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 11 positive |
 2 negative |
| Price: | $84.99 |
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Home » Solar Panels » Northern Industrial 15 Watt Solar Panels
Northern Industrial 15 Watt Solar Panels
Excellent performance even in cloudy conditions. Charges 12 Volt car, truck, motorcycle, ATV, boat, personal watercraft or RV batteries. Ideal for deep cycle or multiple battery banks.
Features
- Each panel provides 15 Watts of power
- Link up to 7 panels to produce additional wattage
- Wiring included
- Requires 7 Amp controller #336606 (sold separately)
- Dimensions: 38in.L x 13in.W x 1/2in.H
The first panel arrived with the glass broken all over the place on both sides.
Amazon shipped out a replacement panel – 1 day shipping free of charge.
Replacement panel arrived in flawless working condition. Great customer service – first time I ever had a return issue so far!
Works within specification.
M.S. 9/1/09
I received everything in nice condition. No broken glass or missing parts and puts out required voltage. Can’t wait to set it up. The controller that was recommended doesn’t have a plug on it so you can just plug it into the panel. Does anyone know where I can get the multicoupler so I can plug in more panels. I have to buy another plug just so I can use the rest of the connectors with the controller. But the panel is a nice one and I hope to buy two more at a later date if I need them. I’ll write another review later on after I have used it awhile..Cheers.
For small installations such as storage sheds or small cabins, these panels can’t be beat. The price is right and they perform well. On a bright sunny day I see about .8 amps per panel, though that will fluctuate with the resistance of the load (All solar panels have an optimal loading that will allow them to achieve maximum output). I use my panels to charge a Werker absorbed glass mat (AGM) lead acid battery that I then use to run an inverter whenever I need remote power. These panels do the trick, I’ll buy more of them as my power needs increase
Worked like a charm, putting out the expected power. Used it to charge up batteries and Ipods, as well as run a home made swamp (evaporative) cooler. Even had in use during a major dust storm with sand blowing around at 35mph, and the glass covering didn’t show any scratches.
I bought 5 of these panels to charge a deep cycle marine battery for lighting a remote shed. I ran into problems about 3 days after installation because an 11 watt overnight light would discharge the battery and the panels couldn’t handle the daily recharge. Only under ideal conditions, with sunshine most of the day, will this system come close to working properly. My suggestion if someone is trying to accomplish what I’m trying is to get on the internet and find a company that sells a good American or Japanese panel that produces around 80 watts. I tried this on a different location and it works fine, costs about the same, and takes up less room on the roof. I’m preparing my “Toy” panels for my next garage sale and hopfully some sucker will buy them.
The panel arived with a shattered front glass. Contrary to another review the double packaging was not enough to survive UPS ground shipping. It doesn’t appear that the doubling of the shipping container is in any way over packaging. I was pleased that Northern Tool is having UPS pick up the damaged Panel, and, shipping me a replacement panel. A very appropriate and fast responce by Northern.
The panels works as advertised, the current output is good even under cloudy sky (I measured about 75% wich is excellent). I have two of them in series for a 24 volt small system with a charge controller. I like the fact that they include different connectors so the installation is simple.
I’m 95% sure this unit and the Sunforce 50032 are the same thing (except for maybe the boxes they’re placed in). The phamplet that came with this on how to wire it up was identicle to one that came with the Sunforce 7 amp controller and shows several other panels including what appears to be the sunforce 50044 kit (I ordered the panels I have from Northern Tool but the controller from Amazon). So everything is hinting they’re all the same thing in different packages. I didn’t actually see any “Sunforce” names or logos on the products, but the boxes were the only thing saying “Northern tools” specifically likewise.
I got 5 of these about 2 years ago and didn’t do any tests at that point (except plug them in and see that my battery voltage did slowly rise). I recently became curious about how much power am I really getting from the panels I got, so I set up a test. On a fully sunny day I placed a panel in direct sunlight, aimed it to get as much power as I could (watching my Fluke meter that was measuring the amps going from the panel to a small battery) and I could only get ~0.3 amps (which is ~4 watts). I thought maybe the battery was near fully charged and not accepting much power, so I plugged in a heater that draws at least 5 amps off of the battery, but that only increased the output of the panel to ~0.4amps (or ~5 watts). I tried another panel to see if it was just that one, but the 2nd one had about the same performance. I don’t know if the lack of output is just because I’m not living in the south or didn’t try that at high noon, but I wouldn’t expect that big a difference (especially when I gave it the benefit by doing my best to aim it to get the best sunlight/power). So if these are really supposed to be able to give you 15 watts of power, I’m left wondering what are the ideal conditions that you need for such (or to at least be getting something close to 1amp output rather than just 0.4 or 40% of it’s label)?
I’ve also since done some math on the cost of solar panels versus the power they give. If you really want to get into solar power, a panel (or set of panels) that can give you 1000 watts (or 1 kiloWatt) will cost you ~$5000, yet that can save you as little as $0.10 on your power bill per hour of use. So that means it’ll take 50,000 hours of use for them to pay for themselves (which is over 15 years at ~8 hours of full power per day). To get into enough power to run a small house can require you to have 10-20,000 watts available and get into the $100,000+ costs (especially if you need to store up enough power to last you thru the nights & days that are cloudy where your power is greatly reduced). The panels also put out DC power, so to store that power and convert it into household power requires batteries and power inverters as additional costs (in up front and maintenance).
So unless you have a lot of money you’re willing to put into such and have little concern over your return, solar power doesn’t seem like a great solution for getting energy.
this product has bad envelope, I arrive party by half, does not work, this damaged
Simple to connect and worked as soon as it was connected! Excellent solar panel for the price.
I bought 2 of these panels as an inexpensive means to power my ham radio station for every day and of course, emergency FEMA / Homeland security response. I have been licensed for over 40 years and have worked GE heavy Military and NASA. I use a number of commercial surplus large gel cells for storage. For the money- versus size and ability to produce power they should rate at least a 4. If money was not a critical factor, other manufacturers produce more power per sq.ft. with a guarantee of 25 years. Perhaps a better deal in the long run. However, in any design used to recharge storage batteries, it’s maximum current- the electron flow that does the job. Given 250 days of sunshine here in Wichita, KS. Voltage multiplied by Current equals Watts. I can generate 15 watts of power, however maximum current peak is below the float voltage of any standard storage battery. Only under ideal test conditions 15 watts can be generated. It’s like a gasoline engine only at a certain RPM is maximum power generated. Typical lead acid storage batteries are considered depleated at 10.75 V and floating fully charged at 13.2V. So connecting a solar panel to a storage battery limits it’s “RPM” range. A charge controller limits it further. So in an “automatic” configuration, maximum output is not obtained, maybe never.
The bad side, the manufacturer packs each panel in styrofoam then a printed cardboard box showing advertising and description. That is packed in another box with more styrofoam, I would say for shipping. Then Northern Tool packed that combo into yet another shipping container with heavy crumpled brown paper. Each panel was shipped separately. I filled a garbage can with packing and boxes just to get a look at the 2 panels. Considering I was charged for shipping, overpacking and shipping separately is over charging for shipping. The purpose of solar panels is to conserve energy and money, how about conserving shipping costs? That ultimately becomes part of the cost of the panels. The sale price of about $80 is good, high shipping costs tempers the deal, if they were sold at the supposed non sale price of about $100 per panel and poor shipping costs were involved, I would not recommend the purchase as it becomes no deal. Besides the “sale price” is a marketing scheme as no where on the internet can these panels be found at another price higher or lower. I’m tired of stores doubling their price for a 50% off sale. Shipping 1 star.