New Harbor Freight 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel (Item # 57325)

hello hello thanks for tuning in   all right today we're going to take a look  at the thunderbolt solar panel it's 100 watts   monocrystalline by harbor freight i do believe  this will be the first video on youtube about it   so harbor freight if you're watching send  me some products to review i'd be glad to   all right this just came out there's not many  reviews on the actual harbor freight website   and there are none online so i figured i'd do one  it's 100 watt panel they look like half cell rows and it's ideal for rvs cabin sheds remote  locations showing you can power small devices monocrystalline cells lightweight and portable  15 pounds maintenance free produces 25 amp hours   on average a day it's all under ideal conditions  so let me get it flipped around and see if we got   something different on the back all right  we got it turned around it is item number 57325 again it's 100 watts 24 volts dc max has a leg for optimal stand placement let's  get this thing out and see how it looks all right and there it is it's a pretty  decent sized panel i'm pretty impressed   with the quality it looks really really  good it's got nice tempered glass on there   what an upgrade from their old units  super super nice it's got legs in the back there's your information looks like it's got  a junction box here let's see what it says all right so ip65 just looks like it's the power  wires coming out has pretty decent um   silicone back there so i've got a battery box that  i built and get this thing plugged into it and see   if it produces any good power all right it's about  four o'clock little after four mid may i've got a   battery box that i built out of spare parts  you see there it's 12.1 i've been running uh   cooler off this for hours now um it's got about  44 amp hours of power and inside this box so   we're gonna hook it up to some sc8  connectors i put in here and just   i forgot to mention you shouldn't really plug it  directly into the batteries you should have some   type of a charge controller in between here and  that's just a regular old harbor freight one 20   charge controller so it's good for 100 watts  or 7 amps and this panel does not put out seven   amps it's just under so this should be a good  setup and we'll come back and check on it later   all right here's the owner's manual and safety  instructions for those who are interested   again the thunderbolt solar panel 100 watt just your simple warnings and precautions   there's your maximum current for the  gauge wires that you should be running tells you about handling glass just all your  all this stuff to keep them out of trouble   there's your rated output 18 volts dc at 100  watts is 5.56 amps so 5.56 i have the older set of   solar panels so i will compare those and see how  the output is there is your angle for the panels it's got a j plug 12 volt charge controller that's  sold separately so you do need a charge controller and there's your efficiency for permanent setups and that's it that's what you get a solar  panel your junction box in the back the s   a e plug four corner guards  and your mounting stand   so it is outside getting tested and  we'll see how much power we get out of it   okay it's been about 20 minutes i changed  out the charge controller for a different   one because the harbor freight one started acting  funny it's old as you can see we are up to about   12.8 volts i'm gonna go ahead and check the uh  current on this panel now that we got the sun out okay if you can see the open load voltage  coming right off the panel is about 22.   we'll go down to dc amps and  see what we're putting out we're getting almost 10 amps out of  this thing that's actually really good   so let me hook it up to a charge controller  and see what we get out the other end   all right we're getting about 8.6 amps out of  here that's a really good it's about 4 30 mid may   so 8.7 amps is doing really good  let's check the dc voltage coming out   uh it's showing still 22 volts out which is  weird because i am checking the battery i   don't know why it's putting that much  out but it is producing good power all right so i'm going across my battery in there   and i'm showing about 12.82 volts let's  see the amps coming in on the battery right out about what the solar panel said  it would put out just about five amps or so   like i said it's past noon so it's doing  pretty well it's putting out 4.8 amps   let this thing continue to charge up and see  if we can get these agm batteries charged up   okay so it's been about 45 minutes we plugged  it in at 12.1 it's 12.9 it's gained eight tenths   of a volt it was running at like 11 and a half  though i had a small refrigerator running on it so   the battery was definitely lower than  12-1 it was just a recovery when i   disconnected the cooler so we'll let it  go it's 4 55. i said less than an hour   gained almost a volt back and tilt it back in  the sun and see how much more i can get out of it all right it's been just over an hour i think  the highest reading we get is like 115 or so 113 113 on the panel but it's evening  time it's after five o'clock now   at 13 12 9 still it's been on for about an hour so  it's gained almost a volt for an hour not too bad all right the panel has been  set up about an hour and a half   it's about 5 40. sun's still hitting down on  pretty good i said it was plugged in at 12.1 volts   and it was draining about 11 and  a half while i had a load on it we're now at 13 so we gained about a volt in  an hour and a half a full volt not too bad   okay so it's about two and a half hours later  6 30. you can see there's patches of shade now   sun is starting to crest over the trees   i had to move it so it wasn't shade for a  second when i didn't realize it but i moved it   and as you can see 13.2 when i first  turned on so we got well over a volt   so i think this thing definitely does work so for  right now i'm gonna say it works we're gonna make   some more videos on it with the power usage and  see what kind of power we can get out of the box   when running stuff and see if it maintains battery  voltage so thanks for watching please subscribe

Channel: DIY KAI

Views: 47,074

Keywords: solar, solar panels, solar energy, harbor freight, 100 watt solar panel, solar panel, 100w solar panel, 100 watt solar, solar power, 100 watt, 100 watt solar panel review, 100 watt dc solar system, 100 watts solar panel, 100 watt solar panel kit, 100 watt solar panels, 100 watt solar panel setup, 100 watt solar panel price, install 100 watt solar panel, 100 watt folding solar panel, what can you run on 100 watt solar panel, 57325, bushcraft, offgrid solar, solar system, diy

Id: tmDFhPHYPO4

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021