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New Harbor Freight 100w Monocrystalline Panel

F1uxCapacitor

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Came across this from a random YouTube video on my feed, but it looks like Harbor Freight just released a new 100w Monocrystalline panel. It's a single panel, not like their quad 25w panel kit. I would definitely be interested interested in a review from @Will Prowse, especially given recent supply chain issues with well known 100w panels.
 
Plan on cutting off that high-resistance automotive SAE connector and putting on something decent. Open the little distribution box and inspect.

Since harbor-freight is/was also a common source of smaller amorphous 18 watt panels, thei SAE connector polarities may differ from this one, or from 3rd party extensions. Check polarity carefully, because it is far too easy to mate physically compatible, but polarity reversed SAE cable sets and clamps.

SAE connectors - ugh. Plenty of decent vehicular chargers equipped with these (like the whole industry), are a major problem, but the consumer doesn't know about high-resistance and voltage drop due to their slop in tolerances.
 
Newbie here, I have the HF panel, looking at the ones available on Home Depot site, none Ive seen so far have built in stands like the HF, so there's that... I wasn't aware of issues with SAE connectors, will look into that, thanks
 

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Cool - unless you were just taking the pic for demonstration, the obvious warning here is about not letting ANY shadow cross the panel, such as from those plants.

If that area is where the panel is going to live, and you clear it from the plants, take a gander at it in the morning or afternoon to make sure that long shadows aren't creeping up on the bottom, otherwise the output can really suffer.
 
I didn't realize such a small amount of shading would make a difference. I bought two of those the other day and haven't decided where to put them yet. Also bought two bare-bones charge controllers (pic below) at HF for $20 each. I am considering bringing those back and getting something with a display screen... any recommendations? Thanks!
 

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The availability is nice, but with Renology 100w panels only being $80 it's hard to swallow.

Also, SAE plughs.. iicckk!!

Plus side, their 25w amorphous aren't Scottish, they're krap!

Odd to see them carry the Jackery 400w power stations at my local HF. Wouldn't have expected them to carry something that name brand. Next we'll see MPPT controllers and 48v AIO's. :)
 
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The panels at Harbor Freight work pretty well. I've got four of them. One is a backup at the farm and three at the place in Houston. They don't work very well in parallel, but do ok in series. I was getting about 270W out of three in series last weekend. The part that makes them useful and attractive are the following points:

1. Instantly available at most HF stores.
2. Can use a coupon for a discount.
3. Seemingly built well (other than that connector).
4. Nice portable size.

I'll probably replace the connectors with some XT60 or MC4 types. Not sure how long they will last. The little plastic covers on the corners are probably not UV resistant. But I guess they are somewhat replaceable. Time will tell. I plan to use them as portable units and just set them up as needed (RVing). They should ride in the back of my SUV or T@G camper just fine. And the small size makes them easy to get into or out of the small doors.
 
I tested more this weekend, with them temporarily sitting on the roof of my storage building. It has a nice SW facing roof side and about 20 degs off horizontal. I got around 323 watts yesterday, a few times, when the sun broke through the clouds. So that's about 107-108 watts. They didn't produce like that on Saturday, when the sun was out full time. The heat might have affected them, but it could have been some other variable that I haven't taken into account. I will test them more in the near future and see what they'll do. If I were going to mount them for full time use, I'd probably replace the wires and connectors, or make darn sure they would stay under the panels for UV protection, and to minimize the adverse effects of heat exposure.

I'm a little intrigued by the 100 watt HQST panels that Will tested in the 100 watt panel showdown video. But even they were only getting about 75 watts. So there'd be some level of trade-off there.
 
Do they have the ultra thin glass like the old panels did? I know quite a few roof mounted ones that just broke.
 
Do they have the ultra thin glass like the old panels did? I know quite a few roof mounted ones that just broke.
Not sure. The old panels have the plastic frames, if I'm thinking about the ones you are referring to. The new ones seem to be built much more like real panels for staying outside. I hope they don't easily break. That would suck.

