Product Description
The Sunforce 50044 60 Watt Solar Charging Kit gives you another
reason to love the sun -- it'll help keep your batteries charged. This
kit is excellent for cabins, remote power, back-up power, and 12-volt
battery charging. The kit includes a PVC mounting frame, 7 Amp charge
controller, 200-watt inverter, and wiring/connection cables. And with
the built-in blocking diode technology, this charger kit is designed to
protect against battery discharge at night. You can also use this kit
to maintain the charge on any 12-volt battery for clean, silent
operation of various electronics, such as deer feeders and landscaping
pumps. The 50044 features a built-in ultra-bright blue LED charging
indicator, and is a great choice for automobiles, recreational vehicles
(RV), tractors, all terrain vehicles (ATV), boats, electric fences,
telemetry and more, and it is even effective on cloudy days. This
battery charger kit is made of durable ABS plastic and amorphous solar
cells and has a maximum temperature range of -40 to 176-degrees
Fahrenheit.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #645 in Automotive
- Color: Black
- Brand: Sunforce
- Model: 50044
- Released on: 2005-11-25
- Dimensions: 42.25" h x
12.00" w x
54.00" l,
Features
- Amorphous solar charging kit provides up to 60-Watts of clean, free, renewable power
- Designed for RVs, cabins, homes, boats, back-up and remote power use, and more
- Weatherproof, durable solar panels can withstand impacts from hailstones travelling 50 miles-per-hour
- Includes four 15-Watt solar panels with durable mounting frames, a
200-Watt power inverter, a 7-Amp solar charge controller, and a wiring
kit with accessories for easy installation
- Built-in, ultra-bright blue LED charging indicator
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
The Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit gives you several more
reasons to love the sun. It provides the power you need, while helping
you save money and protect the environment. This kit is ideal for
cabins, recreational vehicles, remote power, back-up power, and 12-volt
battery charging. It comes with everything you need to start producing
up to 60 Watts/4 Amps of clean, free power in all weather conditions.
Sunforce kits are easy to set up and operate. |
Convenient Power That Helps You Save Money and Protect the Environment
The Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit lets you harness the
power of the sun, the most powerful and plentiful source of energy
available to us. This inexhaustible supply of power is freely available
wherever the sun shines, and gives users the freedom to power their
homes, RVs, boats, batteries, and electronic equipment far from
civilization or right in town. Solar power can help cut your energy
bills by reducing your dependence on the main electrical grid, and can
also provide back-up power during outages. Unlike nuclear and fossil
fuels, solar power systems are clean and pollution-free, and they
require very little maintenance to operate.
Sunforce Solar Panels are effective in areas of both high and lower
sun exposure, making them ideal for use in the United States.
View Larger |
Everything You Need to Power Up
The Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit has everything you need
to start generating power. It includes four (4) 15-Watt amorphous solar
panels with durable mounting frames, a 200-Watt modified sine wave
power inverter, a 7-Amp solar charge controller, and a wiring kit with
accessories for easy installation.
With built-in blocking
diode technology, this solar charging kit is designed to protect
against battery discharge at night. You can also use this kit to
maintain the charge on any 12-Volt battery for clean, silent operation
of various electronics, such as deer feeders and landscaping pumps. The
included charge controller features a built-in ultra-bright blue LED
charging indicator, and is a great choice for automobiles, recreational
vehicles, tractors, all-terrain vehicles, boats, electric fences,
telemetry and more.
About Amorphous Solar Power
Amorphous solar panels are created by spraying silicon on to glass in
very thin layers, and are commonly known as thin film solar panels.
This process allows them to be better at generating electricity in all
lighting conditions, including cloudy or shady environments. Sunforce
amorphous solar panels are weatherproof and suitable for outdoor use.
They have a maximum operating temperature range of -40 to 176-degrees
Fahrenheit, require virtually no maintenance, and are also effective on
cloudy days. They can even withstand impacts from one-inch hailstones
at 50 miles-per-hour.
