g;day everyone today we're going to go through the question of whether all solar panels are
built the same this is all the essential info you need to know before deciding on a solar panel for
your setup this is a crash course in solar without all the marketing hype so settle in
the latest data from the Australian Government's Geoscience Department tells us that Australia
has the highest solar irradiation on average on earth that means we get the most sunlight per
square metre looking at it another way before we had a single solar power station covering 50
by 50 kilometres with an efficiency of just 10% about half the current consumer grade efficiency
it would be sufficient to meet all of Australia's electricity needs it's for all these reasons that
solar power makes so much sense for your camping or full driving setup plus it's easy to use and
reliable it doesn't require fuel so it's clean and quiet and these days it's relatively inexpensive
okay let's get into the most commonly used solar panels for camping and for driving and their uses
first there are permanent solar set ups that means that while you're driving a vehicle or
while you stopped at camp or even while you're parked you're charging your auxiliary battery
with the right setup your solar is taking the load off your alternator and saving your fuel
even if it's a minor improvement it's still an improvement there are a couple of options glass
covered panels with alloy frames are common and they offer a good combination of strength
and durability and then there are semi flexible panels that are gaining popularity they're much
lower profile lighter weight and can be shaped to gentle curves so they can fit almost anywhere
next there are your portable panels these offer the benefit that you can choose when to pack them
so if your vehicle is a daily driver you might need to keep the roof rack free or you don't
need to carry solar around all the time the most common types are folding solar panels and folding
solar blankets and both have their pros and cons solar panels a more cost effective and offer more
power for their size plus most will come with folding legs that mean you can angle the panel
towards the Sun the higher efficiency but solar blankets are much more portable lightweight and
easier to transport and store some solar blankets do offer fall out legs for the best of both worlds
all solar panels are most effective when they're pointed directly towards the Sun and they're kept
relatively cool so whether you choose permanent solar or portable solar keep those two things in
mind you'll need to point them towards the Sun as best you can and keep them well ventilated
Plus think about the type of camping and four wheel driving that you're actually likely to
do if you spend most of your time sitting around at camp then a couple of big portable panels or
blankets might be the way to do it they're easy to pack easy to set up and easy to connect that means
you got power running into your vehicle while you're sitting at camp otherwise if you're doing
long drives throughout the day permanent solar might make more sense particularly if you pair
it with the right DC to DC charger with solar priority charging that means that while you're
driving your solar panel will be charging your auxiliary battery first and then your alternator
will pick up any slack plus it means your old 12-volt set up is running off the one system
a very basic way to think about how solar works is that it's two layers of silicon sandwiched
together and different materials added to each layer so there's an excess of electrons on one
and an excess of holes or free space on the other now in this case the top layer has an
excess of electrons and the bottom layer has an excess of holes those electrons want to travel
through the cell to get to the holes when sunlight hits the solar cell the light particles which are
known as photons knock the electrons out of those holes and back to the top layer where
instead of going back to the holes they travel along these thin wires known as fingers and then
these thicker wires known as bus bars after that they go through your battery delivering charge
then back to the base layer where the process is repeated each of these solar cells is only
very low voltage and very low current which is why connecting many of them together gives you
enough usable output to charge your batteries generally more cells equals higher output
not only do you need to think about what type of solar panel best suit your setup but you also
need to think about the actual construction of the cell the three most common consumer
grade solar panels on the market will either be mono crystalline poly crystalline or amorphous
silicon each type has its own pros and cons so starting with amorphous thin film solar
now they are slightly better in low light and cloudy conditions they're thinner and
more flexible but that comes at a massive cost they're much more expensive to produce and buy
and they're much less efficient you'd need about twice the surface area of a mono crystalline or
polycrystalline to get the same energy output the absolute top shelf amorphous solar cells are about
10 percent efficient so they're able to convert about 10 percent of sunlight into usable energy
next up we've got polycrystalline solar these are the cheapest to produce which means they're
the cheapest for consumers to buy and they're more efficient than amorphous panels however
because of the way they're produced which is pouring molten silicon into a mold they cool
