost you a fortune if you have to buy them. If you are Tesla and you are making those packs IN HOUSE then the cost will be much less. Plus easier to maintain them with your own experience staff. Tesla could essentially run a fully autonomous semi company and rip in huge profits moving items of all kinds around. Another thing is that semis+their vessels are very long and wide. Long and wide is perfect for solar panels. If they are fully autonomous and run all day long the sun could help out by some degree from continously charging. The more length and width the more solar panels you can place.

• http://www.truckscales.com/trailerinfo.htm

• Looks like the trailer by itself is 53' feet long

• What is the average length of a tractor trailer? | Reference.com

• A: The interior dimensions of a 53-foot trailer are 630 inches x 102 inches x 110 inches (length x width x height).

Here is a 100 watt solar panel: * https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O * Product Dimensions 47 x 1.4 x 21.3 inches

So that is 47 inches long. 630÷47=13.4 So you'd be able to fit 13 and a half 100 watt panels on top. That is 1350 watts per hour. width of the solar panel is 21 inches. 102÷21= 4.8 So that is 4.8 rows of 13 and a half solar panels. I'm not the best at math but that would give you 1350×4.8=6480 watts per hour. That is almost 6.4k watts

Plus also this is just using a regular home solar panel. Tesla could make a more specialized panel that utilizes the space better with less losses. They could do so many more things to specialize the panel and therefore get more solar power out of it. So that 6.4k watts per hour figure could increase perhaps as high as 8.0k watts per hour or maybe more?

This is with out even taking the trailer truck portion into consideration (Where the driver used to be. Remember Autonomous.) Plus also you have the SIDES of the trailer though those won't be as effective as the top due to angle, but can still be used. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get 12.0k watts per hour through solar power with a trailer. Perhaps even higher like 15.0k watts.

Sure it won't keep the trailer moving indefinitely, BUT it should increase the range of the trailer by some degree. Again if they could reach a figure like 10.0k watts in solar power per hour it should definitely help with the range of the trailer.

-edit- I am bad at math I did mess it up

thank you so much for the response! I haven't purchased anything yet so that is what I am having a tough time with. It's been a bit difficult making decisions on products to purchase because I haven't set up any power system and I don't want to place a huge burden on myself with a purchase that I don't understand the specs of. These are the items I will be running and their information(if I have purchased it or have one in mind):

Fridge(24hrs a day) got my eye on a deal for an RCA, but I do not remember the exact specs, I want to say it was 110v, .8a..?, but I'm going on memory here.. AC(I'm in Florida, so I expect to potentially need this 12hrs a day) Two computers will charge twice daily (19v 2.37a, 20v 2.25a) Two phones will charge once daily(Let's assume 2 iphones for ease here, 5.45watt hours to charge) I haven't purchased lighting either, but I expect to need lighting for 8hrs daily(maybe, might be an overestiamte).
Water pump, Shurflo Revolution 4008-101-E65 12v 7.5amps

Right now, I've been talking with battery people to try to understand this and I am very much considering 4 6v T105 Trojan batteries, two run in series and two in parrallel to get the double amperage and run 12v.

I'm considering solar panels, but I am not too sure how many panels I would need to charge my batteries every day. I have had my eye on purchasing two 100 watt panels but I am not sure if they are a good fit.

Also, my alternator on the bus will produce 140 amps, I have not personally measured this, so I am basing it off of what I have been told so far. But I plan to drive daily, so would I be capable of maintaining my battery bank just off of my alternator alone? Money is kind of a thing here, not a big one, but if I could run my engine for an hour and charge my batteries, that would be way preferable than dropping a bunch of cash right now on solar panels and charge controller.

a 100w Renogy panel, sold by Renogy on Amazon.ca is currently $199. Amazon.ca

Further down on that solar charger's page:
>Specification:
Voltage: DC 12V / 24V
Self-consuming: 10MA
Rated Charge Current: 20A
Rated Load Current: 20A

>Over charge:
Protection: 14.4V / 28.8V
Floating charge: 13.5V / 27V
Recover: 13.2V / 26.4V

>Over discharge:
Protection: 10.8V / 21.6V

Those 14.4V and 10.8V work nicely for lead-acid, it should work for LiFePO4, but Li-ion might be a big problem.

Those 200-300 charge cycles you mentioned could happen if you have a small battery (low Ah) that is drained to (below) 80% DOD (depth of discharge), basically if you double the battery's 'Ah'-size, the DOD drops to 40%, and cycle life doubles to 600.

A simple calculation, if you go to http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ you'll find about 63 kWh/kWp during december (Fresno, CA), 2 kWh/day, your 72W LED-strip (at 70% battery efficiency) for 4 hours needs 400Wh, the panel size should be 400Wh/2kWh=200Wp (two of these in parallel?)

Those LED-strips: 72W per 5 meter?, if you look carefully you'll see you can cut them in 3-LED sections (individual LEDs are 4.2V, three in series for a 12V supply, all the 3-LED sections are wired in parallel), and with careful soldering or possibly special connectors you can make shorter low-power sections yourself, or buy a 'remote controller' (as offered on those links) to reduce brightness/energy-use.

That brightness control is done using PWM (pulse width modulation), for bulls-eye practice you probably want a constant high(-ish) intensity, when hunting cardboard vultures and plastic crocodiles you can also use an Arduino-type to (remotely) program whatever sequence to make life a bit more challenging for the hunters.

100w mountable solar panel.

Edit: This one to be exact, http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1450479873&sr=8-3&keywords=100w+solar+panel

Hook this guy up to your truck's battery via one of these and you'll have all the energy you can ever use. WAY cheaper than a generator and not that much more expensive than a single deep-cycle battery.

What kind of charger do you have?

Solar panels still work when it is cloudy. You would just need a larger panel for it to have the same output. If you don't mind it being non-portable this panel coupled with a charge controller and a 12 volt deep cycle battery are a very robust solution. Then you just need a battery and phone charger that work off of 12 volts. (i.e. a car charger)

I am going off the top selling panels on Amazon. Renogy 100 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Panel 47 x 21.3 inches