Solar panels convert sunlight into an
electric current, they do not store power. Sunforce Solar Charging Kits
are primarily used to recharge 12-Volt batteries (not included), which
store and provide usable power. The included 200-Watt power inverter
allows you to use traditional 110-Volt appliances with this system. The
included Sunforce 7-Amp Solar Charge Controller must be installed to
prevent any connected batteries from overcharging. Once fully charged,
it is normal for the charge controller LED to turn off and on as the
battery voltage fluctuates from the discharge/recharge cycle.
Customer Reviews
Innovative design from China, packaging needs help
Update 9-18-2008 - Still going strong. I am very pleased with the
summer power output of these panels. I wash them with a hose 1x/mo to
keep the output current up. Measured before washing and after washing
the panel efficiency is clearly a factor of how much dirt is on them.
No problems long term on a roof though!
Update 2-20-2008 - goes with graph "photograph" #3 above - pink
line is power and blue line is amps from the panel x 10 to share the
graph. The X axis is panel voltage. Data was acquired using an Agilent
dummy load with programmable voltage in 1V steps from 1V to 22V (open
circuit voltage on the panel) on a partially cloudy day in winter sun.
Expectations are for 2-3 times performace in summer sun provided the
panels don't get too hot. These are on my house roof laying flat on a
3/12 pitch facing due south which is suboptimal but easy for me to do.
Be sure to read the photo notes. Sorry about the colors excel defaulted
to!
This is a MPPT chart (maximum power point tracking) - you can see
that the panels are optimized for charging a 12V wet cell right out of
the box. Charge current turns on when battery voltage drops down to
13.0 VDC and turns off at 14.2 VDC with the supplied charge controller
in the kit.
The only other interesting fact in 2 months is to keep your panels
clean. My maximum current was 5.0 A on a cold morning with bright sun
until it rained hard and washed the panels clean. The current went up
to 7.0 A maximum right after the rainstorm. Below is the original
review - these panels have been running constant for 2 months now into
3 parallel deep cycle marine cells (315 AH) connected to the prosine
inverter below to drain the energy made.
When reading the power/current chart you should keep in mind the
amps have been multiplied by 10 so they use the same Y axis (so 20A on
the chart corresponds to 2.0 A panel current) Watts are actual
volts*amps. This was taken in the winter with partial clouds -
expectations are for a X3 improvement during summertime but its still
february and I'm in the northern hemisphere so we'll have to wait and
see. Basically an MPPT charger won't gain but a few watts with this
panel so it's not a good investment unless you already have one laying
around.
(Begin original review after buying panels)
I never seem to be overwhelmed by the latest shipment of product
from China, but this one seems to show some promise and shows signs of
good cost engineering and a complete design that can be set up quickly
by one person with very little effort. I'd give it 5 stars if it were
well packed, but my purchase turned into a shipping fiasco.
Most ALL solar installations are rated in $/watt much like new
homes are rated in $/sq ft. We'll get to the sq ft bit later. Here you
are getting 60W for 320 dollars or about 5.33 $/watt. Compared to a
similar wattage panel, the BP solar 365U rated at 65W and priced
(street) at 399 or 6.13 $/watt the amazon package seems to be a good
deal when you consider it comes complete less battery (we'll hit that
one later too)
In fact, the amazon package deal includes a xantrex 175 watt
inverter with a .15A "idle" current designed for solar systems where
current consumption must be minimized. It even includes a simple
diode/switch "charge regulator" with 2 leds to indicate panel voltage
and battery is full but lacks the ability to tell it what type of
battery you are using (full is defined at 14.2 volts give or take so
it's for wet/flooded cells). Neither of these are big buck items, but
they do set you up for a complete small scale solar kit minus the
battery out of the box, which is impressive.
