Confused About Solar

Alex,

Quite a few of us on the forum have purchased the Rich brand solar panels from Bit Deals.
They might be "cheap" but certainly perform.

I had a quick look at your other alternative of the Kick Ass panels and one thing that was not specified was an MPPT controller.
The Rich panels include an MPPT controller which are more efficient, so this may be worth further investigation by you.

Although the Rich panels are pre-wired and the controller is at the panel end, a meter on the far end will indicate how effective the panel is in producing current to charge your batteries.

I added an Anderson connector on the solar panel, bypassing the on-board controller, so I could hook it up to the Ctek D250S dc-dc charger in my camper. The Ctek has a solar input port and also employs MPPT technology to manage the battery charging routine.
As you cannot mix controllers (only one per circuit) I have the best of both options.
If I'm charging the auxiliary battery in the back of the tub, I use the original circuit managed by the panel's on-board MPPT controller.
If connecting to the Camper's dc-dc charger, I use the uncontrolled circuit and the Ctek's MPPT controller at the battery end ensures a good charging routine to the two 100Ah batteries in the Camper.

Members John and Val have written a very detailed piece about Electricity for camping which is in the blogs section on this site and includes some good stuff on solar panels.

Electricity for camping

I have a panel from Bit Deals and find it works very well, although I also have the Redarc dc-dc charger and run the panel through the controller on that instead of the controller supplied.

Good luck.

OBJ

Mate - I bought a Bit Deals panel a while back. After reading about the reg working better near the battery I VERY carefully prized the MPPT reg off the back of the panel and rewired the unit. Can't say how much more efficient it is as I didn't do before and after testing. Very happy with the Bit Deals unit - price was great and delivery very prompt. Works well. May work better with a better quality reg but it works good enough for me as is.

I bought a folding panel from Bit Deals and the controller was separate. Maybe this is only with the folding ones.

Thanks for the feedback, I will be plugging into the caravan 1 day then into the battery in the rear tub on the Amarok on the next so I don't want to fix the regulator.

The other question I have is whats the difference between cheaper regulator that comes with the bit deals solar panels and regulators that cost $100 - $300 dollar mark.

Alex

G'day Alex, As you were kind enough to respond to my earlier post re solar, thought I'd let you know what I'm doing. After good long talk with auto electrician where we looked at both my van and car we determined my needs. We have very simple rig set up and only want to do a bit of free camping. He recommended that I use the Anderson on the van as is (it feeds to the battery) and put an Anderson plug on my axillary in the car. He supplies a guage monitor with led display showing amps, volts, watts, that I can attach using an Anderson plug to either the Ando plug on van or car. I have yet to decide on what brand solar panel but looking closely at Solar King (with MPPT regulator). For me KISS seems to be the way to go. oo roo