Lensun, are a Globally rising contender in the Solar and general PV market.
However, I have had some pretty upsetting experiences with them as a product, and as a business.
Firstly, they claim that their solar panels carry a two year warranty. That might hold water, if they actually issued a purchase receipt. I can only guess, that by Lensun using PayPal as their sole method of a commerce payment gateway, then you might use PayPal as 'Proof of purchase'. Lensun claim, (At least 'Alice of Lensun solar claims, that they are waiting on the banks approval for a more traditional bank backed Credit Card gateway, despite the fact that, Alice informed me via email that Lensun have been in business for over 10 years).
Now, down to the nitty gritty of their products.
I purchased a Lensun '360W 12V Portable Solar Blanket Panel Kit with 30A MPPT Solar Controller' $825.00
and two '200W (2x100W) Black Flexible Solar Panel with Rubber Strips' $379.00 (With clip on, rubberized plastic trim edging)
All purchases from Lensuns website are made in US dollars, when the transaction goes through PayPal, you see the amount charged in your local currency, plus the PayPal fee that is discreetly tagged onto the purchasers fee.
Lensun panels and equipment, I believe are shipped from a warehouse in the UK, and maybe the is also a warehouse in the US.
At the time of purchase, I was camped in my campervan on a beautiful beach on the Spanish, 'Costa Del Sol' (The Sun Coast), in the middle of summer. So, as you might imagine delivery logistics took some working out. As it is, the are few parts of Europe that have a greater amount of clear day sunlight than the Costa Del Sol (Hence the name: Suncoast). I had the panels delivered to a near bye 'Mail Boxes Etc' postal emporium, where I picked them up.
On receipt of the solar panels, I found the packaging of the 100W panels to be very thin and lacking. But the boxes were fortunately not damaged, and the panels in acceptable condition. At first viewing, I was rather impressed, they looked, solid and well made, apart from the rubberized plastic trim edging that was just clipped on, and seemed to fall off quite easily. I believe the edging would need to be further glued on, if they were to be used in any situation where the panels might be subjected to even moderate wind.
BUT? If one were to glue the edging on? Would that effect the two year Warranty???
These panels, I believe, were Lensuns standard 100W $178.00 models, with the addition of the clip on edging. 2 x $178.00 = $356.00 Plus: $23.00 for the edging.
(Not unreasonable) If the edging where properly adhered!
But then down to the test. The panels were there to replace a set of (No Name) 100W flexible, that had gotten damaged, (At least one of the earlier cheap original panels had gotten damaged, I think by a tree limb raking across it.) on my campervan roof.
I used the same setup, to test both brands of panel. The load was a 50% State of charge Thundersky Winston LifePo4 100AH battery pack (With a 123/SmartBMS), a Votronic MPP 350 21A Digital duo Solar controller, with 1 meter/3' of standard 6mm²/10AWG solar panel wiring to the Solar controller, using MC4 connectors and 2 meters/6' of 6mm²/10AWG wire to the battery.
In direct 2PM (Zenith) midday sunlight, no clouds in the sky, easy viewing of the distant mountains. My earlier (2 year old) Solar panel gave me 93% of it's the stated Wattage.
However both the Lensun 100W solar panels tested independently, only gave me 30-40% of the stated Wattage.
This is an easy calculation on a 100W panel.
Also, my Votronic MPP 350 21A Digital duo Solar controller, has an attached LCD readout panel. So it was easy to see what was being generated by the panels, without special equipment.
This was not looking good.
I tested both the Lensun 100W panels, and both gave me similar poor results. Less than half the specified output power, and less than half of my earlier cheapo panel in Wattage. All tested in the same sunlight within 15 minutes of each other. I tested them three separate times, on three separate days. Always the same results. I was pretty unhappy.
Now if that wasn't bad enough, I tested the very expensive solar blanket, to find not so dissimilar results. Only about 40W of it's claimed 350W. The solar blanket, I tested using the supplied Solar controller, and my friend and neighbours Victron MPPT100/30 solar controller.
I tried to call, Lensuns phone numbers; I called numerous times, both the UK and the US numbers, no one ever picked up the phone on Lensuns side. I know they are based in Hong Kong, and I believe all calls are forwarded to Hong Kong, so I made sure to call in Hong Kong time. 7-8 hours ahead of Malaga, Spain, time.
I also emailed. I did get a reply back pretty quickly from someone going by the name of Alice from Lensun. (I was to later find that all communications to and from Lensun went via Alice) Alice in Wonderland maybe? Or maybe Alice is a young kid in a Hong Kong apartment selling rebranded Solar panels via a website?
Alice suggested I do varying checks, I had a Amp clamp meter, and volt meter, I ran the checks. The volts were fine, the Amp's were no where near the stated Amperage.
In the end, after a lot of email correspondence and varying threats having to be made from my side to report them to UK and European trading standards (And the starting of a Facebook group (Lensun Solar, disappointments, difficulties and issues) Lensun eventually conceded and took the panels back, issuing me a full refund, including shipping costs.
However it now seems, that Lensun have Blacklisted me and will not sell me any of their equipment. If I make a purchase via their website, they will quietly refund my purchase money back into my PayPal account, and not send me any notice that my purchase has been refused.
I only wish that Will Prowse would do a YouTube video on some of Lensun's equipment. He as far as I am concerned would be the authority. However he would have to make the purchase of the equipment somewhat anonymously, so Lensun don't know who it is making the purchase. I'd love to hear Will's views on this company's Solar panels and equipment. Or maybe, I was just unlucky and had three dud panels all at the same time. Ya think?