Oh yes, the battery. I also ordered the duracell 480W inverter+28AH
battery with this panel so I'd have a battery. Also made by Xantrex,
it's a nice piece to complete the system. I made the mistake of
ordering it with the solar panels (read on)
So how does China produce a complete kit for a lower $/watt price
than professional solar companies like BP solar, GE, Kyocera, etc? Well
- it's the sq ft part we forgot about for a while. This uses 4 panels @
15W each to get up to 60 watts with a simple parallel adapter included
in the kit. The BP solar is one panel about the size of 1 of these 15W
panels, or put another way, is 1/4 the sq footage. So if you are
planning on covering your roof with these, think again because you'd
need a really big house and have lots of 7A charge diodes and 175W
inverters kicking around when you are done. The reason for the 4:1 size
difference is the China panels are made using a silicon deposition on
glass technique with a very thin film and correspondingly thin output,
while other manufacturers use a silicon wafer production method that is
roughly 4x more efficient in area, and somewhat more expensive as a
result.
Ok - now onto packaging. We need to get this from China to Amazon
and finally to the consumer. On the first attempt FEDX carefully placed
my fragile glass solar panels on the concrete then put 2ea 60lb
batteries on top of them, cracking the glass on all 4 panels. After
returning that to amazon, we tried again, this time without the
batteries and shipping the system by itself. FEDX again noted shipment
damage which wrecked 1 of the 4 panels, but running on 3/4 panels it
does work, just not with full output. Amazon has given up because they
will only ship and ruin something twice instead of making fedx pay up
for piling 120 lbs of batteries on top of the glass panels and poking
through the box & styrofoam the second time so I am still in
negotiation with them about the shipment, however the product does
deserve mention while I have it.
PERFORMANCE:
The design is actually quite well done. You can make (with 4
panels) a 12V (actually 15V) x 4A system, or a 30V x 2A or a 60V x 1A
configuration depending on your power inverter and battery collection.
For me, this will always be tied into a 12VDC bus so it is fine as
shipped, but the flexibility is there if you have other voltages in
use. There is no skimping on wire with 16 foot cords on each panel
which helps to minimize power lost in the wire since each panel has its
own cordset going to the combiner, after which runs are kept short. On
a cloudy day I was able to get 2 amps from 3 panels (30 W) - in full
sun it peaked at 5.91A with 3 panels, so the Chinese manufacturing has
under-rated their output as 90W from a 1/4 dead 60W panel in winter sun
is doing very good - I'd like to know how it performs in the summer!
As for mounting, a very clever system was designed to support the
panels out of 1" PVC tubing with elbows and T's - all of this is
assembled with a singular bolt/wingnut style and the pipes have slots
milled into them to ensure that the panels will line up one way or
another without breaking after you get them. It has a prop-up leg
system for use on the ground or can lay flat if placed on a roof that
is already angled towards the sun. There isn't a provision for
connecting multiple systems together, however you could make one out of
sprinkler pipes you probably have.
All this really needs to be a well designed solar kit is 1) better
packaging and 2) a battery. Even with 25% of my panels broken and
removed from the system, it still managed to charge a car battery in
under 1 cloudy winter day.
I'm impressed with the product, however disappointed with the
shipper. I've also run up against Amazon's policy of two strikes and
they are out meaning they won't negotiate for repair or replacement as
the shipper on my behalf. I can return it alltogether or pay 100% for
75% of a system so it's probably going back tomorrow (monday) - but my
testing this weekend has shown that the product warrants consideration
for people who
A) Need to keep their starting batteries charged year round (2nd
cars, generators, etc) outside where AC power is not convenient.
B) Do not have A/C power at all and would like to run a small
refrigerator (purchase a Xantrex Technologies Prosine 1,000 to
1,500-Watt Power Inverter #1000 TRUE SINEWAVE power inverter to run any
motor load without damage)
or
C) Have lots of roof space and are looking at the lowest cost/watt installation complete with mounting hardware.
