$800 bucks is way to expensive, fold up or not. Family friend is a business owner who does solar setups. He has told me not to pay more than a dollar a watt. Ebay ones are a bit pricey.
CTEK Questions.
- Thread starter atcmatt
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120W of solar for $800? Someone's about to make a BIG profit. That's nasty.
If you want a purely commercial deal that's viable, try this one here, you'll get 150W of solar plus regulator for $389. I've bought from this company before, the solar panel on the roof of my caravan is one of their 130W modules and the regulator is the exact one they're supplying. Add a small frame that holds the panel at about 35 degrees from horizontal and you've got a fairly ideal portable panel.
If you are shopping on eBay, here's one seller (99.8% positive feedback) with a folding 160W regulated monocrystalline panel with carry bag for $269. This is perfect, you really don't need anything else. It's not only complete, it's a mono panel which works well in shade.
I would think $1/watt for mono panels may not include a regulator, I'd love to pay that, I'd put 600W of solar on my caravan tomorrow and 8000W on the roof of my house the day after.
If you want a purely commercial deal that's viable, try this one here, you'll get 150W of solar plus regulator for $389. I've bought from this company before, the solar panel on the roof of my caravan is one of their 130W modules and the regulator is the exact one they're supplying. Add a small frame that holds the panel at about 35 degrees from horizontal and you've got a fairly ideal portable panel.
If you are shopping on eBay, here's one seller (99.8% positive feedback) with a folding 160W regulated monocrystalline panel with carry bag for $269. This is perfect, you really don't need anything else. It's not only complete, it's a mono panel which works well in shade.
I would think $1/watt for mono panels may not include a regulator, I'd love to pay that, I'd put 600W of solar on my caravan tomorrow and 8000W on the roof of my house the day after.
Cool thanks for the links. The one I am talking about is in like a canvas setup with about 5 panels and they all fold up into a small bundle. I guess that's the reason I like it because it packs away small. I don't need a regulator as the CTEK has a built in regulator. Think I will get one of the eBay specials then by the looks of it they are best bang for buck, I was told that 120w would be plenty for me. What are your thoughts on that? The more power the better? The CTEK manual states no more than 22v on the open circuit, most of the panels I see are about 22.3v open circuit, is this a major issue? Thanks for letting me pick your brain! Matt
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22.3V isn't hugely over the limit. Once the C-Tek starts drawing power from it the voltage will drop to around 17-18V anyway.
120W is nice, pretty sure the panel on my Navara's canopy is 120W (not 130W like I put on the caravan) and I can free-camp in either (or both!) without a generator for weeks if I want. However, I have to set up in full sun if I want to use a little extra power than just for the fridge, or the van's lights + pumps.
For that reason I'd love to add more panels to the van, if I camp in shade and whack an inverter onto the battery and start charging my laptop I start to run a little short on power. An extra panel would give me more capacity - so my recommendation to you is to go as large as you can. The C-Tek should handle a 200W panel easily, so that's where I'd go.
120W is nice, pretty sure the panel on my Navara's canopy is 120W (not 130W like I put on the caravan) and I can free-camp in either (or both!) without a generator for weeks if I want. However, I have to set up in full sun if I want to use a little extra power than just for the fridge, or the van's lights + pumps.
For that reason I'd love to add more panels to the van, if I camp in shade and whack an inverter onto the battery and start charging my laptop I start to run a little short on power. An extra panel would give me more capacity - so my recommendation to you is to go as large as you can. The C-Tek should handle a 200W panel easily, so that's where I'd go.
happy john
Member
Sorry for the belated reply, I use a simple 120 watt cheapie. I bypassed the silly regulator, with 8mm cable now direct to the CTEK solar input. The 6mtr cable is good for shade free power.
^ that heavy cable is quite important for two reasons. First, light cable loses voltage over distance - any cable length greater than 3m needs to be increasingly heavy the longer it gets.
Second, and more important, light cables - even the so-called "rated" cable you can buy in KMart, SCA etc - can't actually handle their rated current for long. Have inspected a Subaru Forester that towed a trailer fitted with electric brakes. The 4mm cable (supposedly rated at 40A) had heated up under load (2 brakes at 3.5A = just 7 amps) and melted not only through the soundproofing spray on the inner guard, but into the paint and then through its own insulator where it arced out and blew the fuse. 6mm cable (for a single pair of brakes = 7A) would have been better.
I've added 4 x 8Ga (21mm2) cables to my Nav. Each cable could handle 800A as starter cable but not for long periods of time. What it DOES handle for extensive periods is around 37A (380W supplied to the van fridge via inverter of about 85% efficiency is nearly 450W input or 37.5A). I've also got these same cables (about 2m long) transferring power down from the solar panel in to the regulator and onto the battery.
Oh, that's another thing people should be aware of. Just because a solar panel has its regulator mounted on it doesn't mean the C-Tek/Redarc/whatever needs to be mounted there and then run the long cable in to the battery. NO! Always have the charger as close to the battery as possible. The charger will take what power it can get from the solar panel and use it, and will want to closely monitor the battery. The only way it can successfully do that is if the distance between charger and battery is minimised.
Second, and more important, light cables - even the so-called "rated" cable you can buy in KMart, SCA etc - can't actually handle their rated current for long. Have inspected a Subaru Forester that towed a trailer fitted with electric brakes. The 4mm cable (supposedly rated at 40A) had heated up under load (2 brakes at 3.5A = just 7 amps) and melted not only through the soundproofing spray on the inner guard, but into the paint and then through its own insulator where it arced out and blew the fuse. 6mm cable (for a single pair of brakes = 7A) would have been better.
I've added 4 x 8Ga (21mm2) cables to my Nav. Each cable could handle 800A as starter cable but not for long periods of time. What it DOES handle for extensive periods is around 37A (380W supplied to the van fridge via inverter of about 85% efficiency is nearly 450W input or 37.5A). I've also got these same cables (about 2m long) transferring power down from the solar panel in to the regulator and onto the battery.
Oh, that's another thing people should be aware of. Just because a solar panel has its regulator mounted on it doesn't mean the C-Tek/Redarc/whatever needs to be mounted there and then run the long cable in to the battery. NO! Always have the charger as close to the battery as possible. The charger will take what power it can get from the solar panel and use it, and will want to closely monitor the battery. The only way it can successfully do that is if the distance between charger and battery is minimised.
happy john
Member
The Ebay panel I got had very thin wire about 8 mtrs long. The regulator would peak at 13.6 volts and produced just under 4 amps. Now I'm getting a solid 6 amps and the CTEK will peak at 14.5. Very pleased with it now.
happy john
Member
Done a few tests this week Matt. The CTEK will deliver 14.6 on first start of the day then back off to 14.4. With the fridge drawing 3.5 amps it will sit on 14.4 all day. Over the next few day's with full charge and no load on the aux battery it would hover between 13.1-13.6. For a few hours it was on 13.1, put a load back on and up to 14.4 all day. I'm thinking yours may just be in float mode to get that lower reading, also not sure how you are taking your readings but I've had faulty multi meters before that gave false readings.
