Review: Small Solar Panel

[Jacob Petersheim]

I've been farting around with portable "camping" solar panels for a little while now. After some experience, I recommend the ZOUPW EZ180W unit.

This is a nominal 190 watt, 20.1 volts open-circuit 16 bus bar lightweight folding panel array (2 panels hinged together). It is good alone with numerous powerstation devices, though for larger ones with higher voltage solar converters these can be strung in series.


It has two handles for carrying and moving it around, and two folding "props" on the back to hold it up sunward. For early and late sunlight, you can use some kind of stick or rad to prop it nearly vertical as needed. I make use of green plastic-coated garden rods for this myself.

These are rain-tolerant and even though one got hit with lawn chemicals on its face, slightly distorting the surface, it still works just fine. The orange soft-plastic handle grips have faded to yellow with use, but have remained pliable and not turned brittle or cracked.

It folds at the hinge in half for transport and storage and comes with a very nice cloth zippered storage bag and a basic cable from its MC-4 solar connectors about 6 feet to a multi-head end with various connectors for you powerstation devices.


These run about $190, but I bought mine on sale as low as $130. I now have 4 of them, I like them that much.

N-type solar panels are premium, highly efficient photovoltaic cells doped with phosphorus instead of boron, giving them a negative (N-type) charge. They offer superior performance, a lower rate of degradation, and better heat tolerance than traditional P-type panels, making them an excellent long-term investment for residential or commercial arrays.

Search the Web or ask AI for a rundown of the pros and cons of N-type solar cells.


The product above might be a little bulky if you drive a BMW Mini Cooper or something, but it is quite lightweight for its size and for its output capacity. If you only buy one solar panel array to play with around home or actually take camping this would be the one, in my opinion. I have more expensive units which have degraded on the power they can convert so much that I avoid using them and have started thinking about how to properly dispose of them.

I hope this suggestion helps somebody thinking about tinkering with this stuff.

 

[John Wick]

I have 500 watts of solar panels and three power stations of different sizes. None are folding panels except for two 20 - 35 watt ultra portable for cell phones, led lights and the like.

Solar is now very cheap. I bought two 100-watt Ecoworthy panels for $99

 

[Marie Miller]

That is nice but will it be any good in emergency situations such as we often bridge with a generator?

 

[John Wick]

I live in a converted cabin with all low power appliances and devices. I have electricity which I use out of convenience, but can run 100% solar if needed. It is indeed a lifestyle change, but after adjusting it is no big deal.

A conventional/mainstream home and lifestyle requires a very large and expensive solar setup. Not worth the expense and kinda defeats the purpose?

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

That is nice but will it be any good in emergency situations such as we often bridge with a generator?

Depends on what you mean by generator.

No, something that small is not going to be much help compared to a whole-house natural gas generator installation.

But for most scenarios, yes.

Two or 3 of these in series and a 200 Watt-hour range powerstation can handle a fridge for many continuous hours. With twice that battery capacity and full day sunlight you could get through 24 hours. You have to size things according to actual needs.

Those powerstations can also be recharged using small gasoline generators, say for example something in the 1000-2000 Watt output range. Something I have done during a run of several cloudy rainy days.

So yes, you can use this for some emergency power. But it is mostly for camping, hobby experimentation, and the like.

I don't have anywhere that gets full Sun exposure all day long. There are just too many very tall very leafy trees close in. That means I have to keep moving my panels, chasing the Sun, until late afternnon when I no longer get any useful direct Sun at all. I might as well be living in he woods. This is why I also have barely any over-the-air TV reception here too.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

There are quite a few old-tech small naked panels out there. Usually they come with just the aluminum outer frame, basically leftovers from early rooftop stock. These need something extra to prop up against for the sun angle. Either separately acquired angle irons or prop them up against a fence, etc.

Not meant to be portable, unlike the stuff I'm using which was ruggedized, has handles and props built in, etc. I chase the Sun around the yard all day as the narrow windows through the tall threes move through time.

The old P-type solar cell tech has one big advantage: resistance to high-energy radiation. But must of us are not in orbit, which is what they were developed and designed for long before the Chinese monkey-copies first rolled out to capture government subsidy money.

The higher busbar count also means the front-face power conductors can be much thinner traces of deposited metal (usually silver or a layer of silver over a layer of copper). By being thinner they cast less shade on the active silicon layer that converts the inbound photons to electricity. The old-tech stuff often still comes with 9 busbars or 5 busbars or even fewer (and thus wider) per cell. It's about having enough metal conductor to carry enough current vs. shading active material from sunlight.