Harbor Freight Solar on Sale till 4/4

[MikeCM]

I received an email yesterday that with a coupon the Harbor Freight 45 watt solar kit is on sale for $159 (regular $249, I have seen on sale for $199), until 4/4/2010. Looks like a great deal if you are getting ready to add solar.

Link to website is below.
Mike
Solar 45 Watt Kit

[Darnelle]

I would love to add a bit of solar power!

How do I get a coupon? And is it good for phone or internet orders or only in-store purchase?

thanks much!!!!!

[MikeCM]

Not sure if this link will work, if not send me a Private Message with your email and I will forward it to you. My experience is that Harbor Freight honors pricing through both sales channels.

Solar Panel Coupon

Mike

[Lizbeth]

Our local Sam's Club had the 60 watt set up today for 199.99. Four panels instead of 3 and a controller you can actually use. I don't know anyone who has tried them though.

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate....amp;item=442597

[peterh]

When smaller, higher-performing polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar panels were $400 for the same 45 watts of capacity the HF "amorphous" panel setup made sense as a cheaper alternative. These days high-quality 50-watt crystalline structure solar panels sell for just over $150 on eBay, so the HF setup isn't such a good deal.

My suggestion would be to bid on 50-watt Mono- or poly-crystalline panel from eBay; if you time your bid to arrive a few seconds before the end of the auction you can pick up a Rasmond 50-watt mono-crystalline solar panel for $153 including shipping. Add a Morningstar or Sunsei 10 Amp solar charge controller, some 14-gauge line cord, and build a set of wood or aluminum legs for your panel and you've got a solar setup that will last longer, take up less space, weigh less, be easier to expand, and produce substantially more energy than the HF system for just a few dollars more.

My opinion. YMMV.

[Perry J]

When smaller, higher-performing polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar panels were $400 for the same 45 watts of capacity the HF "amorphous" panel setup made sense as a cheaper alternative. These days high-quality 50-watt crystalline structure solar panels sell for just over $150 on eBay, so the HF setup isn't such a good deal.

My suggestion would be to bid on 50-watt Mono- or poly-crystalline panel from eBay; if you time your bid to arrive a few seconds before the end of the auction you can pick up a Rasmond 50-watt mono-crystalline solar panel for $153 including shipping. Add a Morningstar or Sunsei 10 Amp solar charge controller, some 14-gauge line cord, and build a set of wood or aluminum legs for your panel and you've got a solar setup that will last longer, take up less space, weigh less, be easier to expand, and produce substantially more energy than the HF system for just a few dollars more.

My opinion. YMMV.

Thanks for the advice Peter.
I have had a set of the HF panels for over a year and never used them
My only camping is in dispersed areas and I have been afraid of the panels getting stolen.
I can start with one 50 watt panel mounted on the roof and not worry about theft.
Thanks again,
John

[Darnelle]

Thank you very much Peter!

I'd like to start adding solar and your advice will get me heading in the right direction. My trip to HF is now canceled.

[Darnelle]

Hey Peter, I have stupid questions.

Are those charge controllers "multi-stage" so I don't boil my battery? Also, do they prevent the system from reversing at night -- battery juice draining into the panel?

I'm guessing what you recommend do the job right, but thought it best to ask.

[Ricky 4]

I saw on tv- solar panals that looked like aluminum foil and could be rolled up and stored in cardboard tube. They were very lightweight and easy to install. The military uses them because of ease of carrying them and they are very sturdy. I can`t find the site again. Anyone heard of these?

[HerseyBA]

I saw on tv- solar panals that looked like aluminum foil and could be rolled up and stored in cardboard tube. They were very lightweight and easy to install. The military uses them because of ease of carrying them and they are very sturdy. I can`t find the site again. Anyone heard of these?

Here are 2 sites that may be of interest:

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/

http://www.uni-solar.com/interior.asp?id=102

[Perry J]

Peter was right on. Thanks again Peter.
I just bought a 50W Ramsond Mono Crystalline panel on ebay for $153.50 and a controller for $20.49 with shipping included.
The panel is app. 21"X 25" which will be easier to mount and expand on the top of my Scamp.
My total price is actually a few dollars less than the HF price in California when you include the the 8.5% tax rate.
I thought I was through customizing my Scamp.
John

[peterh]

Are those charge controllers "multi-stage" so I don't boil my battery? Also, do they prevent the system from reversing at night -- battery juice draining into the panel?

Sunsei and Morningstar Sunsaver solar charge controllers are multi-stage and have blocking diodes built in. The Sunsaver 10A controller has one nice or naughty feature the Sunsei 10 Amp does not: with the Sunsaver you hook your trailer battery, trailer 12v circuits, and the solar panel(s) to the controller, and when your battery voltage drops below I-forget-what it shuts off your trailer electric devices to save your battery from excessive sulphation. It's not a major item on my shopping list, but could be handy if you buy less-expensive deep cycle batteries instead of fancy AGMs that do a better job of resisting sulfation to a lower voltage levels.

My solar panels are roof-mounts. That has the advantage of making them harder to steal, but limits our choice of campsites. Someday I will add a third, portable panel to the collection.

