Experimenting with a contemporary photo voltaic cell

For about twenty years now, I’ve owned (and infrequently used) an early 24-element photo voltaic cell from SunPower. It’s saved my deep cycle secondary “coach” battery topped up via two generations of Volkswagen camper vans and a mess of multi-day music festivals and different prolonged “disconnected” conditions. Right here’s what I wrote about it again in mid-2005:

We didn’t have entry to AC energy at our campsite this time, so we introduced alongside the SunPower 24-element photo voltaic cell array for some extra testing. The fridge in Bertha, our ’81 VW Adventurewagen, is an historical and inefficient Norcold unit. After I uncovered the SunPower panel to direct daylight, it cranked out round 5 amps peak (per the show on the Morningstar regulator), which gave the impression to be sufficient to energy the fridge and forestall Bertha’s dual-6V ‘home’ marine battery pack from draining (and even, when the present output was particularly sturdy, to concurrently cost up Bertha’s battery pack, and the one in my laptop computer, a bit). Direct daylight, nevertheless, is an impermanent phenomenon; the SunPower array (as is the case with any photo voltaic cell) could be very delicate to place versus the solar’s orientation. Even when I solely barely tilted the photo voltaic cell in direction of or away from an optimum vertical angle, or adjusted its ‘compass heading’ by only a few levels, its present output would improve or lower by a number of amps.

Right here’s what it seems like (after hosing it off to take away the gathered mud, spider webs, and so forth.); it has protecting frame-inclusive dimensions of 40 ¾” x 20 ¾” (so in all probability 40”x20” standalone) and weighs round 14.5 lbs.:

And right here’s the accompanying Morningstar ProStar PS-15M photo voltaic cost controller, which provides one other ~2.5 lbs. to the entire equipment payload:

The photo voltaic cell array-to-charge controller middleman connection seems like this (there’s one other mating pair on the opposite finish of the cable that then goes to the PS-15M):

And the controller then tethers to the battery by way of an in-between connector pair like this one:

The setup has served me lengthy and properly, nevertheless it’s clearly fairly cumbersome and heavy. Plus, it’s meant just about completely for bulk battery-charging functions; there aren’t direct USB outputs for topping off a smartphone, pill, laptop computer or different moveable piece of kit, for instance. So, shortly after buying my photo voltaic recharge-compatible moveable energy station, I got here throughout an $80.57 (inclusive of tax, delivery and insurance coverage) promotion on a 100W (150W peak, supposedly) cellular photo voltaic array. I made a decision to tug the “buy” set off, amongst different motivations as a method of assessing how far photo voltaic expertise has progressed from effectivity, price, and different metrics prior to now 20-or-so years.

Right here’s what it seems like, first utilizing a “inventory” photograph:

And now from a private smartphone snap:

Absolutely unfolded, it’s a bit bigger than its predecessor, at ~43” x 23”. Nevertheless it’s fairly a bit thinner:

And fairly a bit lighter, too, at ~8 lbs. whole. Concerning dimension, you’ve probably already seen that it folds to 1 / 4 of its absolutely unfurled size, the place it then matches neatly in an included carry case:

Right here’s the electronics module in its entirety, full with each typical and QC 3.0 enhanced-power USB-A outputs, together with a USB-C connection, and an 18-V DC output applied utilizing a recessed 5521 male plug (one of many many issues I realized in researching this piece was that “55” refers back to the 5.5 mm outer contact diameter whereas “21” is the two.1 mm internal contact diameter, with each specs key for profitable cabling mating …and naturally, polarity can also be key for connected-equipment compatibility functions…):

And right here’s what the bottom seems like, accompanied by the rest of the equipment:

Though labeled as coming from an organization referred to as Foursun (the mannequin F-SP100, to be exact), my analysis means that this photo voltaic cell was additionally (beforehand?) bought because the iMars SP-B100. Each corporations, unsurprisingly, are primarily based in China, reflective of that nation’s growing dominance (albeit with unclear-at-best profitability) as a provider of photo voltaic cells and merchandise primarily based on them.

The F-SP100, as the sooner photograph reveals, comes with two DC connection cable choices. The primary, roughly 5 ft lengthy (AWG unknown), has a feminine 5521 connector on one finish and twin terminal clamps on the opposite, for direct connection to a battery. And as such, you would possibly assume that that’s how I join it to my moveable energy station, which has battery terminals on its bottom too:

However recharging the inner battery is not what these terminals are for! As an alternative, they’re meant to daisy-chain the moveable energy station to an exterior in-parallel battery for longer efficient combination runtime. For photo voltaic recharging functions, conversely, you leverage (referring once more again to the latest “inventory” photograph) the “Anderson” connectors (two polarity-appropriate-colored Anderson Powerpole PP15-45s, to be actual):

So how did I get from a male 5521 DC connector to a pair of Andersons? In-between them, so as to bodily separate the photo voltaic cell from the moveable energy station (within the hopes of protecting the latter within the shade) is the different included-in-kit DC extension cable, this one additionally ~5 ft. lengthy (though the specs declare just one m in size…mebbe I obtained a free of charge bonus?), AWG once more unknown, and with feminine 5521 connectors on each ends. One finish goes to the photo voltaic cell (duh). The opposite mates to a nifty cheap 2 ft 14 AWG adapter cable I discovered on Amazon:

with a recessed male 5521 on one finish and twin also-polarity-appropriate-colored Anderson connectors on the opposite…which plug into the moveable energy station. Voila!

I admittedly haven’t spent a lot time but with the setup, however to this point it seems prefer it’ll tackle my wants properly. Yeah, the photo voltaic cell solely outputs 100 W or so, however as you already know from my earlier protection, that’s all of the juice the moveable energy station will settle for as consumption anyway (and I’m being beneficiant in even saying that). Its portability is essential contemplating that, as with its predecessor, I’ll have to recurrently reorient it for correct solar orientation and peak consequent effectivity. And I nonetheless can’t wrap my head round the truth that it solely price me $80 and alter at retail. Let me know your ideas within the feedback, please!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line e-newsletter.

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