Don't forget the battery - and don't have it delivered with your
solar panels. As for emergency power, 60 watts won't do much for you
but keep your generator battery charged and ready to go when the power
fails. My natural gas genset is rated for 12,000 watts or 200 of these
60 watt 4-panel kits (800 panels) which would cost $64,000 and still
not provide power at night, like the quiet genset does. With 12,000
watts I can comfortably run my whole house. Considering these natural
gas gensets can be had for under $3000 they are clearly the best
solution for whole house power backup systems.
My use was to keep my seldom used 12VDC batteries all charged in
the back yard. Regretably, amazon's lack of proper packaging and
refusal to negotiate with FEDX over damage means I'll probably put in a
12VDC charger inside my house and run the low voltage 12VDC wiring
outside to the batteries that need a trickle charge.
One last reliability issue - having seen 5 broken panels now I can
see an advantage to the professional panel systems - these use the
glass just as a cover & weatherproofing plate. The cells underneath
are not damaged if the glass breaks. On the amazon system, the cells
are deposited on the back of the glass, so if it breaks, by default so
does the entire cell.
Recharges all our stuff
We bought this a few months ago. We live in Phoenix, AZ ("Valley of
the Sun"), so this has plenty of opportunity to work. We have it
plugged into 2 marine batteries (like car batteries, but bigger), and
we have an inverter connected to those. The inverter is in the house,
and the batteries are outside. The wire goes through the wall. We plug
things into the inverter.
This was easy to put together. You have to buy the batteries, but this came with everything else.
I can run my laptop all day, as well as recharge the cell phones
and Wii remotes. My husband can also run his laptop. If we only get on
the laptops after work, we can run them well into the night. I've had
to switch to grid power a couple of times if I've used my laptop all
day, but I've never had to switch over if I've only used it during the
evening. (This doesn't count the few rainy days we've had. Yes, once in
a while it rains in Phoenix.)
This is not the most efficient solar panel set, but it's very good
for starting out and learning about solar power. It's inexpensive
enough to set up and charge all your rechargeable stuff whenever you
need it, as long as you live in a fairly sunny area.
Oh, as an experiment, I plugged the vacuum cleaner into the
inverter, which promptly started screaming for help. (The inverter has
an alarm, apparently.) This whole set-up CANNOT handle this kind of
power draw. You have to unplug everything and turn the inverter off and
let it just sit a while and reset before plugging in your lower power
things again.
You're not going off the grid with this set-up, but you'll save
yourself a few bucks a month. And you get to be smug whenever anyone
talks about going green. "Well of course, our solar array has lowered
our carbon footprint considerabley. Shall we go for an organic smoothie
now?"
Permanently installed on roof
The panels are installed on my garage roof, wired in to a battery
bank and inverter which primarily functions as a very large (4KW)
uninterruptible power supply for the house. So far, everything is
working fine. They keep the batteries topped off without using power
from the grid.
Like most manufacturer's specs, the 60 watt claim is hard to
realize. The panels' current output is about 3.2 amps under bright sun,
which yields only about 45 watts into a 12 volt gel cell battery at
14.2 volts. The panels can output about 20 volts which would indeed
yield 60 watts, but not while connected with the included charge
controller. A MPPT controller would achieve 60 watts, however.
The included controller is acceptable in that it works as
advertised. One good thing about it is that it does not shunt the
panels when the battery is charged, it actually opens the circuit,
which means the excess panel output would be available for other uses.
I intend to build another device for charging another set of batteries
after the primary set is charged.
The included inverter works, but I did not use it in the system. Instead, I'll just keep it around for a portable inverter.
Also, I did not use the PVC pipe stand included with the system, instead mounting the panels directly to the roof.
The kit did include a variety of connectors allowing use with
cigarette lighter plugs and jacks, alligator clips, and hardwire, but
the charge controller is only usable if hardwired. I strongly recommend
the charge controller be used, as the panels can easily overcharge most
any 12 volt battery if a charge controller is not wired in.
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