[Perry J]

I have had the HF panels for at least a year and never used them. They weigh about 50 lbs. and are very bulky. Bulky to transport and the controller is about 1/2 the size of a shoe box.
I took Peters advice and bought a single 50 watt panel on eBay and a controller for a total cost of173.99. The panel only weighs about 5 lbs..
The first attached pic is a size comparison between the single 50W and the HF panels.
The second pic is the newly mounted panel on my 16' Scamp. The great thing about this panel is I have room for 2 more panels on my roof for a total additional weight of about 15 to 20 pounds and 150 Ws total.
The third is the controller mounted inside the trailer.
It took me less than a day to complete the installation.
John

[peterh]

Glad it worked out for you.We started out with a single 50w roof-mounted panel, and found that it really quite did the job for us and our LED-lit trailer most days.

Most days. Very important qualifier. We did find that we ran low on juice when we were in Yellowstone and night time temps in the teens kept our furnace running much of the night.

We have since installed a second roof-mounted 55w panel and will be adding an electricity-free Wave-3 catalytic heater to our 5th wheel. I think either of these by itself would have been enough to keep our trailer warm and well-lit in Yellowstone.

[Perry J]

Glad it worked out for you.We started out with a single 50w roof-mounted panel, and found that it really quite did the job for us and our LED-lit trailer most days.

Most days. Very important qualifier. We did find that we ran low on juice when we were in Yellowstone and night time temps in the teens kept our furnace running much of the night.

We have since installed a second roof-mounted 55w panel and will be adding an electricity-free Wave-3 catalytic heater to our 5th wheel. I think either of these by itself would have been enough to keep our trailer warm and well-lit in Yellowstone.

My project now is to do the LED lights. I have been hesitant because I tried it in a 13' Scamp I had and the lights never seemed bright enough. If you know of a good LED reading lamp or fixture please let me know.
I have a Wave 3 but there is no place to mount it in my Scamp.
How long did it take to recharge your battery with just the one panel?
Thanks again,
John

[peterh]

One panel can manage about 18 Amp-hours of charging capacity on a typical September day when you're in the sun. A furnace that runs for a total of six hours during the evening and night consumes about 18 Amp-hours. Our first night in Yellowstone it ran pretty much non-stop for ten hours -- 30 Amp-hours. We have a 55-Amp-hour Optima AGM spiral cell battery. (Which means it has a usable capacity of about 25-30 Amp-hours.)

We tried to use our backup-heater, a Portable Buddy ceramic heater, the next night, but the Oxygen depletion sensor on those things don't work over 7000 feet, so the darn thing kept shutting itself down after an hour.

Our reading lights are custom made. I bought Home Depot track lights when they were on a close-out sale and re-plumbed them with MR-16 socket connectors, then went out and bought some MR-16 LED light replacements; the 2w versions cost me $13 each and are bright enough for me, my wife likes more light and has a brighter 5w version (don't have a pic of that one).











I also put an 1156 socket in one and turned it into a "Sconce" light in our 5er's loft.

[Perry J]

Thanks,
John

[Roy in TO]

Thank you John and Peter,
I now know how I'm going to go with my "new" Trillium 4500.
What were your opinions on the controller John purchased?

Roy

[Matt in SV]

Originally Posted by peterh

My solar panels are roof-mounts. That has the advantage of making them harder to steal, but limits our choice of campsites. Someday I will add a third, portable panel to the collection.

Attachment 27143

Peter that looks really clean! Do those tilt up or are they flat mount. How heavy are they? It looks like they are about a foot wide, but I didn't see anything that narrow on the Ramsond site. Maybe the 20-25 watt ones?

It gave me an idea for mounting my Harbor freight panels end to end. My camper's about 12-1/2 feet long in the body so I think I should be able to do all three on one side.

Regards,

Matt

[peterh]

Roy: The only two controllers that I both like and have direct experience with are the Morningstar SUnSaver and Sunsei controllers. The specs on the Rasmond unit look a lot like the Sunsei controller, and it looks like it can be mounted in a viewable location a lot more cleanly than the other two. I may buy one and give it a try . . . they're fairly inexpensive.

Matt: I didn't actually weigh my panels before putting them up on the roof, so I can't answer that one, but the weight of my 105 watt system is considerably less than that of Harbor Freight's 45 watt panel set. As for the rest:

* My panels don't tilt. Tilting would have been nice, but it greatly complicates the mounting system and adds extra setup steps. We prefer the more hands-off approach of a fixed, roof mounted system so we can park it and forget about it.

* Currently you can get two 20-watt panels off of eBay for less than Harbor Freight's 45 watt set, and, because amorphous panel outputs drop 20% in the first few days in the sun, those two 20w panels will actually generate more power than the HF set. They'll also weigh much less and take up much less room. Just be sure to buy from a reputable eBay seller with a long history. (I noticed Rasmond isn't currently selling, but he's probably just on vacation or somesuch.)

* Many of the 20-watt panels are long one way and narrow the other. It makes them a good choice for mounting them on either side of the headspace ridge many fiberglass trailers have running down the center of their trailer. Most larger-wattage panels are wider; at 13" wide mine are an exception to that rule. The HF panels are the same width and about three feet long, but at 50 pounds for the set you might find you need to reinforce your fiberglass roof to prevent sagging. One of the features of my mounitng system is they sit on contoured blocks that mostly match the shape of my trailer roof and they sit over or close to structures inside the trailer that hold the roof up.

--P