Highly unlikely.
However, I have had some pretty upsetting experiences with them as a product, and as a business.
Firstly, they claim that their solar panels carry a two year warranty. That might hold water, if they actually issued a purchase receipt. I can only guess, that by Lensun using PayPal as their sole method of a commerce payment gateway, then you might use PayPal as 'Proof of purchase'. Lensun claim, (At least 'Alice of Lensun solar claims, that they are waiting on the banks approval for a more traditional bank backed Credit Card gateway, despite the fact that, Alice informed me via email that Lensun have been in business for over 10 years).
Now, down to the nitty gritty of their products.
I purchased a Lensun '360W 12V Portable Solar Blanket Panel Kit with 30A MPPT Solar Controller' $825.00
and two '200W (2x100W) Black Flexible Solar Panel with Rubber Strips' $379.00 (With clip on, rubberized plastic trim edging)
All purchases from Lensuns website are made in US dollars, when the transaction goes through PayPal, you see the amount charged in your local currency, plus the PayPal fee that is discreetly tagged onto the purchasers fee.
Lensun panels and equipment, I believe are shipped from a warehouse in the UK, and maybe the is also a warehouse in the US.
At the time of purchase, I was camped in my campervan on a beautiful beach on the Spanish, 'Costa Del Sol' (The Sun Coast), in the middle of summer. So, as you might imagine delivery logistics took some working out. As it is, the are few parts of Europe that have a greater amount of clear day sunlight than the Costa Del Sol (Hence the name: Suncoast). I had the panels delivered to a near bye 'Mail Boxes Etc' postal emporium, where I picked them up.
On receipt of the solar panels, I found the packaging of the 100W panels to be very thin and lacking. But the boxes were fortunately not damaged, and the panels in acceptable condition. At first viewing, I was rather impressed, they looked, solid and well made, apart from the rubberized plastic trim edging that was just clipped on, and seemed to fall off quite easily. I believe the edging would need to be further glued on, if they were to be used in any situation where the panels might be subjected to even moderate wind.
BUT? If one were to glue the edging on? Would that effect the two year Warranty???
These panels, I believe, were Lensuns standard 100W $178.00 models, with the addition of the clip on edging. 2 x $178.00 = $356.00 Plus: $23.00 for the edging.
(Not unreasonable) If the edging where properly adhered!
But then down to the test. The panels were there to replace a set of (No Name) 100W flexible, that had gotten damaged, (At least one of the earlier cheap original panels had gotten damaged, I think by a tree limb raking across it.) on my campervan roof.
I used the same setup, to test both brands of panel. The load was a 50% State of charge Thundersky Winston LifePo4 100AH battery pack (With a 123/SmartBMS), a Votronic MPP 350 21A Digital duo Solar controller, with 1 meter/3' of standard 6mm²/10AWG solar panel wiring to the Solar controller, using MC4 connectors and 2 meters/6' of 6mm²/10AWG wire to the battery.
In direct 2PM (Zenith) midday sunlight, no clouds in the sky, easy viewing of the distant mountains. My earlier (2 year old) Solar panel gave me 93% of it's the stated Wattage.
However both the Lensun 100W solar panels tested independently, only gave me 30-40% of the stated Wattage.
This is an easy calculation on a 100W panel.
Also, my Votronic MPP 350 21A Digital duo Solar controller, has an attached LCD readout panel. So it was easy to see what was being generated by the panels, without special equipment.
This was not looking good.
I tested both the Lensun 100W panels, and both gave me similar poor results. Less than half the specified output power, and less than half of my earlier cheapo panel in Wattage. All tested in the same sunlight within 15 minutes of each other. I tested them three separate times, on three separate days. Always the same results. I was pretty unhappy.
Now if that wasn't bad enough, I tested the very expensive solar blanket, to find not so dissimilar results. Only about 40W of it's claimed 350W. The solar blanket, I tested using the supplied Solar controller, and my friend and neighbours Victron MPPT100/30 solar controller.
I tried to call, Lensuns phone numbers; I called numerous times, both the UK and the US numbers, no one ever picked up the phone on Lensuns side. I know they are based in Hong Kong, and I believe all calls are forwarded to Hong Kong, so I made sure to call in Hong Kong time. 7-8 hours ahead of Malaga, Spain, time.
I also emailed. I did get a reply back pretty quickly from someone going by the name of Alice from Lensun. (I was to later find that all communications to and from Lensun went via Alice) Alice in Wonderland maybe? Or maybe Alice is a young kid in a Hong Kong apartment selling rebranded Solar panels via a website?
Alice suggested I do varying checks, I had a Amp clamp meter, and volt meter, I ran the checks. The volts were fine, the Amp's were no where near the stated Amperage.
In the end, after a lot of email correspondence and varying threats having to be made from my side to report them to UK and European trading standards (And the starting of a Facebook group (Lensun Solar, disappointments, difficulties and issues) Lensun eventually conceded and took the panels back, issuing me a full refund, including shipping costs.
However it now seems, that Lensun have Blacklisted me and will not sell me any of their equipment. If I make a purchase via their website, they will quietly refund my purchase money back into my PayPal account, and not send me any notice that my purchase has been refused.
I only wish that Will Prowse would do a YouTube video on some of Lensun's equipment. He as far as I am concerned would be the authority. However he would have to make the purchase of the equipment somewhat anonymously, so Lensun don't know who it is making the purchase. I'd love to hear Will's views on this company's Solar panels and equipment. Or maybe, I was just unlucky and had three dud panels all at the same time. Ya think?
Highly unlikely.
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