Topsolar 20W 12V Solar Panel kit Battery Charger Maintainer
Topsolar 20W 12V Solar Panel kit Battery Charger Maintainer + 10A PWM Solar Charge Controller + Adjustable Mount Tilt Rack Bracket + Solar Cable for Car RV Marine Boat 12 Volt Battery Off Grid
| Weight: | 2.08 kg |
| Size: | 20W |
| Dimensions: | 80 x 40 x 2.5 cm; 2.08 Kilograms |
| Model: | TOPSPM |
| Part: | T02P20C10BW0.83-1 |
| Colour: | White |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Topsolar |
| Dimensions: | 80 x 40 x 2.5 cm; 2.08 Kilograms |
| Size: | 20W |
Nothing wrong with this nice simple little solar panel but it’s not near powerful enough to support a 120ah leisure battery for your caravan or motor home running a 12v fridge as I found out myself. The description suggests that it will but don’t expect it to.
Good product. Poor instructions. The way to wire up the device is not mentioned in the instructions. You can find information in raised black plastic letters on the black plastic body! You need to get the sun to shine off it at the right angle in order to read it.
It’s a fantastic piece of kit and very readable you can see what’s going o
Works well even on cloudy days keeps my leasure batteries topped up
Fitted to roof of van keeps leisure battery topped up and 2 usb ports
Brought for my boat and installed to the roof, only issue is that there was no brackets to mount the solar panel, but saying that I had fixed in place by siliconing around the sides to the roof and it’s solid. This keeps my leisure battery charged so I have peace of mind knowing my belge pump has always go power.
Brilliant product for the price!
This unit is very well made. I found the Customer Service Department excellant in sorting out a problem I had and got the unit up and running perfectly in days. All components are extreemly well made and the unit was very easy to get up and running with just 4 connections these being from the Solar panel and the battery it was charging.
Bought this a few years ago, I use it in my garage as its not on mains supply. It keeps the main battery topped up for the led lights and 3 bikes on trickle charge.easy to use, fit it and forget about it.
A gift – but no complaints so far from recipient!
I did ask and they said it was working well
It looks a pretty decent bit of kit but due to the weather I am unable to test it properly, I’m rather disappointed that it doesn’t come with a mounting bracket for the solar panel even though there is a picture of one in the instruction manual.
Works like a charm. Have it on the roof of the dumper with the controller under the roof. The cables did break at one stage but we are down by the sea and it is out in the open 365 days a year. Before fitting this we were always jump starting the dumper as we don’t use it that often. Now it starts every time on the button.
It would be 5 stars if it had connectors so you can just plug it in and unplug when you don’t need it. Like this, with just wires to screw in and out every time, especially when you have to follow the instructions, battery first then solar panel than load than opposite when you want to disassemble… Not practical at all, since is not something you will mount and leave it stationary. Otherwise, tried it and its working fine even if its cloudy, gives out 12.6V. One more thing, on PWM it is written MUNE instead of MENU
Previously used a 10w solar panel to try and prevent car battery going flat but still had starting issues due to the battery power being too low.
So decided to upgrade to a more powerful solar panel, this one has a power controller which can be fixed in a permanent position, i haven’t done but its necessary to place it in a position with air to keep it cool ,which is easy and so far no further battery or starting issues, so i’m happy with my purchase and can recommend.
There are two main problems with the descriptions found on other products. First, you have to understand that the voltage coming off a solar panel varies. If you’re using it to charge a battery, you need the voltage to be correct and therefore you NEED a regulating controller. This has one – a very common one – and it works just fine. If you don’t have a controller, don’t use it for charging a battery whatever it says in the advert.
Secondly, the claimed power output of some of the panels breaks a few fundamental laws of physics. This one says it’s 10W, and it is 10W.
I will probably write up the maths in my blog, but basically size matters. A 50W panel would have to be five times the size of this 10W panel, and if it’s not, someone’s telling porkies. There’s no way around this – the efficiency doesn’t vary that much and there’s no magic way to get high current from a small panel.
A 10W panel like this will give you up to an amp to charge a car or leisure battery. That’s a good maintenance charge. And this set is good value.
You’ll find instructions for the controller on the web. As I mentioned, it’s a very common model – safety in numbers. All you really need to do is connect the wires (supplied) to the panel, battery and whatever you’re powering (i.e. six wires) and it gets on with it. There’s a display to show you what’s going on once you’ve figured it out, and various display modes, but you really only want to know whether its charging or not, and that’s the default.
I’ve given the product three stars, because solar panels require some knowledge of electricity to set up. You’ll need screwdriver. It took me five minutes to get it working.
I’ve been running a Raspberry Pi on this since I got it. The only complaint might be that it should have come a third battery cable with spade terminals as that is probably the most common type of battery connection you’d use for this. But that’s trivially remedied.
The solar regulator allows me to check battery status on arrival at boat and the solar panel has kept the battery in tip top condition. USB works perfectly on navionics and phone.
All very easy to fit and appears to be weatherproof after several months. Recommend.