hello hello thanks for tuning in all right today we are gonna check and see what the output of a
100 to 120 watt solar panel is on a rainy day we've got some panels set out your traditional
fixed one here this is a uh renegie then we have a folding bouge RV or a sigs 360 rolling one and all
the links will be in the description and videos for links above we got the Agway 120 watt folding
solar panel and then we got a Harbor Freight 100 watt solar panel this is the oldest one that we
have so we're gonna hook it up to our little DIY power box here that thing has 300 and well 300
watts of mppt solar charging capability so this is going to give the best output that you can get
and we'll see exactly what we're getting here on the rainy day it's been raining for over a day now
so we're gonna get everything set up and plugged in and see what we get
all right we got the Harbor Freight panel up first again this is the oldest solar panel
we've had we've had it for several years um this is coming through their standard SAE
connection into an mc4 adapter be aware and be careful the polarity all the other panels
are correct but the Harbor Freight solar panel uses SAE connectors and it's backwards so just
make sure you have a meter to check everything and it's about 12 noon so sun is right above us
see what we get
all right we're bringing in a whopping 6.5 Watts a half amp now that is coming
through an mppt charge controller so it's about what you're getting out of 100 watt
panel when there is absolutely no sun and overcast and rain I'm going to angle the
panel a little bit and we'll see if we get an increase or decrease on uh efficiency
this is leaning it up
looks like we're losing efficiency gain some back
that's almost at a 90 degree angle
and now we're going to lean it all the way back
looks like you got a little more when we leave it almost flat with the ground about a half amp there
so that's the Harbor Freight 100 watt solar panel
we're gonna switch it now to the renergy 100 watt solar panel
all right we got the running Jeep 100 watt solar panel set up we're bringing in about
three Watts it's at the same angle the Harbor Freight one is we're going to lean it up now
all right those are way worse
now we're coming back down
all right I believe the Harbor Freight one was getting about a half amp as well so this is 0.4
and this is all the way almost flat with the ground maybe about 20 degree angle if that
yeah so that's all we're going to see is about 0.4 there's 0.5 so the Harbor Freight
panel and the energy panel are putting out about the same so sick almost six and a half Watts
out of a hundred so it's still not good
all right this is the bouge RV sigs panel this is the panel that's flexible and super thin
some type of new technology we'll see if it's any better than the tried and true technology
all right we're right up to right around the same so we'll move this around as well
this panel is a bit more difficult to move with how long it is
so the thing we're noticing with this panel is they're not much of a change
when moving it I mean there's a change but it happens gradually versus quickly so again
that half amp range around five to six Watts
so we'll see uh slight flat and see what happens
that's totally flat in the ground and we're getting 0.6 so this is doing the
the best at 7.89 Watts 0.6 amps coming in that's laying totally flat on the ground
so maybe we'll come back through and try the other ones totally flat see what happens so
so far the bouge RV is doing the best is also the longest panel in length but the thinnest
now we're going to switch to the Agway folding solar panel
I believe that one does 120 watts is what they rated at
all right this is the Agway folding solar panel we check the connection on this and it seems to
be correct so we're going to go ahead and plug it in and this one's rated at 120.
wow 0.7 this is doing the best nine Watts coming in out of this Agway solar panel what a surprise
this is the smallest out of the panels that we tested here as far as size goes
wattage it's the most so you would expect more but I wasn't expecting
it at all so we're gonna go ahead and move it around and see if we can get some more
about 90 degrees parallel with the ground so we're going to come back now
getting down to a low angle about 20 degrees and we're flat on the ground
so still pulling about eight Watts so it's I guess if you scale it down all the other
ones are 100 Watts this is a 120. that's where you're seeing the difference because there's
a higher wattage so more watts equals more power and rain yeah not too bad
all right so here's how wildly it could vary when it rains out
this is the Harbor Freight panel hooked up just on its own legs and as you can see the raindrops
are coming down it is very very very cloudy out
so
right there 15 watts I'm gonna hook the other ones up again real quick and check it
all right that's the renergy one so 0.9 11.8 Watts coming in
that's the Agway 120.
