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Update 9 18 2008 Still going strong. I’m happy with the summer power output of these panels. I wash them with a hose 1x/mo to keep the output current up. Calculated before washing and after washing the panel efficiency is obviously a factor of how much dirt is on them. No problems lasting on a roof though!

Update 2 20 2008 goes with graph “photograph” #3 above pink line is power and blue line is amps from the panel x ten to share the graph. The X axis is panel voltage. Data was assumed using an Agilent dummy load with programmable voltage in 1V steps from 1V to 22V open circuit voltage on the panel on a partially cloudy day in winter sun. Expectations are for 2 3 times performace in summer sun provided the panels do not get too hot. They are on my house roof laying flat on a 3/12 pitch facing due south which is suboptimal but easy for me to do. Make sure to read the photo notes. Sorry about the colors excel defaulted to!

This is a MPPT map maximum power point tracking you may be able to see that the panels are optimized for charging a 12V wet cell right out of the box. Charge current turns on when battery voltage drops down to 13.0 VDC and turns off at 14.2 VDC with the supplied charge controller in the kit.

The only other interesting fact in two months is to keep your panels clean. My maximum current was 5.0 A on a cold morning with bright sun till it rained hard and washed the panels clean. The current went up to 7.0 A maximum right after the rainstorm. Below is the original review these panels have been running constant for two months now into three parallel deep cycle marine cells 315 AH connected to the prosine inverter below to drain the energy made.

When reading the power/current map you may want to think about the amps have been multiplied by ten so they use the same Y axis so 20A on the map corresponds to 2.0 A panel current Watts are real volts amps. This was taken in the winter with fractional clouds expectations are for a X3 improvement throughout summertime but its still february and I am in the northern hemisphere so we will have to wait and see. Just an MPPT charger will not get but some watts with this panel so it is not a good investment unless you already have one laying around.

Begin original review after purchasing panels

I never seem to be overwhelmed by the new shipment of product from China, but this one looks to show many promise and shows signs of good cost engineering and a complete design that may be set up quickly by one person with little effort. I’d give it five stars if it were well filled, but my buy turned into a shipping fiasco.

Most ALL solar installations are rated in $/watt much like new homes are rated in $/sq ft. We will get to the sq ft bit afterward. Here you’re to get 60W for 320 dollars or about 5.33 $/watt. In comparison to a alike wattage panel, the BP solar 365U rated at 65W and priced street at 399 or 6.13 $/watt the package looks to be a good deal when you think about it comes complete less battery we’ll hit that one afterward too

In fact, the package deal will include a xantrex 175 watt inverter with a .15A “idle” current intended for solar systems where current intake must be minimized. It will include a simple diode/switch “charge regulator” with two leds to point to panel voltage and battery is full but lacks the capability to tell it what kind of battery you’re using full is defined at 14.2 volts give or take so it is for wet/flooded cells. Neither of they are big buck things, but they do set you up for a complete small scale solar kit minus the battery out of the box, which is remarkable.

Oh yes, the battery. I also ordered the duracell 480W inverter+28AH battery with this panel so I’d have a battery. Also made by Xantrex, it is a nice part to finish the system. I made the mistake of ordering it with the solar panels read on

So how does China produce a complete kit for a lower $/watt price than professional solar businesses like BP solar, GE, Kyocera, etc? Well it is the sq ft part we forgot about for a while. This uses four panels @ 15W each to get up to 60 watts with a simple parallel adapter included in the kit. The BP solar is one panel about the size of one of these 15W panels, or put another way, is 1/4 the sq footage. If you’re planning on covering your roof with the, think again because you’d need a really big house and have lots of 7A charge diodes and 175W inverters kicking around when you’re done. The reason for the 4:1 size difference is the China panels are made using a silicon deposition on glass technique with a thin film and correspondingly thin output, while other manufacturers use a silicon wafer production technique that’s about 4x more economical in area, and somewhat costly consequently.

Ok now onto packaging. We have to get this from China to and to the buyer. On the 1st try FEDX carefully placed my fragile glass solar panels on the concrete then put 2ea 60lb batteries over them, cracking the glass on all four panels. After returning that to amazon, we tried again, this time without the batteries and shipping the system by itself. FEDX again noted shipment damage which wrecked one of the four panels, but running on 3/4 panels it does work, just not with full output. Has given up because they’ll only ship and ruin something twice instead of making fedx pay up for piling 120 lbs of batteries over the glass panels and poking through the box & styrofoam the second time so I’m still in negotiation with them about the shipment, but the product does deserve talk about while I have it.

