Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit Reviews

• Innovative design from China, packaging needs help

  
  By A203OCQQ12MAVT on 2008-01-21
  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.
  
  

• Permanently installed on roof

  
  By A217E425DC1W6H on 2008-01-07
  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.
  
  

• Does what it says

  
  By A1B6O7SAIYG2N0 on 2008-02-09
  All you need is a battery, it comes with PVP stand, one leg was miss labeled and I put in on backward at first but it was an easy fix, has been charging well thru the winter , can't wait to see how well it does in the summer. Wish it had more watts but good deal with stand,inverter,cables and charge controller.
  
  

• Replace the mounting hardware

  
  By A1VPSSH88HJM8B on 2008-02-21
  The panels themselves are well-made and produce more than the rated amount of juice. They arrived intact, sandwiched in slabs of styrofoam. I am happy with them. The voltage regulator works. The wiring, fan-in dongle, etc., are all reasonable. Everything else that came with the order is non-recyclable toxic waste - do with it what you will.
  
  The mounting screws are FAKE CHINESE STAINLESS STEEL and start rusting the moment you place them outdoors, staining everything below them with indelible streaks of rust. If you want to use the included mounting frames (and why would you?) then go to a hardware store, and get some true stainless 10-24-3" Philips screws and nylock nuts. It will set you back US$15. The 1.5" PVC frames are functional but ugly and sloppy-looking; I don't know why anyone would want to use them either. The inverter that's thrown in with the order is junk. I "smoke-tested" mine, and, indeed it started smoking! The instructions enclosed with the panels say something like "the included inverter, should you choose to use it" says it all.
  
  It almost seems like the panels and the charger are made by competent people, and everything else ("the kit") by a bunch of ___ .
  
  

• perfect for emergencies

  
  By A1VEGTBBSF2XF6 on 2007-05-14
  great solar package, everything you need to get power anywhere you want,works great even on a cloudy day, also great for outages to get you through the pad times.
  
  
• Recharges all our stuff
  By A35X2JJI49OBZP on 2008-08-13
  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?"
  
  
• Solar Kit
  By A3F351LESFQWFV on 2007-12-13
  Just add deep cycle battery(s). You will have a backup power for your house in case of blackout. Though made in China (actually Sunforce factory in China, no problem!!!), great quality and pricing. You can't beat it. It is a real working package!!!
  
  
• Sunforce 50044
  By A3LN9KZL7EPUUV on 2008-04-15
  I received the product in what appeared to be the original shipping carton from China. Although packed very well in bubble rap and Styrofoam the box contained two broken panels and a wire that did not conduct current. Amazon did a fine job sending me the replacement parts and provided a means to ship back the broken items.
  
  I would suggest that you purchase a multimeter to check your set-up otherwise, as was my initial situation, it is nearly impossible to determine the failure when your system does not work. After receipt of the replacement parts and testing I got the system up and running. It does what it is advertised to do...produce "up to" 60 watts of power. I believe it is a fine starter kit for small duty solar power production and projects. The price is comparatively fair and contains all you need to get started except the testing meter. Yes, as previously mention by a reviewer, the bolts provided rust very quickly.
  
  
• Studies suggest these panels may dissapoint
  By A3ELVLG6OL5AUG on 2008-08-27
  Shenzhen Topray Solar Co. Ltd. claims that, "The worldwide retailers, Wal-mart, HomeDepot, K-mart, Sunforce look to Shenzhen Topray Solar Co. Ltd. for Solar Products." It's a pretty fair bet that these Sunforce panels are manufactured by Shenzhen Topray, as are similar amorphous 15W panels marketed by Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Brunton, and others, though Shenzhen Topray doesn't always label their products so some deduction is necessary.
  
  So what does it matter who manufactures these panels? Because Shenzhen Topray has an almost singular reputation for manufacturing panels that are less than their rated capacity and are prone to failure. In a 2005 study by Arne Jacobson at Humbolt University of amporphous silicon solar panels sold in Kenya, all five brands of panels dropped from their nominal power ratings after a few months of exposure to sun, but the Shenzhen Topray panels lost 57-61% capacity whereas the others lost only about 15% capacity. After six months of study, the only manufacturer who had panels fail entirely (max power below 1 watt) was Shenzhen Topray, at a failure rate of 50%.
  
  This is not the only study indicating Shenzhen Topray panels may not meet consumer expectations. A 2005 certification by Bodycote Materials Testing Lab of a different Shenzhen Topray amorphous solar product (that seems to no longer be in production) showed a Pmax of 10.2 watts rather than the nominal 15 watts. A 2004 Loughborough University study of four brands of panels sold in Kenya resulted in such outrage against the Shenzhen Topray products that a law was passed requiring testing before the importing of panels, and as a result very few Topray Solar products have found their way to Kenya according to Sass Peress in August 2006.
  