so as you can see it can vary wildly even if they're at that same angle just with different
times when it's raining when it gets a peek through the cloud or something that you don't
notice it'll pick it up we also wanted to add this in currently this is a 400 watt Harbor Freight
System on the roof of this house and we're only getting 45 and a half watts in to give you an idea
so that is about what you're going to get off 100 watt panel you know really it really just depends
that's what no load so you can see it doesn't change very much with no load
and the load is just a small inverter end a little fan
okay we're gonna take a look at the four solar panels we tested and talk about them starting
with the Harbor Freight one right here this one lists right now for 129.99 they used to be 99.99
a couple years ago but they went up in price this is a 100 watt monocrystalline solar panel
the manufacturer states that you can get up to 500 watt hours 31 amp hours a day with a Max
amp of 6.2 so we did test these things we've had them for a few years they are great solar
panels they're small they have little legs in the back the only downside to this thing is the SAE
connector as it's not an industry standard mc4 is what all these other three panels have and
that is industry industry standard so in the Rain the Harbor Freight panel averaged about a half amp
or 6.58 Watts so six and a half watts is what we were getting out of this thing with no sun in the
rain so six percent efficient in the rain again no sun this is the worst possible conditions we
can see this was right after our hurricane so six watts is better than no watts in anybody's case
all right the next panel we're gonna look at in the same category here is the reninja one
the renergy one is also 100 watt mono crystalline panel and as you can see it's much taller it does
not have legs this has the mc4 connections so it's a single panel um it's rated at
anywhere between 33 and 40 amp hours a day four to five hundred Watt hours is what they claim
the efficiency is about 91 percent and what we've seen was all right it says short circuit amps are
5.21 and the optimal operating if you are getting full power would be about five amps this one we've
seen also 0.5 amps 6.58 Watts so this solar panel did exactly the same as the Harbor Freight solar
panel right now the renergy panel list for 92.99 shipped on Amazon so this is cheaper than the
Harbor Freight panel even uh after taxes this will still be cheaper and shipped to your front
door the only difference is you're not getting legs and the renergie ones a little bit bigger
now we're going to go into this Agway 120 watt folding solar panel again this is a
monocrystalline portable solar panel this is an expensive solar panel but it is portable and this
one claims to put out 120 watts and let's see what the manufacturer says for amperage here
it's 22.8 percent efficient
6.05 amps Max is what this thing will put out we've seen the highest average wattage out of
all of these panels again this panel is rated at 20 watts higher than these other three so
120 watt panel we've seen 0.7 amps 9.21 Watts so the highest out of all the panels and again
this is the highest wattage of the panels but the smallest and most portable out of all the panels
the next panel we're going to talk about is the bouge RV sigs panel this long one here this is the
lightest and thinnest of all the panels but it is the longest so this is more geared towards being
flat on a roof or a curved surface Maybe so this is a siggs technology panel copper indium gallium
selenide if I'm pronouncing that right correct me in the comments if I'm not sigs for short
this is a truly flexible panel uh it's extremely lightweight it is thin it's waterproof out of this
panel we've seen 0.6 amps or 7.90 Watts so this was doing better than the two monocrystalline
panels right here this new Sig technology had just a couple more watts so in the rain any
type of wattage you can get is going to be great so we had some Max outputs that we also caught
the Harbor Freight solar panel actually came out on top on that one at 1.2 amps 15.80 Watts
then the renergy came in behind that at 0.9 amps 11.85 watts and then the Agway panel here
was 0.67.90 Watts as well as the sigs panel was right around 0.7 Watts 0.7 amps as well
so overall what can we gain from this the more wattage that you have in bad weather
the more power you're gonna get so a hundred watt panel in really crappy weather is not
going to do much for you maybe run an LED light bulb if you're lucky so you'll have
to have a bigger array a bitter a bigger battery Bank to hold that power but yeah
overall each panel is going to have a different application this one here is very portable
this one here is lightweight flexible can be put around curves this is more of a roof or ground
Mount system and this one here is semi-portable with the legs so what you can see is they're about
you know five to ten percent efficient in the rain so use that as a better judgment
to figure out which panel is right for you hope this helps thanks for watching please subscribe