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150/160W Eco-Worthy semi-flexible solar panels

Barold

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Oct 11, 2019
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Does anyone have experience with these panels? Amazon seems to have the best deal for these with shipping built in but wondering how reliable these panels are for the cost. Would I be better off picking up two 100W semi flexibles with more of a warranty for about the same price?
 

300W Flexible Solar Panel Monocrystalline .... so we use these at work allot -- BUT flexible panels have ALLOT of issues ... and the reason we use them is due to the thinness required on the applications we use them ... regardless of manufacturer -- flexible panels have several issues ..

1. They produce a significant LESS amount of power then their rigid counterparts.
2. The dry out - crumble - and get UV damaged easily
3. If you mount them directly to a surface then in the summer they literally get hot enough to cook off of which (see #1) and then they (see #2) ... if you need something to throw out and use and then collect again - they are lightweight and great .. but if its going to be a permanent setup - DON'T ...
 
Does anyone have experience with these panels? Amazon seems to have the best deal for these with shipping built in but wondering how reliable these panels are for the cost. Would I be better off picking up two 100W semi flexibles with more of a warranty for about the same price?

Also - look warranties in this business is pretty worthless. .. 99% of these companies are going to tell you that you need to send the product back at YOUR expense .. and then they are going to tell you that something YOU did caused it to stop working ... I would NOT spend more money for a better warranty -- IF you can get away from flex and go to RIGID thats your best bet .. if not .. the company that I posted above makes good solid flex for us at work
 
Also - look warranties in this business is pretty worthless. .. 99% of these companies are going to tell you that you need to send the product back at YOUR expense .. and then they are going to tell you that something YOU did caused it to stop working ... I would NOT spend more money for a better warranty -- IF you can get away from flex and go to RIGID thats your best bet .. if not .. the company that I posted above makes good solid flex for us at work
Thanks for the reply. Reason for semiflexible is they will be mounted on a canvas Bimini (think sun cover) and in cAnada only for about 5 months out of the year. I hear you on the longevity. These 150W panels are the same price as 100W SunPower panels so I thought I'd try to get more capacity and have to replace more often. If we go off cruising long term we would get rigid and mount them permanently.
 
Look at the Renogy 160w flexible panels. I glued 4 to the top of my RV September 2018, just purchased 4 more (thru Amz) for an amazing price of $160 each at Black Friday. I paid $270 last year for the same panels. They work well, and after 15 months on the roof and about 15,000 miles they still look like they did the day I installed them. There were a lot of naysayers (still are) when I originally decided to go with flexibles and I am very happy I didn't listen to them. -Bill
 
Thanks for the reply. Reason for semiflexible is they will be mounted on a canvas Bimini (think sun cover) and in cAnada only for about 5 months out of the year. I hear you on the longevity. These 150W panels are the same price as 100W SunPower panels so I thought I'd try to get more capacity and have to replace more often. If we go off cruising long term we would get rigid and mount them permanently.

With it being mounted on canvas that will solve 100% of the cooling concern since they will be allowed to "breathe" and heat to dissipate
 

300W Flexible Solar Panel Monocrystalline .... so we use these at work allot -- BUT flexible panels have ALLOT of issues ... and the reason we use them is due to the thinness required on the applications we use them ... regardless of manufacturer -- flexible panels have several issues ..

1. They produce a significant LESS amount of power then their rigid counterparts.
2. The dry out - crumble - and get UV damaged easily
3. If you mount them directly to a surface then in the summer they literally get hot enough to cook off of which (see #1) and then they (see #2) ... if you need something to throw out and use and then collect again - they are lightweight and great .. but if its going to be a permanent setup - DON'T ...
Thank you for sharing this and hoping you might be able to provide some additional insight which could help me align to a charge controller and maybe add some more context to the performance when they are working well.

1. Any idea of Vmpp [V] and Impp [A]? I dont see those in the Ebay listing
2. The voltage of these seems pretty high considering what they are. Based upon how you have seen these used do you think the number indicated are accurate?

Danny
 
Thank you for sharing this and hoping you might be able to provide some additional insight which could help me align to a charge controller and maybe add some more context to the performance when they are working well.

1. Any idea of Vmpp [V] and Impp [A]? I dont see those in the Ebay listing
2. The voltage of these seems pretty high considering what they are. Based upon how you have seen these used do you think the number indicated are accurate?

Danny

I dropped the manufacturer a note to see what the respond with ...
 
After being really intrigued by the solar panels show in the ebay link i did some research on this companies ebay feedback and then Aliexpress before ordering one and wanted to make sure i shared what i found in case someone in the future looks into this as well.

Here's what i found:
1. Ebay - This company is very similar to many others selling this panel in that are general merchandise resellers of all types of products with a surprising similar feedback rating of ~ 97%. When i dug into this particular resellers feedback specifically for the panel by filtering on negative feedback last 6 months i found 1000 results. Then when I set the "display results = 200 per page" and searched for "300W Solar" i found multiple results about not receiving item, late delivery, Misleading ad, Fraud but also found confirmation to what i suspected so i grabbed the image listed below.

Solar Scam.jpg

#2 On Aliexpress i searched for similar panels and found the same style, panel dimensions, same picture and almost identical output specs but Aliexpress had all these listed at 100 Watts which matches up to the watts / surface area i found pretty much everywhere else.
(Meaning you cant just magically get 3x output in the same size panel over everyone else). So if the 300watt for a single flexible panel sound too good to be true it is. These are 100watt panels and if you are looking to buy you might want to go more direct that the general merchandise resellers.

See sample listing of output, size image likeness to Ebay ad.

Solar Scam 3.jpg

Clicking to view specs specs these are almost identical to the Ebay ad.
Solar Scam 2.jpg
 
Last edited:
After being really intrigued by the solar panels show in the ebay link i did some research on this companies ebay feedback and then Aliexpress before ordering one and wanted to make sure i shared what i found in case someone in the future looks into this as well.

Here's what i found:
1. Ebay - This company is very similar to many others selling this panel in that are general merchandise resellers of all types of products with a surprising similar feedback rating of ~ 97%. When i dug into this particular resellers feedback specifically for the panel by filtering on negative feedback last 6 months i found 1000 results. Then when I set the "display results = 200 per page" and searched for "300W Solar" i found multiple results about not receiving item, late delivery, Misleading ad, Fraud but also found confirmation to what i suspected so i grabbed the image listed below.

View attachment 3698

#2 On Aliexpress i searched for similar panels and found the same style, panel dimensions, same picture and almost identical output specs but Aliexpress had all these listed at 100 Watts which matches up to the watts / surface area i found pretty much everywhere else.
(Meaning you cant just magically get 3x output in the same size panel over everyone else). So if the 300watt for a single flexible panel sound too good to be true it is. These are 100watt panels and if you are looking to buy you might want to go more direct that the general merchandise resellers.

See sample listing of output, size image likeness to Ebay ad.

View attachment 3699

Clicking to view specs specs these are almost identical to the Ebay ad.
View attachment 3701

I think that you are correct... the 300W panels we got was significantly larger than what is being described ... plus if you look at the advertised amperage and volts its closer to 108 then 300 ... so i guess some of these guys are just trying to do a bait and switch at this time ... I am pretty sure that both EBay and Paypal will give back any money that people have spent on this sham ... as for us - and we did order these from Alibaba - but its been over 6 months ago - but our 300 Watt models are huge like a blanket ..
 
They make great door mats or oil drip pads under your car after they die early deaths. I’ve got two l learned my lesson on. ?
 
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