Even though I didn't exactly receive an overwhelming number of helpful responses to my plea for advice above, I went ahead and ordered a Dokio 100W portable solar panel from Amazon and it arrived this morning - this one but mine was a £70 Prime deal):A recent trip got me thinking that we could maybe do with a bit more solar power. I've currently got what I would call a ‘conventional’ leisure system comprising:
Pictures that I posted after the install a couple of years ago here at posts #685 and #690
- Renogy 100Ah Smart Battery
- Victron IP65 Mains Charger
- CTek D250SE DC to DC Charger
- 150W Solar Flexibler Solar Panel stuck to poptop and into the Renogy via the Ctek
TBH, I’m not convinced by the current solar panel - it does charge but I’ve never measured any more that around 130W coming out of it and into the battery. I’m a lazy so and so and really don’t fancy going through the rigmarole of replacing the current panel with something larger (with all the associated work that will entail) which got me to thinking that something like a 160W folding / briefcase panel might be the solution. My idea is that the new panel could simply be plugged in whenever needed and work in parallel alongside the current roof mounted panel to effectively double the amount if juice going into the battery. Another advantage is that the new panel could also be plugged straight into my Jackery Explorer 1000 to give that a boost when needed. Looking at the documents for the CTek, it should be up to the job of handling both panels but is what I’m thinking practical and would the wiring be a relatively simple thing to do?
As always, thanks in advance.
After opening the box and looking at it all, I began to realise that I had maybe made a mistake when I went to plug the long cable into the short lead coming out the panel itself (I believe they're called SAE connectors) and discovered that there was no grip at all between the two parts to the extent that once they were pushed together if you tried to move either side. the connectors immediately came apart and even I know that loose connections like that are a potential recipe for disaster. On top of that, when I kept the two halves of the connector pushed together and plugged the lead into my 50% charged Jackery Explorer 1000 V2 (with the supplied adapter), there was NO charge going into it, despite the panel being directly under the very bright mid-day sunshine. After that I did a quick check with a muti meter and found that although there seemed to be almost 19V coming out of the panel, there were no amps or watts showing so I can only conclude that I got sent a wrong un and it's going back - I would have sent it back anyway simply based upon the potentially dangerous connector. Maybe I just made a mistake in buying the cheap panel but I did do a bit of research and saw some favourable reviews.