Today is 10,16 (middle of October) here in the Houston TX area. I've been getting 249 watts from them for the last couple of hours. It's 2:22 right now. So thats about 83 watts/panel. They are temporarily situated on my storage building roof at a SW direction and about 1/2" of clearance via standoff boards. The sun is approximately 49 degrees and the panels are at around 67 degrees.

Running with the Renogy Rover 40 amp charge controller. Into a Chins 12V 100ah battery. Been running an inverter to a 1300 watt space heater to keep the battery wanting more juice. So I'm pretty sure the panels are putting out the power I quoted above.

Edit to add: I'm still using the SAE connectors that they came with, through two extension cables that are probably about 20' of 14 or 16 gauge wire. So I suspect there is some loss there. Since, at this point, I'm still planning on using these as portables and emergency deployment when loss of power happens somewhere that I don't have panels set up, I'll probably leave them as-is and just tolerate the power loss. But I'm getting more interested in modifying one of them just to see what the difference would be.
 
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Yesterday (10/21/21) I got 288 watts (96w each) from them in the middle of the day, recorded by a Victron Smartcharger 100/20. They were propped up on their legs on the ground and had a nice 52 deg (F) breeze blowing on their back side. But that's 96w, which isn't bad at all. Charges up my battery pretty well.
 
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I now have four of these panels on my storage building rooftop. They are hooked in series and running to a Victron 150/35 smartsolar charger. Today we had a cold front and the temp was around 50 (maybe less) with a north wind at 25-40 mph. The sky cleared off early and I was getting 425-446 watts reported by the Victron app. Not sure what to think about that, at 5-11% above rated capacity. This was pretty constant for the prime 2-3 hours of the day.
 
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On the following days (two following days), the wind calmed down and the output numbers got back down to something more realistic, at about 91W per panel. The sun is still down at a notable angle, so I guess this is pretty good for the middle of January. Not sure what was causing the high numbers of Saturday, but it is what it is.
 
Just bought four more of these to cover the complete SW side of my shed roof. I'm typically getting 360 watts from the four current ones. So this will get the system to just above 700W. I'll play around with mounting the used 220W panels to the patio cover, but it only get sun after about noon, due to the neighbor's tree blocking it, and is almost horizontal... so this is a bad time of the year for it's angle if I don't add a tilting stand of some sort.

My main concern is that these HF panels will not hold up to long-term sun exposure. Oh well, guess I'll find that out in a year or two.
 
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Has anyone ever figured out the paralleling issues and how to solve them?
I haven't investigated it at all... yet. I'm running a 24V system for now, with plans to upgrade it to 48V. So the parallel thing has been low priority thus far. If I put the second set in parallel with the first set and see power issues, then it might get prioritized.
 
I now have two four-panel series strings on the roof of my storage building. One is running through a Victron Smartsolar 150-35 and the other is on a Victron Smartsolar 100-20. The first string is elevated 2.5" from the surface of the roof. The second is on Z brackets and at 1" above the surface. The two Victron controllers are networked together to work in parallel with each other. I'm getting around 850W out of the system. I also have the Victron Smartshunt 500 for monitoring. All these devices are plugged into a RasPi 3b+ and running the Venus SW from Victron, for remote monitoring. Right now, the panels are pretty much even in output when both strings are in sunlight. Typically just seeing a deviation of 5-10W at any given time. That power output from these no-name panels is pretty amazing. No idea how long they will hold up though.

The first string is on some temporary support boards, which I have no plans of them making it through hurricane season. So at some point, before August, I will remount them like the second string... with the Z brackets.
 

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One other thing to be said about the 100W panels over the bigger ones... They are a hell of a lot easier for an old guy to haul up to the roof and move around. The two used 225W panels that I bought last summer are huge and cumbersome to work with. Not sure what I will be doing with those. Might just use as an emergency ground level deployment backup.
 
I bought 2 of the Harbor Freight panels. They perform better than my 2 Amazon no name 100w panels. Im getting around 212 to 218 watts into my Bluetti EB200 with the pair wired in series. The no-name panels are only giving me 170-175 watts. They are slightly larger than my other 100 watt panels, so I get the feeling these are really 120 or 130 watts panels just labeled 100 watts so people dont return them if they get less than 100 watts on a sunny day.
 
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