  That was then, this is now. I read the more positive reviews here of this Sunforce product and hope things have changed. But the design of the very similar (if not identical) Harbor Freight 15W panels hasn't shown any obvious changes in the three years I've been aware of them, and in the three years following the publication of the first studies very little was done to improve their products to address concerns over capacity and longevity (again according to Sass Peress). I recently found a sale on the Harbor Freight 15W panels and bought a kit containing three of them, but I'll be taking them back even without testing them. I don't want to experiment with these for a year or two when known reliable panels are really not that much more expensive. Polycrystalline and monocrystalline panels by major manufacturers are typically warrantied to 80% of their rated power in 25 years. What do you suppose the chance is that these Sunforce panels will last that long?
  
  I have not purchased this product, but have only read about others who have used similar products. So if you can prove me wrong with your real-world data of Sunforce PV arrays withstanding seasons of rain and sun and still putting out the rated watts, please do!
  
  
  
  
• Panel Frame Holes
  By ATU4ME6LA2JUB on 2007-12-13
  The frame holes to mount the panels into were about 1/2" to short for the panel holes. The frame should have been about 1/2" taller.
  
  
• this is not what I was expecting
  By A2T1B2A6D9LKXW on 2008-05-22
  Panels won't even charge the 12V battery. Checked the output of the panels and its way below the stated in product description. I checked the output in Nice sunny day.
  
  I was planning to buy few more panels but now I changed my mind.
  Product delivery was great, Way before the expected delivery date.
  
  Thank you for quick delivery.
  
  
  
• Nice easy to install small system
  By AJDQC8J02EOYN on 2008-03-17
  I wasn't expecting much from this system, but I'm very happy with it. The installation was a breeze. Only thing is, one of the support legs on the PVC stand was glued down and now I can't adjust the angle. Still works ok. Hooked it up to marine deep cycle batter and it does what I need it to.
  
  
• 50040 solar charging system
  By A3E0XO9KX6E0H1 on 2008-06-07
  shipped promptly & installed in may 2008 and so far it's been flawless, working on upgrading storage capacity now to see full benefits.AS
  
  
• Better than expected
  By AHLF3CXWGPJMB on 2008-07-14
  I really purchased these panels to experiment with solar power and it was cheaper per panel to buy this kit. I was very surprised how rugged and well built these panels really were. I had this unit charging a large car battery that would power a small DC water pump for my kids water slide and it worked very well. I am now going to install some LED lighting in my house and have this system run them. Since we only need lighting at night the panels can charge the battery all day for our use at night. Any how, great product, well made, good price!
  
  
• Works great
  By AUTFPY1W2IANL on 2008-07-21
  The product arrived quickly and in good condition with no broken glass. The assembly was a breeze and I was generating electricity within an hour of opening the box. The cables were designed with the idea of this being a packaged set. They didn't just throw stuff together to make a 60 watt kit. So far I'm impressed with the package. The only thing I'm not really impressed with is the pvc frame. It is functional, but I'm not sure how long it will last. The frame takes it from a 5 star to a 4 star.
  
  
• Panels and charger work great. Frame is a joke.
  By A1M68NXHOLOMO2 on 2008-07-22
  The product arrived with no problems. All panels tested ok for proper voltage and amps. I like how well the panels seem to be made. The frame is a total joke. The bolts started rusting after the first rain storm. I currently have these charging 12 - 125ah batteries. I have a cabin in the woods and no electric for miles. The batteries are fully charged for every weekend visit. I am planning on replacing the 7 amp charger with the 30 amp digital, for more readability.
  
  
• GREAT VALUE
  By A1QOBOYLZUYUZK on 2008-05-26
  This is my first dealings with solar power.
  Everything came on time, with no damage.
  I quickly assembled the parts (very easy) and starting charging some batteries I had.
  Then I started a series of experiments to test the inverter.
  From all the playing around, I decided to use my solar system for motion triggered flood lighting.
  I might ultimately configure for emergency lighting.
  
  
• Panels work well.
  By ABEO4UPMLXOX1 on 2008-07-15
  I just got my panels and they work very well. They charged my deep cycle battery full by midday. They get lots of bright sunshine as i live in Jamaica where its summer all year round. I cant wait to order another set of panels.
  
  
• great buy
  By A2YFFMYVUE0R3Z on 2008-06-18
  Right now I use these to charge two batteries and power the living room lights and TV at night. I just ordered two more panels.
  
  
• Satisfied
  By A21QMKEYLB803B on 2008-08-18
  My goal with this product was to take as many devices in my home off the grid as possible. I bought an electric mower for my 1/3 of an acre of lawn and an electric weed whacker and leaf blower. All of these items are charged from these panels. I also use it for my rechargeable vacuum, cell phone, bluetooth headset and laptop. I'm amazed how easy it is.
  
  

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