Flex panels (all brands) in general, have been notorious for their failures resulting in short life spans. Looks like this company has been proactive in finding solutions and making marked improvements. Hope this latest version works out well for you, folks! 👍👍👍
I just bought one of these to mount to the top of a minivan. I'll be curious to see how it handles road conditions, although in my use case, it won't be critical if they start to give up on their output like so many flexible panels seem to do. I have rigid panels I can fall back on, but avoiding drilling holes in my roof is worth this experiment.
Completely agree. We need to make a new video in a year to show how well they are hopefully working still. That will be the true test. I suspect they may already be degrading but our other solar is picking up the slack.
@@TrueNaumachos I personally ended up putting a rack on my minivan roof and installing a 200 watt rigid panel instead. I decided I needed greater capacity. I kept the BougeRV 100 watt one for intermittent use at the lake, and after only a summer it's still doing great.
Not impressed with the 90 degree output unless there is haze in the air one should get 100% (generally more when new). We get over 75% with our panels flat at 50 degrees north. (not flexible panels) However, that aside, my main problem with flexible panels has always been longevity. Not just the mechanical breakage you found with your last panels but degradation due to UV. So if these last the 10-20 years as rated, that is a win. I think the shading protection might be more visible if you have two panels in series and shade one, or two in parallel and shade one panel, though most panels even cheap ones, seem to get this right these days. They are twice the price of glass panels but I think it would be worth the reduction in windage and the ability to use more deck space as they can be walked on, though not with bare feet when it's hot out ;) My dream is to be able to make sails out of solar panels but I think that is a long way off. Maybe closer for the kind of sails I want to use, junk rigged where there is much less pressure on any one panel than on a pointy rig. If I was rich, I would be tempted to use them as my topsides "paint", deck covering, etc. One can never have enough solar power....
Personally I don't think I have ever seen 100% output from a panel in winter. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm excited to see what these panels might output in years to come. Now that you mention it the UV may have been part of our problem on our old panels as well. I do believe the sail idea has been explored. I thought I had read about it somewhere. I do think solar will continue to come leaps and bounds over the next few years. Let us know if you ever get your deck covered and how it works for you.
@@WildlyIntrepid A small secret that I use is to start with panels twice the voltage of my battery bank. A lot of MPPT controllers only start to work when the panel voltage is higher than the battery voltage. That is they are buck only and not boost. Having higher voltage panels (two in series in my case) means that I start producing power earlier in the day or sooner on clouded days. It also means the MPPT has more room to work. Of course the other end of the equation is how much power you can use. If your load can only accept 80% of the panel's rated current, that is all you will see even if the panel can put out more. So the state of battery charge and the temperature in your fridge etc. also make a difference. And of course lets not forget the charger itself. A good charger will limit current used depending on how hot the charger (and sometimes other equipment) gets. Sometimes it is not easy to measure how much the panel is putting out as compared to how much the rest of the system can accept right now. The big thing is that you have the panels at a very good price and that they will add power to your system. I can only be glad you got them. I hope I remember to ask how they are doing 5 years from now or ten.... if I am still watching videos instead of sailing more often ;) many blessing.
I think it's a good idea to have at least a 20 ish volt panel. I may have to play around with the wiring a little and see what we can get parallel vs series.
![SCREWED over and STOLEN Parts [E312]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yey5cPkcNhQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![SCREWED over and STOLEN Parts [E312]](/img/tr.png)
![WORST Passage ever We should have turned around [E306]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BDfGRc-fQrE/mqdefault.jpg)
Sounds great to me good luck ❤
Thanks
Flex panels (all brands) in general, have been notorious for their failures resulting in short life spans. Looks like this company has been proactive in finding solutions and making marked improvements. Hope this latest version works out well for you, folks! 👍👍👍
That's what we found too. We'll see how these ones hold up. Fingers crossed better than our previous ones.
The bouge Yuma cigs panel are the best at an shaded performance and toughness.
How long have you had yours for?
I just bought one of these to mount to the top of a minivan. I'll be curious to see how it handles road conditions, although in my use case, it won't be critical if they start to give up on their output like so many flexible panels seem to do. I have rigid panels I can fall back on, but avoiding drilling holes in my roof is worth this experiment.
Completely agree. We need to make a new video in a year to show how well they are hopefully working still. That will be the true test. I suspect they may already be degrading but our other solar is picking up the slack.
Any news after some months ?
They've been holding up pretty good so far
@@TrueNaumachos I personally ended up putting a rack on my minivan roof and installing a 200 watt rigid panel instead. I decided I needed greater capacity. I kept the BougeRV 100 watt one for intermittent use at the lake, and after only a summer it's still doing great.
Are the panels holding up? And can you walk on these?
So far they are still outputting fine. But we do not walk on them.
How have your new panels held up so far? I am considering buying a few for my boat. Thanks, happy sails!
I finally got to do some more testing and they seem to be outputting around 75w or 5.3amps directly at the sun.
That looks like N.E Florida?
Southern Georgia but pretty close
any updates?
They seem to be holding up pretty good a little under a year worth of usage
Merci
Notre plasir
it is the CIGS panels that are shade tolerant, NOT the arch panels.
Not impressed with the 90 degree output unless there is haze in the air one should get 100% (generally more when new). We get over 75% with our panels flat at 50 degrees north. (not flexible panels) However, that aside, my main problem with flexible panels has always been longevity. Not just the mechanical breakage you found with your last panels but degradation due to UV. So if these last the 10-20 years as rated, that is a win.
I think the shading protection might be more visible if you have two panels in series and shade one, or two in parallel and shade one panel, though most panels even cheap ones, seem to get this right these days.
They are twice the price of glass panels but I think it would be worth the reduction in windage and the ability to use more deck space as they can be walked on, though not with bare feet when it's hot out ;) My dream is to be able to make sails out of solar panels but I think that is a long way off. Maybe closer for the kind of sails I want to use, junk rigged where there is much less pressure on any one panel than on a pointy rig.
If I was rich, I would be tempted to use them as my topsides "paint", deck covering, etc. One can never have enough solar power....
Personally I don't think I have ever seen 100% output from a panel in winter. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm excited to see what these panels might output in years to come. Now that you mention it the UV may have been part of our problem on our old panels as well. I do believe the sail idea has been explored. I thought I had read about it somewhere. I do think solar will continue to come leaps and bounds over the next few years. Let us know if you ever get your deck covered and how it works for you.
@@WildlyIntrepid A small secret that I use is to start with panels twice the voltage of my battery bank. A lot of MPPT controllers only start to work when the panel voltage is higher than the battery voltage. That is they are buck only and not boost. Having higher voltage panels (two in series in my case) means that I start producing power earlier in the day or sooner on clouded days. It also means the MPPT has more room to work.
Of course the other end of the equation is how much power you can use. If your load can only accept 80% of the panel's rated current, that is all you will see even if the panel can put out more. So the state of battery charge and the temperature in your fridge etc. also make a difference. And of course lets not forget the charger itself. A good charger will limit current used depending on how hot the charger (and sometimes other equipment) gets. Sometimes it is not easy to measure how much the panel is putting out as compared to how much the rest of the system can accept right now.
The big thing is that you have the panels at a very good price and that they will add power to your system. I can only be glad you got them. I hope I remember to ask how they are doing 5 years from now or ten.... if I am still watching videos instead of sailing more often ;) many blessing.
I think it's a good idea to have at least a 20 ish volt panel. I may have to play around with the wiring a little and see what we can get parallel vs series.