PERFORMANCE:

The design is really quite well done. You may be able to make with four panels a 12V actually 15V x 4A system, or a 30V x 2A or a 60V x 1A configuration based on your power inverter and battery collection. For me, this will generally be tied into a 12VDC bus so it’s good as shipped, but the flexibility is there if you have other voltages in use. There’s no skimping on wire with 16 foot cords on each panel which helps to minimize power lost in the wire since each panel has own cordset going to the combiner, after which runs are kept short. On a cloudy day I was able to get two amps from three panels 30 W in full sun it peaked at 5.91A with three panels, so the Chinese manufacturing has under rated their output as 90W from a 1/4 dead 60W panel in winter sun is doing good I’d like to know how it performs in the summer!

As for mounting, a smart system was intended to support the panels out of 1″ PVC tubing with elbows and T’s all of this is assembled with a singular bolt/wingnut style and the pipes have slots milled into them to ensure that the panels will line one way or another without breaking after you get them. It has a prop up leg system for use on the ground or can lay flat if placed on a roof that’s already angled towards the sun. There is not a provision for connecting many systems together, but you may make one out of sprinkler pipes you most likely have.

All this really needs to be a well intended solar kit is 1 better packaging and 2 a battery. With 25 of my panels broken and removed from the system, it still managed to charge a car battery in under one cloudy winter day.

I’m impressed with the product, but disappointed with the shipper. I have also run up against Amazon’s policy of two strikes and they’re out meaning they will not negotiate for fix or substitute as the shipper on my behalf. I can return it alltogether or pay 100 for 75 of a system so it is most likely going back tomorrow monday but my testing this weekend showed that the product warrants consideration for people who

A have to keep their starting batteries charged year round 2nd cars, generators, etc outside where AC power isn’t convenient.

B don’t have A/C power at all and could like to run a small refrigerator purchase a Xantrex Technologies Prosine 1,000 to 1,500 Watt Power Inverter #1000 TRUE SINEWAVE power inverter to run any motor load without damage

Or

C Have lots of roof space and are looking at the lowest cost/watt installation complete with mounting hardware.

Don’t forget the battery and do not have it delivered with your solar panels. As for emergency power, 60 watts will not do much for you but keep your generator battery charged and prepared to go when the power fails. My natural gas genset is rated for 12,000 watts or 200 of these 60 watt 4 panel kits 800 panels which could cost $64,000 and still not supply power at night, like the calm genset does. With 12,000 watts I can comfortably run my whole house. Considering these natural gas gensets may be had for under $3000 they’re obviously the best solution for whole house power backup systems.

My use was to keep my seldom used 12VDC batteries all charged in the back yard. Regretably, amazon’s lack of correct packaging and refusal to negotiate with FEDX over damage means I will most likely put in a 12VDC charger inside my house and run the low voltage 12VDC wiring outside to the batteries that need a trickle charge.

One last dependability issue having seen five broken panels now I can see an advantage to the professional panel systems these use the glass just as a cover & weatherproofing plate. The cells underneath aren’t damaged if the glass breaks. On the system, the cells are deposited on the back of the glass, if it breaks, by default so does the complete cell.

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139 of 141 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of five stars
Recharges all our stuff,
August 13, 2008

By&nbsp,C. Bayne “katluvr_1″ Phoenix, AZ United States See all my reviews
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
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We bought this some months ago. We live in Phoenix, AZ “Valley of the Sun”, so this has lots of opportunity to work. We have it plugged into two marine batteries like car batteries, but bigger, and we have an inverter connected to those. The inverter is in the house, and the batteries are outside. The wire goes through the wall. We plug things into the inverter.

This was easy to put together. You must purchase the batteries, but this came with everything else.

I can run my laptop all day, also as recharge the cell phones and Wii remotes. My husband may also run his laptop. If we only get on the laptops after work, we can run them well into the night. I have had to switch to grid power a couple of times if I have used my laptop all day, but I have never had to switch over if I have only used it throughout the evening. This does not count the not many rainy days we have had. Yes, once in a while it rains in Phoenix.

This isn’t the most economical solar panel set, but it is good for starting out and learning about solar power. It is inexpensive enough to set up and charge all your rechargeable stuff whenever you need it, as long as you live in a pretty sunny area.

Oh, as an experiment, I plugged the vacuum cleaner into the inverter, which quickly started screaming for help. The inverter has an alarm, seemingly. This whole set up can not handle this kind of power draw. You must unplug everything and turn the inverter off and let it just sit a while and reset before plugging in your lower power things again.

