Instapark® NEW All Black 10W High-Efficiency Mono-Crystalline Solar Panel

This 10W panel is a great size to use as a charger for keeping your car battery topped off. Given the amount of current it can produce, over half an amp under ideal conditions, you'll want to also purchase a charge controller. I bought the SunGuard made by Morningstar (available on Amazon as well). The combo is working well together so far.

I started off by buying one of those 1.8W solar "trickle" chargers, which will not produce enough current to keep my battery charged all the time. I measured the 10W setup today, which is a mid-December sunny day in northern California. Around solar noon I got 250mA, which is a bit less than half of what this panel can do. Keep in mind that the panel was also at about a 45 degree angle to the sun, which will also reduce its power output. I really need 130-150mA for a few hours a day to keep the battery charged. Having that extra 100mA will hopefully bring my battery to a full charge over the course of a few days. My battery was down to 11.87V late last night when I hooked the panel up. By lunchtime the next day, the voltage was 12.2V. My dinky 1.8W only managed to keep the voltage around 12V over several days, which meant it was struggling to keep up at best.

The panel seems fairly well made, but it arrived with some silicone residue that wasn't cleaned off at the factory. There was also a bit of a stain on the aluminum frame. Now, I didn't buy the panel for it's dashing good looks, but it would be nice if they were a bit more careful during assembly. All the tabbing on the solar cells looks to be fairly well done. The clear encapsulating silicone was free of any bubbles. The panel uses the typical "frosted" glass found on many flat panels. It seems like the most critical stuff is reasonably well done. The excessive residue on the panel and the crooked label on the back do bring back the cheapness of this item. Keep in mind i've spent four years working in solar, at a variety of companies. None of them let a panel out the door in the condition this one is in. In all fairness, none of my former employers made $40 panels either. For the money, this seems OK to me. If I wanted high quality, this isn't it. This panel is going to spend its time inside a vehicle, so it won't see the crazy weather, dust, and rain an outdoor solar panel would.

The junction box is easy to open, so that you can replace the short wire fairly easily. It will take a decent soldering iron to desolder the wires, but I managed with my 50W bench top solder station. I ended up putting a 10ft section of 18g a wire so that I had enough to put the panel in the back window of my car if need be. Yes, i could have spliced the wires, but this was a "cleaner" look to my new solar charger.

Overall, this is a good buy for someone needing a low-power panel for keeping a small/mid battery charged. When buying a solar panel, take what you think you need and double it. Unless you're using a two-axis solar tracker and a inverter or charge controller with MPPT, you will not get the claimed power from the panel. For most small installations, it's cheaper to buy more solar panel than worry about some of the other technologies that can squeeze the extra wattage. If you're putting in hundreds of watts or more, then investing in better equipment would be a good choice financially.

Love this solar panel, puts anywhere from 9(low light) to 15 and maybe more volts.

I have heard the cables connected to these panels called "flimsy" what I like is the sleeve that comes on it. In the back there is a little compartment where the soldered connections are made, the cables come out the back, I pushed/wiggled the sleeve inside the box closer to the soldered ends and now the sleeve is taking the pressure if the cable is tugged rather then the soldered connections.

Would buy again, probably will but bigger :)

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Great product for the price and size!!!

I installed this on my RV roof A/C and it works better than advertised. It kicked out 19.6V. My RV batteries will always be full when pulled out of storage.

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The panel is used to maintain charged batteries that power my HAM radio station when we have an outage, especially during an Emergency. It works well for me.

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I was considering this and the Ramsond 10 Watt Solar Panel. I bought this over the Ramsond as a misspec (somewhere) indicated this was thinner and would pack smaller in a Jamboree Duffel (see below). Amazon has correct (if not updated) dimensions.

My application is "Simple Cell Solar" for the 2013 National Jamboree. The goal is full cell charges nightly with a day or twos reserve for my Razr Maxx and my son's iPhone 5

Testing Configuration:

-Instapark® NEW All Black 10W High-Efficiency Mono-Crystalline Solar Panel

-ExcessUPS APC Smart UPS Back-UPS BK BP CS RBC 2 RBC2 New Replacement Battery Cartridge UPS Battery Pack

-1N5822 40V 3A Blocking Diode (only need 1)

-"Watt's Up" RC Watt Meter & Power Analyzer WU100 Version 2 (for measurements ; not needed for deployment)

In full sun I'm maxing at 7.3 Watts at about 14V . Note that you won't see 10 Watts without MPP charger as maximum power is specified at 17 or 18 volts. This deployment (and anything similar) will voltage/current balance to the battery. This isn't a limitation of this cell but I'm pointing out what you can realistically expect without a very fancy MPPT charger.

Advantages:

Good quality construction (but check your caulking as others needed to)

Appears to meet rated specs (and note real-life derating without MPPT devices)

Disadvantages:

Doesn't include blocking diode. Your battery will discharge (at some rate) through the cell at night and on overcast days. Pretty much any charge controller will eliminate this need if you go that route.

Wire sheath wasn't under the strain relief bracket inside the junction. Easy to fix but you should check this.

It's Black. Solar panels become less efficient when hot which is why all panels (except for the cells) aren't black. This one is. Impact? I haven't computed it; may not be enough non-cell black space to worry.

Required some cleanup with alcohol; caulk bits/handling on glass and on two opposing corners. No biggie but it looked dirty.

Corner miter edges had sharp edges knocked off (good) but not finished/re-finished. Sharpie. No biggie but a detail.

Overall I think it's a great value; I think the Ramsond is probably comparable; I wish it (they) had the blocking diode as too many people "try solar" and have issues and a blocking diode helps fool proof them (and is necessary for direct battery hookup).

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