12w Solar panel on offer at Maplin

Muninn

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>>clicky link<<
This might be of use to some of you... under £40 for a good quality 12w panel. Think its on offer until the end of the month. I've just bought one to keep the second battery topped up if I'm using the laptop etc too much. Will let you know what I think of it.
 
12W would be useful to keep topped up while a vehicle is layed up.

Not useful for much else though. I doubt it will keep pace with a laptop. Depends on usage I suppose but I tend to use my laptop for 4-5 hours a day.

You'll get 4W av (eg cloudy) from the panel at say 8 hours a day in our climate = 32Wh or so. May give you 1/2 hours laptop use. Let us know how you get on with it. In summer you may find you are OK ;)
 
Hi Muninn

This time I have to agree with Firefox. A lot of the time you will get very little out of it so better used to keep an unused battery from going totally flat which would ruining it.

Richard
 
Save the money you will need to pay out for a 12v panel towards a more appropiate panel.
 
Ok, some good honest points there. I shouldn't need it to keep up with the laptop as such, during the day I can run it fine as I can allow the battery to charge via the engine. I don't tend to use an awful lot of electric anyway - mainly the light and sometimes the radio when parked up. Was just thinking it would be useful to keep the emergency battery topped up (I am yet to embarking a split charge system).
If I can be useful for some modest use over a week or so then I am happy. If all else fails I'll use the panel for the 12v lighting I'll be installing in the new garage, so it won't be wasted money.
 
Thats the exact same panel,I have on the roof of my van. It was cheap to buy and easy to fit so I thought why not? It also doesnt need a controller, just connect straight to the battery. You can connect up to ten panels. I may get more in the future.
 
You could connect 10x12W panels and end up paying £400+, but to be honest get a 80-100W panel. I just bought a 90W from AL8 on this forum tonight for £180. I'd look to pay between £150 to £220 for a decent size 80-120W panel. This should supply TV, lap top and lights for a few hours each night.
 
Firefox said:
You could connect 10x12W panels and end up paying £400+, but to be honest get a 80-100W panel. I just bought a 90W from AL8 on this forum tonight for £180. I'd look to pay between £150 to £220 for a decent size 80-120W panel. This should supply TV, lap top and lights for a few hours each night.
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Will you have the panel wired up for the meet up a the endof the month?
 
If any one is thinking of coming over here wait before you get your panels 100w panel controller and wire 160 euro,s:have fun:
 
cooljules said:
Will you have the panel wired up for the meet up a the end of the month?
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[offtopic] I don't know, I have still to buy a regulator and fixing angles for it. But hopefully will have it fixed on anyway. [/offtopic]
 
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