Harbor Freight 45 watt solar sale

[LaunchPad]

howdy all,

Harbor freight has a big sale going on for a very few days on their 45 watt solar kit. It comes with the charge controller and 2 light assemblies. I bought one last week but have yet to hook it up or test it- maybe some one here has a good review????

In any event i am in the preferred customer club and got a coupon for an additional 15% off- that is $30 more savings for these panels.

I do not know if you can view it (different IP address than me) but here is a link. Else, i asked Ryan to help us out and post it for those interested.
http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/emails/display.do?fname=37_retailG.html

coupon is only good until the 27th of Sept i hope someone can make use of it.

[Phssthpok]

See my fisk here. (http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/yabb/forum.pl?board=energy;action=display;num=114800194 3)

[edward_4576]

There's one close to where I live....heheheh...... ;D

[kawalekm]

Wednesday evening we were going out for pizza and I showed the 15% off coupon to my son. As we're driving down the road I said I"d stop by tommorrow to purchase the panels. He turned and said "Dad, isn't today the 27'th?". I turned around and drove home to get the coupon and yes it said 9/27. I said "OK, can we go to HF first to see if we can get one?". We got there at 7:20pm to discover our local store closes at 7:00! Oh well, how often do they post new coupons. That would have helped alot!
Michael

[LaunchPad]

the panels are on sale again this week and if you sign up for the home delivered flier they send you an add with 20% off so even better! (~$160 total)

I don't know how to get you the coupon faster- it is a 2 sided thing-

Best bet is to sign up for the junk mail and wait them out if you miss a sale thes e do seem to come up frequently.

[cameron]

I bought one of these last week and hooked it up over the weekend.

When I connected the lead wires from the panels to the charge controller and turned it on I get a high pitched noise. Is this normal? The working light does not come on until I turned the unit on. I plugged in a light and it did come on.

I'm just wondering if there is something wrong with the charge controller. Any ideas?

[Phssthpok]

That high pitched noise is a Piezo-speaker that is designed to warn you of an over-or under voltage state on your battery.

You will hear that noise under the following conditions:

-No battery attached to charge contoller.
-Battery attached is at less than 11(?) volts. (noise will go away as it charges past 11 volts)
-Battery attached is at more than 15(?) volts.

See a brief discussion of this kit here (http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/9/18/16519/8938)

[cameron]

Hey Phss,

thanks for the info and link. That answered my questions.

[skinnymc]

I bought four of these kits back in May. The panels are great and still put out a charge on cloudy days since they are amorphous. The charge controllers are worthless. I plan on ordering a new 30A CC in the near future. I have already had two of the four controllers die and the other two are starting to act a little funny.

Hope to pick up a few more kits in the new year.

[kawalekm]

HI Skinnymc
By the way, what is happening when the controlers die? Does current just stop coming out, or does the voltage change or do some other battery/panel damaging current? What are the warning signs that it's starting to misbehave? I am interested in buying this kit myself and want to know ahead of time what to expect.

[skinnymc]

With the two that I lost, they just started continuously beeping and the output to the batteries opened. So, right now I am just running about 1/2 power output on my panels with my two remaining controllers. I have a new 16A ASC controller coming this week that I got off Ebay for $40 with shipping. That will be enough for the panels that I currently have. I plan to pick of four more panel kits soon and I will order another 16A controller at that time.

I can't wait for the new controller. I have been running my generator for a couple hours everyday since I am not at full capacity with my panels right now.

Alex

[speedfunk]

Like others have mentioned everyone seems to agree the charge controllers are junk. I like the panels ... becuase of the cloud cover and lack of time I've been unable to test to the degree I'd like too... Here's some pics I've taken of the harbor frieght solar panels if anybody else reading this thread is looking into them. I paid 200 bucks for the setup

http://oursideofthemountain.com/projects/solarpanels.html

[SolarGary]

Hi,

I am thinking about buying this Harbor Freight kit, and using one of the three panels to directly power a small (8 watt) 12 VDC pump.
Does anyone know if this would work? Are the panels nominally 12 volt panels??

This is the pump:
http://www.jab-tech.com/Dangerden-Mag-II-LE-pr-3487.html

Thanks,

Gary