Finding perfect panels for tilting solar rack for van

[landship shane]

Hey all,
My name is shane,
I run a company called landship customs. We build high end camper vans.
I have learned nearly everything I know about electrical from Will's videos and you guys, and am eternally grateful ?


A few years back we built a van with a roof rack that tilts and tracks the sun.
You can see a clip of it here.

Now we are redesigning it to be a product that can be shipped more easily.

The question I am looking for help with is which solar panels to use.

I am looking for panels that are

1) High efficiency - We want to get >1000 Watts on a 144 sprinter van
2) The right size
- In a perfect world we want panels that are in between 55-60" in length.
We could make Panels that are in between 60 and 68" work as well, but it is far less Ideal.
3) Black frames would be preferred but not a deal breaker.
4) Reasonably priced.
5) Can be obtained quickly for the first few prototypes.

Here are the top contenders I have so far, and I would love your feedback on them.
For the first few, I want panels that can get to me fast, so I need something premade.

1) These ones would be perfect, (aside from silver frames) but they seem way too good to be true. My guess is that they are false advertised, and they really produce more like a 200Watt panel in reality. If any of you have experience with I would love to hear it.

300 watt Panels

58.27 x 26.77 x 1.18 inches

2) These ones would do the job, but I would prefer to get another row of cells to make them longer and higher power.

200 Watt high efficiency

54.72 x 27.76 x 1.38 inches

3) These ones are bigger than I would like.

395 Watt big

67.8" x 44.65" x 1.18"

Eventually I can get custom panels made, but It would be ideal to avoid this entirely.
Thanks so much for your help!!

 

[HRTKD]

Designing your rack to a specific panel could be a problem due to future deprecation. My Mission Solar 320 watt panels that I bought in 2020 are no longer available from the same company. Their current panels are 10" longer and 2" wider.

I would design for the larger sized panels, using them in landscape mode instead of portrait mode. But even then, you're subject to the whims of the manufacturer.

 

[Supervstech]

I agree, those first panels are 200, falsely advertised...
Panels max out at around 23% surface efficiency...
And the vast majority are around 21%
So, bigger watts ALWAYS equals bigger panels.
The bifacial panels can output above this under some conditions, BUT they are thicker AND much heavier then the front faced panels...

 

[landship shane]

Hi all for anyone interested I found a really good fit panel for this use

Designing your rack to a specific panel could be a problem due to future deprecation. My Mission Solar 320 watt panels that I bought in 2020 are no longer available from the same company. Their current panels are 10" longer and 2" wider.

I would design for the larger sized panels, using them in landscape mode instead of portrait mode. But even then, you're subject to the whims of the manufacturer.

yes luckily I found a good American assembled panel company that is willing to work with me.

 

[landship shane]

I agree, those first panels are 200, falsely advertised...
Panels max out at around 23% surface efficiency...
And the vast majority are around 21%
So, bigger watts ALWAYS equals bigger panels.
The bifacial panels can output above this under some conditions, BUT they are thicker AND much heavier then the front faced panels...

Yes bigger is better, but making a product that fits nice and snug on the van is top priority

 

[landship shane]

Hey for anyone interested
I found some panels that fit the bill.

https://lokalsolarinc.com/store.html/secure-store/220-Watt-Solar-Panel-p104185580

they are a small business based in New York.
They get their cells from Thai wan, then build the rest here which I like.
And their cost per watt is really good.
the owner michael is super helpful as well.

Cheers!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Cool!!!! They're here too!!!!

Looking for perfect panels for tilting solar rack on van

Hey all, My name is shane, I run a company called landship customs. We build high end camper vans. I have learned nearly everything I know about electrical from Will's videos and you guys, and am eternally grateful ? A few years back we built a van with a roof rack that tilts and tracks the...

diysolarforum.com

 

[BobH]

Hey for anyone interested
I found some panels that fit the bill.

https://lokalsolarinc.com/store.html/secure-store/220-Watt-Solar-Panel-p104185580

they are a small business based in New York.
They get their cells from Thai wan, then build the rest here which I like.
And their cost per watt is really good.
the owner michael is super helpful as well.

Cheers!

Why wouldn't you use their 270 W panels that have the same footprint as the 220 W? Let us know how they turn out. Google doesn't return any reviews of their product that I can find. I'm suspicious that other solar panels at with the same footprint max out at 220 W.

Also, if you google maps the address listed on their website & go street view, it doesn't inspire much confidence.

 

[Yossarian]

A question for @landship shane - would you mind sharing some details on fabricating the tilting rack?

Some background about the request (editorial note: I'm a relatively newbie to the solar world, and like many, have found Will's videos very helpful.). We have a small vacation house in the mountains of PA that is often subject to electrical outages, usually fairly short duration. I'm planning to add a battery generator system to get us over the outages, specifically the Renogy Lycan. An aside: While I'm certain I could build the portable system that Will suggested - and save some money in the process - the Lycan offers the advantage of being in a portable and waterproof case.

In any event, I'd like to have the ability to recharge the generator battery during extended outages (thankfully rare) and since I cannot add solar to the house (HOA restrictions not on the panels but on the necessary tree trimming!) want to put panels on a small utility trailer with a rack that could be tilted. This would allow me to position the array at the sunny places on the property and tilt the panels as needed. The Lycan has connections for solar input, but requires a PV array that can supply at least 60v (145v max). My thought was to mount the panels on small utility trailer with a tilting rack.

It would be great to have some info on how to build the tilting rack that would make this scheme work. My search of the forum didn't turn up much helpful info, but that may be due to my lack of skill rather than actual lack of info.

 

[MattiFin]

Why wouldn't you use their 270 W panels that have the same footprint as the 220 W? Let us know how they turn out. Google doesn't return any reviews of their product that I can find. I'm suspicious that other solar panels at with the same footprint max out at 220 W.

Also, if you google maps the address listed on their website & go street view, it doesn't inspire much confidence.

Late to the party but I agree: Those 270W panels are way overrated compared to anything else. Same with 450W panels.
They don't have any proper datasheet either that would specify which conditions the panels are measured. No doubt they can output the advertized watts in -20Cel weather and 1500W/m2 solar radiation but that's not how things are usually specified.

Lokal solar produces 281W/m2 per total panel area. Similar half-cut PERC panels from Jinko and Longi from 203 to 208W/m2 and that is already the highest rated models in their product line.

281W/m2 would be above current word-record holding N-type panels in production!

Either they have used some questionable reference conditions or they got scammed by their chinese cell partner.