Folding Solar Panels - Good yield considering time of year!

[Carpmart]

Just a shout out to angled and directionable solar panels at this time of year; I’m genuinely impressed with the yield!

We are at our winter stop over site (3 months) in SE Spain but the days are short, the sun is low, there is often a haze or partial cloud, so it’s the worst time of year for solar harvesting BUT I am getting 1 KwH to 1.2KwH from four 80W panels (320W) in a 2 series 2 parallel configuration. For comparison I’m getting ‘only’ 0.7 to 0.8 KwH from 600W of flat roof mounted panels.

The panels I have are some old ones which come in a decent case and were sold by Sunshine Solar a few years back and I picked up off Facebook and eBay, paying around £250 in total and have them hooked up to a separate 30A Victron MPPT. The 2S 2P config means I’m pushing higher voltage, less amps to the MPPT, so cables are modest thickness so easy to manage. Yes being monocrystaline they are heavy, yes they take up a lot of space, but I’m fortunate to be able to handle both those parameters with our MoHo.

So the last three days since setting them up we are generating just under 2KwH per day (roof & folding) which at 12v roughly equates to 160A going back into the lithium! This is a little under our average daily consumption, but the days are getting longer!

I’ve not plugged into hook up in the first week and I’m hoping I don’t need to get the cable out whilst we are here over winter!

I love the fact that we are power self sufficient even in the depths of winter.

 

[Lenny HB]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

Definitely consider it, my 100w portable panel is great when the sun starts to get lower. Folds in half for storage in the wardrobe

 

[Manic]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

I wonder if you could use suckers and put light weight folding one on the side of the van win on an Aire

 

[MichaelT]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

I'll let you know how we get on with ours next week. Like you we never plug in but we do use a few sites to just rest and do the chores so got one for those few days we are not moving.

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[Carpmart]

Interesting comments! I’m not sure the ‘suitcase’ lightweight panels will give the same yield as ‘proper’ mono panels; but anything is better than nothing!

 

[Carpmart]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

TBH, the folding panels will only be used when we are static at this time of year. The rest of the time when touring, the 600w of roof panels, the DC DC charging and some ‘free’ electric mean we don’t need to plug in… it’s just at this point in winter where the folding are so useful.

Edit: and when we are parked next to a lake in France fishing… we use the folding then too!

 

[fishplug]

I put bigger solar panels on my current van build as it's going to be more power hungry than my last one which meant upgrading the MPPT controller.

However, I kept the old one 'just in case' I wanted to go down the folding panel route.

Very interesting to see your results. Thank you.

 

[eddie]

Just a shout out to angled and directionable solar panels at this time of year; I’m genuinely impressed with the yield!

We are at our winter stop over site (3 months) in SE Spain but the days are short, the sun is low, there is often a haze or partial cloud, so it’s the worst time of year for solar harvesting BUT I am getting 1 KwH to 1.2KwH from four 80W panels (320W) in a 2 series 2 parallel configuration. For comparison I’m getting ‘only’ 0.7 to 0.8 KwH from 600W of flat roof mounted panels.

The panels I have are some old ones which come in a decent case and were sold by Sunshine Solar a few years back and I picked up off Facebook and eBay, paying around £250 in total and have them hooked up to a separate 30A Victron MPPT. The 2S 2P config means I’m pushing higher voltage, less amps to the MPPT, so cables are modest thickness so easy to manage. Yes being monocrystaline they are heavy, yes they take up a lot of space, but I’m fortunate to be able to handle both those parameters with our MoHo.

So the last three days since setting them up we are generating just under 2KwH per day (roof & folding) which at 12v roughly equates to 160A going back into the lithium! This is a little under our average daily consumption, but the days are getting longer!

I’ve not plugged into hook up in the first week and I’m hoping I don’t need to get the cable out whilst we are here over winter!

I love the fact that we are power self sufficient even in the depths of winter.

View attachment 998628

Don’t tell haganap or his cabal

Some of them don’t like statements like this it spoils their narrative

I love the fact that we are power self sufficient even in the depths of winter.

 

[Nanniemate]

I washed my panel yesterday, even in bright sunshine it would not get through the mank from travelling down

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[Fragle]

Just a shout out to angled and directionable solar panels at this time of year; I’m genuinely impressed with the yield!

