60 Watt Solar Panel Generator Kit
I just bought the Sunforce 60 Watt Solar Panel Generator Kit from Amazon. It arrived here on Tuesday afternoon and I was very happy with most of the packaging.
This kit has had both good and bad reviews through Amazon in the last 18 months or so - for various reasons too and I’ll get into those. The kit is super cheap compared to most solar panels and solar power kits on the market right now though, so I thought I’d try it out as a starter system.
First of all, this solar power kit is made with older technology and cheap parts. It’s actually made in China, so there have been some quality issues for other buyers. I knew going into the deal that I wouldn’t be getting top of the line solar products though, since I only paid a little over $300 total for the complete system.
This solar power system is called a kit because it comes with everything except a battery. You get 4 solar panels rated at 15 watts each, a PVC mounting stand, all a four way splitter to plug the panels into, a 12 foot extension cable which plugs into the four way and leads to the controller.
The controller itself is a 7 amp Sunforce solar controller. It’s plastic and feels pretty cheap but as long as it does it’s job I’m fine with that :) I was surprised a little by the wiring for the controller though. Everything else has nice clean ready to use plugs on them but the controller needed to be wired and capped on the solar panel side. There were small little eyelet connectors on the battery side. Those aren’t big enough to go down onto a battery post though.
We bought a small lawn and garden battery to start with. It was cheap so it won’t matter much if we screw something up as we’re getting used to the system. We bought a couple of post bolts to secure the eyelets from the controller, and that worked well.
We also used an old cooler to place the battery and controller in. Theoretically this will help shield those from rain and extreme temperatures.
The kit was packaged really well and that was a relief. Apparently when Amazong started selling these solar generator kits they didn’t pack and ship them well, so several people ended up with broken solar panels on arrival. They’ve gotten much better though.
The solar panels themselves are packaged in bubble wrap, then sandwiched individually into styrofoam which is shaped for them. All the wires, connectors, adapters, screws and accessories were in a separate box inside the kit box. Some of the pieces were also bubble wrapped, but that didn’t save the inverter.
The cigarette lighter plug on our inverter had small plastic pieces broken off when we opened it. We think it’s still usable but we haven’t tried it yet. Other people report the included inverter is quite cheap and it has burned out within a week for several.
Attaching the panels to the PVC mounting frame sucked. Most people report having everything together in an hour or less, but we had a devil of a time getting the screws to line up to the holes in the PVC pipe. We’re going to drill a couple of spots and buy larger washers so we won’t have to fight with it constantly when taking it apart or putting it back together.
So far I’m happy with this solar power generator kit though. It was cheap, fairly easy to get all set up, and it was charging the battery even in clouds and shade in the late afternoon.
Learn more about the Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit…
