Comment: Electricity for Camping

Submitted: Thursday, Oct 17, 2013 at 14:38

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Electricity for Camping

Revised March 2013 On an extended trip it's good to have some of the comforts of home. Electricity is obviously one of them and a good system can make all the difference to how comfortably

Genevieve

Hi John,

I'm newly registered here, after reading and lurking for some time. :)

Thanks for the wealth of information you've provided here. We're about to invest in some solar panels and there is one issues we've not fully understood yet. You mention that some panels are better than others for operating in the shade or semi-sun. Is there any way to tell which ones will do well in partial shade?

We are looking at the 160W folding Rich Solar panel. There are limited specs online, but one can always email them about a specific bit of information if one knew what to look for.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Genevieve

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Reply By: Member - John and Val - Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:52

Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:52

Hi Genevieve, and welcome to ExplorOz ! Hope you find the association as valuable as we do.

Regarding partial shading - All panels consist of set of cells wired in series. In this configuration, the output current from a set is determined by the cell that's providing the lowest output. Most of the larger panels consist of two sets, so fully covering one cell in each set will reduce output to virtually zero. With partial shading again it will be the lowest output cells that determine the overall output. A few leaves throwing a shadow on even one cell can substantially reduce solar capture of a panel. Output is related to solar energy input so any reduction in input has quite an effect, and any reduction that's evident to the human eye is in fact a pretty big reduction.

Which cells are least susceptible to shading? Lots of divergent claims, but I think the general wisdom is that as efficiency has increased with the technology, the question of shade tolerance has become less important than efficiency. There's a blog by a commercial member (http://www.exploroz.com/Customers/60901.6/3/2013/Identifying_the_Difference_Between_Solar_Cells.aspx) that may be of interest and may be more helpful than I can be.

I've had no experience with the Rich Solar product. One ebay seller that seems to receive much favourable comment here is Bit Deals. I've no association, and no personal experience with their product, but they seem to have a following.

Hope that's some help.

Cheers

John