We are at our winter stop over site (3 months) in SE Spain but the days are short, the sun is low, there is often a haze or partial cloud, so it’s the worst time of year for solar harvesting BUT I am getting 1 KwH to 1.2KwH from four 80W panels (320W) in a 2 series 2 parallel configuration. For comparison I’m getting ‘only’ 0.7 to 0.8 KwH from 600W of flat roof mounted panels.

The panels I have are some old ones which come in a decent case and were sold by Sunshine Solar a few years back and I picked up off Facebook and eBay, paying around £250 in total and have them hooked up to a separate 30A Victron MPPT. The 2S 2P config means I’m pushing higher voltage, less amps to the MPPT, so cables are modest thickness so easy to manage. Yes being monocrystaline they are heavy, yes they take up a lot of space, but I’m fortunate to be able to handle both those parameters with our MoHo.

So the last three days since setting them up we are generating just under 2KwH per day (roof & folding) which at 12v roughly equates to 160A going back into the lithium! This is a little under our average daily consumption, but the days are getting longer!

I’ve not plugged into hook up in the first week and I’m hoping I don’t need to get the cable out whilst we are here over winter!

I love the fact that we are power self sufficient even in the depths of winter.

View attachment 998628

We managed last winter for a month with our Afery 400w folding panels.
Just heading into Spain now for a longer trip no intention of going to a campsite unless we struggle with charging power bank.

 

[Carpmart]

We managed last winter for a month with our Afery 400w folding panels.
Just heading into Spain now for a longer trip no intention of going to a campsite unless we struggle with charging power bank.

Good stuff!

What you can generate is only one side of the power equation!

 

[MisterB]

I wonder if you could use suckers and put light weight folding one on the side of the van win on an Aire

That's one of the reasons I added an Anderson connector to the side of our motorhome, I made sure the cable is long enough to be able to hang the panel on any of the four sides or just angle towards the sun on the floor. The panel has a built in solar controller. I can also use the Anderson connector for anything 12v externally (Inc converted starlink), ie tyre compressor....

 

[Carpmart]

That's one of the reasons I added an Anderson connector to the side of our motorhome, I made sure the cable is long enough to be able to hang the panel on any of the four sides or just angle towards the sun on the floor. The panel has a built in solar controller. I can also use the Anderson connector for anything 12v externally (Inc converted starlink), ie tyre compressor....

I’ve been using XT60’s for years, so that’s my solution; very similar to yours!

 

[Rollingwheels]

Thats really good Harvey that they are working so well.
I have been dissapointed with our roof mounted panels, last September & October although we had clear sunny sky's in Spain & Portugal we just not were getting the expected output. Only takes a slight hasze invisible to the eye to cut the solar output.
I think last year has been the worst we have seen for solar output.

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

Similar to our experience I have a 200w folding one and it is excellent outside when we are parked for a few days, my brother who parks in some strange places where you probably wouldn’t leave the panels unsupervised has got me to wire his
internally and has got a 100w that he has put in the windscreen when he is out exploring, reports are it is doing well

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[starquake]

Unfortunately free standing panels probably wouldn't work for us as we tend to mainly use Aires and only stop for a night or two but you have got me considering it.

We have a folding set of 100w and another one doing 200w, and a place we can run cables to (even in winter) without opening windows for draghts for the long 5m cables we have to ours. The windscreen makes a rather nice solar stand for (less heavy than monocrystalline) panels in winter if you can get the right orientation of parking.

There are some very nice folding 2 and 4 panel sets that near perfectly go across windscreens when you check dimensions these days, however we tend to place (even in aires) against side of van as per the picture above as it really doesn't even go into neighbouring spaces when done at front or back of van typically (again the orientation of the parking is important).

100w roof solar for us isnt that important -> our movable panels (ours are 200w) are far more useful.

One thing I would say though is look to get the solid backed ones (still light) as they are far more durable than the soft backed (100w) panels we initially had, as those have had (in only 2 years of motorhoming) half the panel fail (so it's a 50w output now). I need to dismantle them to find the broken interconnect between the 2 panels to fix it. The solid backed set we have (Renogy) are super durable.

 

[Lenny HB]

I've only got 350 watts on the roof I can get another 200 on there I might go that route first.

 

[Littlewheels]

Edit: and when we are parked next to a lake in France fishing… we use the folding then too!

Did you catch anything? Edible?