at different rates so you'll see fractures and cracks now they lead to inefficiencies overall
they have a maximum efficiency of just over 22% finally there's mono crystalline solar
yeah this is the most efficient for its size and it performs slightly better than polycrystalline
as it warms up and in low-light conditions but it costs more to produce and that's because it's
made from a single piece of silicon that means though there's no cracking or fractures and you
do get an efficiency boost about 26.5% overall efficiency that's more than the polycrystalline
and much more than the Amorphis these figures are achieved in ideal conditions in the lab with
a single solar cell so in the real world with a real solar panel those figures will vary but
it's a good place to start when you're thinking about what type of solar you need for your setup
before choosing a solar panel do your research and find out what cell technology the panel is
the next thing to look for on each cell is the number of bus bars as I said earlier when
sunlight hits the solar cell it knocks electrons free from the silicon they then travel along the
fingers which is the thin wires and then the thicker wires known as bus bars if fingers are
the back roads then bus bars are the highways and that means the more the better not only
do you get higher efficiency but you get better durability and longevity as well early consumer
grade solar cells had two bus bars then they evolved into three and more recently four and
five so that means if you're looking at a solar panel make sure it's got four or even
better five bus bars any less than four and it can be sure that it's old outdated stuff
that's probably being sold at a clearance price plus if you have an older panel that seems to
be underperforming and it's got two or three bus bars it might be the time to upgrade bus
bars can appear silver like this or they can be coated with black silicon which might make them
look nicer but it actually leads to a tiny loss in efficiency there are some exceptions to the
bus bar rule though because bus bars are on top of the cell they create shade which means a loss
in efficiency so new technology like shingles cells are shaking up the industry they have
bus bars on each end of the cell which overlap like a tiled roof of the house that means even
better efficiency more power and longer life but the trade-off is that they're more expensive too
another thing to keep an eye out for when you're shopping for a solar panel is what grade or class
the solar cells are that make up the panel so a grade A or Class A means that there's no visible
defects there a uniform colour and the output is within specifications grade B or Class B cells
show minor defects scratches yellowing or tiny parts of the busbar missing but the electrical
data is within specifications Class C or grade C cells show visible defects including chips
or cracks large missing sections of bus bars and the electrical data is not within spec
finally plus D or grade D cells are essentially rubbish with major defects breakages or damaged
finally it's important and compare each solar panel you're looking at like the like solar
manufacturers and retailers use the same standard test conditions in the lab to rate their solar
panel wattage they light up the panel with a thousand watts per square meter of light
and then set the ambient temperature up to 25 degrees Celsius then they simulate the amount of
atmosphere that the light needs to pass through that's the am 1.5 figure here AM stands for air
mass 1.5 air mass is a good average for most areas as it represents the Sun coming through
the atmosphere on a slight angle directly overhead it have an air mass of 1 and as the Sun goes close
to the sunrise or sunset the number would increase has to go through more atmosphere the next thing
you'll see on your solar panel specifications is the normal operating cell temperature now that's
the temperature that your solar panel will reach in normal operating real-world conditions so 800
watts per square meter of light 20 degrees ambient and about a 3.5 kilometre per hour
wind now the back of the panel is elevated so it's ventilated as well a solar panels normal
operating cell temperature might be listed as high as sixty degrees Celsius but the lower
the number the better because it means the panel is more efficient at dispelling Heat and that's
important because for every degree of solar panel reaches above 25 degrees it could be losing around
half a percent efficiency so here's a hot tip the reason power decreases while temperature increases
is because each individual cells voltage drops as they heat up the good news though is that the
current increases as the temperature increases so if you have a DC DC charger with an MPPT regulator
it can take advantage of that extra current plus boost the voltage to the correct level that your
battery requires although you're losing some power due to the heat of the panel the MPP T
is more capable of then outputting the correct power to correctly charge a battery my last
piece of advice is to go for a more powerful solar setup than you that means no matter the conditions
you can always keep your batteries charged up any campsite running smoothly now whether that
means you opted for a bigger permanent solar panel or at a portable solar panel tear setup
which is easy to use whenever you need it as always if there are any questions throw them
in the comments below and make sure you hit like and subscribe check out the rest of the channel
too for more camping full driving cooking and 12-volt tips tricks and techniques cheers guys