I donât know enough about these, what will 100-200watts power typically power?
Camper lights? Kuerig? small TV? small appliance? will it do a very small Microwave ?
Iâm thinking this would be used for a 20 foot R-pod travel trailer.
- Portable and Spalsh-Proof: ROCKPALS 200W Solar Panel
Spalsh proof. Thatâs good, I hate when my stuff gets spalshed.
200w / 120v = 1.6amp. So definitely not anything with a heat element. No Keurig. Itâll run a smallish laptop, phone charger, and other small electronics. But as you can see from the pictures, this is really meant to charge other power banks.
It should be able to top off a 12V camper battery to avoid needing to run a generator which is a big plus if youâre boondock camping (or trying not to annoy your campground neighbors or letting the baby sleep). Harbor Freight has a 4-panel set that produces 100W but the four panels are large and cumbersome. This set folds to a reasonable size (21x24x2.4 inches). As far as durability, thatâs anyoneâs guess but 200W that folds to these dimensions is definitely a plus.
Thanks flemtone (and others) for the input. I neglected to mention the camper battery that is used on out camper.
This really seems more function specific to charging those portable power packs. Unless I am missing something it would take some electronics to simply charge a 12v camper battery. For 300 there are better choices for RV, I recently got a 200w Renogy âsuitcaseâ which works pretty good with my 2 golf cart batteries (in series) on my camper. Boondocked in Yellowstone for several days with no issues recently.
I run a Jackery 1000 for camping / Music Festivals with 2x 100x panels. We use it for running lights / charging devices / Music⌠and we generate SIGNIFICANTLY more power than we need. /w 200W on a not too cloudy day you should be able to keep any battery pack fully topped off during the day unless youâre running something HEAVY.
Does anyone know of a controller that can be used with this so you can charge a regular car battery?
To use this for a RV battery or to charge an old car battery youâll need a charge controller. Renogy makes a budget one. Youâll also need an adapter that converts one of these outputs to something that will hook up to the charge controller. Of the 4 on this panel I would suggest the Anderson connector.
With that said this would not be my pick for that use case if youâre not familiar with solar.
This would be a great pairing for a âsolar generatorâ like the jackery, bluetti, etc. I highly recommend and own both of those brands.
Keep in mind you wonât get 200 watts out of this panel (like all other panels). Expect 125/150, somewhere in that range probably, on a perfect day maybe 175. Clouds or rainy days will cut down output.
I checked the specs for the ports and it does offer standard ports but you would need a cable, also make sure that the charge controller can support 36V to get the full 200w
Cheap charge controllers often donât have that range
Power Voltage: 36V/18V
(18v DC port with an Aderson cable is produce 100W peack power;
36v DC port with an Aderson cable is produce 200W peack power.)
For those who are not very familiar with portable solar systems like this, you very seldom run an electrical/electronic item directly from the panel. The optimum way is to use a panel like this to charge a storage battery or âsolar generatorâ (which has storage batteries built in) during the day and then use the stored power in the batteries to power your devices at night.
For example, in our hurricane kit I keep two small portable solar panels and two portable power banks. After the storm if the power is out I charge the power banks during the day with the solar panels and then recharge our cellphones from the power banks overnight. That keeps our phones going without having to rely on a generator. Lather, rinse and repeat until the power gets restored.
Honestly, however, if you are wanting to run a Keurig coffee maker in either an emergency situation or during a camping trip with no utility power then you should probably re-evaluate your definition of both the terms âemergencyâ and/or âroughing itâ!
93â = nearly 8â across. Thatâs friggin long when unfolded for not a whole lot of power generatedâŚ
Yes - the ineffeciencies of solor power generation. Check out Harbor Freightâs offering. In this case, the compromise is for portability. Any way you look at it, you need square feet of light. That area has to be folded for portability. 2â x 20" is a smaller folded package than 4â x 18", at the expense of long and narrow when deployed. Should hang on the southern side of an A-frame tent pretty wellâŚ
I do not understand why some companies refuse to show how these stand up and how many âlegsâ it has. I purchased a different Rockpals solar panel and it had NO legs, so you basically had to just lay it on the ground or set it next to something that could hold it up.
How many additional images do you want Woot! to add that also show it standing up âwith the Kickstandsâ? Please review the images associated with the sale.
Actually I have about 6 different models of these âfoldableâ solar panels and the kickstands are VERY important. Some do not have any legs, some have only two which work very poorly, and some have many and work great. When you move these around it becomes a pain if they do not have a proper method to set them up properly. If you owned these you would know this. Your photos show very little and are of little value, I had to go to a buyerâs photos to get this info.
Rockpals still sells these for $495. Why wouldnât you consult with them directly for the answer?
I did
And they refused to help you?