MrWizard wrote:
NinerBikes wrote:
I have a 120 watt 27 lb monocrystaline portable solar panel kit, very lightly used, one trip of 12 days. I learned a lot from it. At around latitude 46 at summer solstice, it will put out 65 amps or more, no problem. I know, I measured it, aimed it a few times a day.
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I think you mean 6.5 amps output
or do you mean 65 amp hrs per day ?
That would be an awful lot from that size panel, 30~40 amp hrs per day is a more reasonable number
65 amps charge would be 910 watts, not possible from a 120 watt panel
I mean that if my usage is there, I have no problems with 14 hour or more of sun and a little bit of aiming, harvesting 65 amps-hours, total, for the day. At day break, pointed west, once the sun came over the mountains to the east, I was getting 4 Amps. Around 6 AM in Montana. I think I adjusted the aim 2 or 3x in the morning, laid the panel flat by 10 am, lifted it up from flat at 5 pm, and chased the sun until 9 PM at night. My total yield that day was 65 amps. The sun stays up a long, long, long time in Montana around June 21st. Lots and lots of time to chase it with a portable solar panel, and in my case, my battery was low, plus I ran a lot of devices that day that also needed charging up from 2 days of 12 hour days on the road. But yes, I did harvest 65 amp hours, the Solar 30 does keep tabs on your total amps charged. It just takes long shoulder hours and being pretty far north, and being in thin clear, fire and smoke free air at 7000 feet to get that kind of yield. It can do it. Would I guarantee it? No. Circumstances make a lot of seemingly improbable things possible. Putting a portable solar panel down on a white tarp laid in front of it doesn't hurt either. I may be a freak about maximizing efficiency at times, just to see what she's capable of. All those little things add up.