You’re not going off the grid with this set up, but you will save yourself some bucks a month. And you get to be smug whenever anybody talks about going green. “Well of course, our solar array lowered our carbon footprint considerabley. Shall we go for an organic smoothie now?”

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119 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of five stars
Permanently installed on roof,
January 6, 2008

By&nbsp,Michael Athens, GA USA See all my reviews

The panels are installed on my garage roof, wired in to a battery bank and inverter which mainly functions as a big 4KW uninterruptible power supply for the house. So far, everything is working good. They keep the batteries exceeded off without using power from the grid.

Like most manufacturer’s specifications, the 60 watt assert is hard to realize. The panels’ current output is about 3.2 amps under bright sun, which yields only about 45 watts into a twelve volt gel cell battery at 14.2 volts. The panels can output about 20 volts which could indeed yield 60 watts, but not while connected with the included charge controller. A MPPT controller could accomplish 60 watts, but.

The included controller is satisfactory in that it works as advertised. One good thing about it’s that it doesn’t shunt the panels when the battery is charged, it really opens the circuit, which means the extra panel output could be available for other uses. I intend to build another device for charging another set of batteries after the main set is charged.

The included inverter works, but I didn’t use it in the system. Instead, I will just keep it around for a movable inverter.

Also, I didn’t use the PVC pipe stand included with the system, instead mounting the panels straight to the roof.

The kit did include a range of connectors allowing use with cigarette lighter plugs and jacks, alligator clips, and hardwire, but the charge controller is only usable if hardwired. I strongly recommend the charge controller be used, as the panels can overcharge most any twelve volt battery if a charge controller isn’t wired in.

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Related Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Products:

25 Responses to “sunforce 50044 60”

1. Manuel J Says:
   May 1, 2009 at 2:30 pm

   Check out my site if you need an accessory or a coupon

2. Willie J Says:
   May 2, 2009 at 0:35 pm

   Is online price generally better than store price?

3. Deborah L. Says:
   May 3, 2009 at 4:41 pm

   I have one on sale, best price, email me if interested

4. Jacqueline T. Says:
   May 4, 2009 at 7:34 pm

   Compare online prices, dont bother with store price

5. Betty E. Says:
   May 5, 2009 at 5:24 pm

   Has been reviewed more on Costco site, check it there

6. Jason73 Says:
   May 6, 2009 at 4:48 pm

   Getting it online will always be more cheap than store price

7. Ann Z. Says:
   May 7, 2009 at 1:16 pm

   Those are mostly specs, but is there a review?

8. Cheryl I. Says:
   May 8, 2009 at 0:15 pm

   Saw it discounted somewhere, great deal but forgot where

9. Julie F. Says:
   May 9, 2009 at 0:55 pm

   It has been reviewed everywhere, but i still couldnt find a coupon

10. Franklin Says:
    May 10, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Cant beat online deals for sunforce 50044, plus free shipping at most stores over a certain amount

11. Kathleen Says:
    May 11, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    No sunforce 50044 60 rebates in El Paso

12. Katherine B. Says:
    May 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Will check local outlet for any discounted deals on

13. Nettie Says:
    May 13, 2009 at 0:21 pm

    Anyone know of a coupon for Las Vegas area?

14. Antonio I Says:
    May 14, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    Nothing in Costco, couldnt find rebates or coupons

15. Cynthia B. Says:
    May 15, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    You break you buy

16. Lois T. Says:
    May 16, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    I have one for sale, great price, email me if interested

17. Mildred J. Says:
    May 17, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Compare sunforce 50044 prices here or on ebay, is my best guess

18. Brandon C Says:
    May 18, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    What’s sunforce 50044 compared to other lighting?

19. James78 Says:
    May 19, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    I think Bestbuy may have free shipping

20. Danny O Says:
    May 20, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    Usually price of sunforce 50044 is cheap for lighting

21. Melissa M. Says:
    May 21, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    I checked Circuit city and they dont have any wholesale deals are there any wholesale deals online?

22. Nicholas V Says:
    May 22, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    I saw Ebay has it for sale

23. Billy L Says:
    May 23, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Usually has a limited availability, and when i found it, wasnt exactly the cheapest

24. Lavern Says:
    May 24, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    Read reviews, all positive

25. Eddie W Says:
    May 25, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    Well wholesale may have it cheaper than Walmart or Staples