Solar Camper Solutions Panels now with Black Anodised frames

ThomasHJ said:
Ours is parked on our drive under multiple trees so it gets green quickly. The pressure washer perfectly cleans all of it easily. I don't think the roof's material is in danger. However, the paint of the
rest of the van is a different story. Don't set your pressure washer to high. I know I have made 'spots' when I set it to high, where I've chipped the paint.
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Thanks ThomasHJ!
 
sdes said:
The industry standard for most solar panels' lifespans is 25 to 30 years. Most reputable manufacturers offer production warranties for 25 years or more, that is for those mounted on domestic roofs, clearly on a camper, they are likely to have a slightly harder life, but nonetheless, 15 years should be a minimum.
Some panels from 1982 are still going strong: "In the Swiss canton of Ticino, one of the longest-serving photovoltaic plants in Europe is in operation. The plant with 288 modules on an area of almost 500 square metres has been generating electricity since 1982. It is still running today."
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You are talking about thick, heavy glass fronted panels in rigid frames. I sell flexible thin plastic panels. They are a world apart in terms of construction, and industry provided warranties.

With glass 20v panels (which you are referring to, and nobody wants to mount on their van roof as it takes them over 2m height, plus adds 7kg a panel vs 1kg) you tend to get a 5 year warranty maximim (That's Victron rigid 20v panels - some of the best in the industry). Renology rigid panels have a 3-5 year warranties. Their larger thin (plastic) panels have 5 year workmanship warranties. More on Renology later. Most of the industry don't give more than 1 - 3 years on thin plastic panels. They are bendy, flexible, and they can't know what kind of life they will lead.

The 25-30 year warranty you refer to are Performance Warranties. These are not to be mistaken with Workmanship Warranties - the actual warranty period where you have redress with the manufacturer or supplier. Performance warranties are where they tell you you'll get 80% of rated output at 25 years. These do not override or extend the actualy warranty, the workmanship warranty. What they are is a way of saying how your panel should perform during it's workmanship warranty period (the 3-5 years), pro-rata (as a % of, over time). They are a way of manufacturers to try and show how good their products are with (hard to prove) performance over time statistics. They are a marketing tool, and NOT a real extended warranty. If you go back in year 6 and say your panel doesn't work, it is out of warranty and the panel manufacturer isn't going to give you another panel due to the 25 year performance guarantee. However, if you back within the Workmanship Warranty period and can prove that the panel has degraded in performance faster than they claim it would, then they have to help you.

Domestic (house) solar panels attract even longer warranties as a) they are larger and a higher voltage b) are mounted in a location that will never move - so the best environment possible for a long life c) are sold for a much higher price. It's not unusual for 10-15 year workmanship warranties on these, which when you are spending over £10,000 is not surprising really.

Back to slimline plastic panels, the panels I have made for my company are the best I've found so far after trying various differing factories and construction types. They are completely encased on one type of plastic, EFTE and are as robust as I've found to date. I've gone 3 years now without a single failure of these panels. For a while, I gave a 2 year warranty even though I was only getting 1 from the factory, due to my confidence in the product, plus what seems reasonable. Now I get a 3 year warranty from the same factory and I pass that on. I could not be happier with these panels.

I did look at renology a couple of years ago, purely due to the 5 year warranty on their thin panels. However their response to queries was glacial and unprofessional, and when I looked into reviews of the company I found the most common complaint, by far, was people getting no response when trying to claim on the warranty. This is vital for me. A long warranty means little if you can't utilise it, and if I went down the Renology route, I'd be the one picking up the cost, not Renology. It all felt wrong, and I'm keen to sell the best I can get to my customers - its in my interest to keep everyone happy, and my waranty support time to a minimum.

Someone asked how long should they last? I have 1000's of panels out there, many over 10 years old now and still going strong. Of course, things do go wrong some times, and if a panel fails not far oputside its warranty period I'm very acommodating and will replace panels at a near cost (to me) price to keep my customers happy. As that date moves further away, I increase the replacment price gradually, but it's always far far cheaper than retail.
 
colintfcolintf said:
how long should these panels last? I'm just starting my research into Cali Solar, hence the question :)
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Just fitted a two panel kit a couple of weeks ago from Roger. Excellent kit, easy to fit and very robust.
Couldn’t see anything that was any better elsewhere that has the company With such close links to the VW community.
 
colintfcolintf said:
how long should these panels last? I'm just starting my research into Cali Solar, hence the question :)
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About two years if you buy from Roger/Solar Camper Solutions. Somewhat longer if you buy from somewhere else. That’s my experience anyway!
 
orbital said:
About two years if you buy from Roger/Solar Camper Solutions. Somewhat longer if you buy from somewhere else. That’s my experience anyway!
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My experience is 4 years to date for my panels from Roger, still going strong.
 
orbital said:
About two years if you buy from Roger/Solar Camper Solutions. Somewhat longer if you buy from somewhere else. That’s my experience anyway!
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Do I understand this correctly, i.e. you are not pleased with the panels from Roger ? I ask because you are the only one that I've read until now that is not pleased with the performance of his panels ?
 
Gliderbee California 6.1 said:
Do I understand this correctly, i.e. you are not pleased with the panels from Roger ? I ask because you are the only one that I've read until now that is not pleased with the performance of his panels ?
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I’m not happy at all because I’ve had two failed panels from him. The first lasted about 18-20 months. This panel and all ancillary electrics were fitted by him. After a lot of chasing, he agreed to replace the panel ‘at cost’ (about £60 if I recall correctly) even though it was within the two-year guarantee period. I expected him to honour the guarantee in full but it wasn’t to be. This second panel has now died, again after about 20 months. The problem is the panels supplied by SCS appear to be unbranded Chinese ones. You may get a good one - or maybe not. You also can’t contact him via phone (my emails went unanswered). I’m an investigative journalist so I got his mobile number easily enough from details I tracked down via Companies House. I’m now about to buy a panel from Renogy and simply wire it into the original charger. I‘m also considering a free standing panel from a reputable manufacture. If I was to start from scratch, I’d go somewhere else or do it myself.
 
sdes said:
But the bin bag I had to put my solar panel I bought from him after only three years was black! I now have the original's rails with a new solar panel (a 175Watt one from Renogy) that’s lasted three years plus….
To be fair, he’s changed the type of panels he sells, so hopefully the current ones last longer, modern panels should have a 20yr lifespan or more.
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I‘ve had similar problems with Roger’s panels (two have now failed). Did the Renogy panel fit into the frame supplied with the SCS panel? I’m looking for a panel that can, ideally, be glued on top of the one supplied by Roger and then connected to the curly/telephone style cable fitted by Roger to the charger.
 
orbital said:
I’m not happy at all because I’ve had two failed panels from him. The first lasted about 18-20 months. This panel and all ancillary electrics were fitted by him. After a lot of chasing, he agreed to replace the panel ‘at cost’ (about £60 if I recall correctly) even though it was within the two-year guarantee period. I expected him to honour the guarantee in full but it wasn’t to be. This second panel has now died, again after about 20 months. The problem is the panels supplied by SCS appear to be unbranded Chinese ones. You may get a good one - or maybe not. You also can’t contact him via phone (my emails went unanswered). I’m an investigative journalist so I got his mobile number easily enough from details I tracked down via Companies House. I’m now about to buy a panel from Renogy and simply wire it into the original charger. I‘m also considering a free standing panel from a reputable manufacture. If I was to start from scratch, I’d go somewhere else or do it myself.
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Hi Danny, I thought this was you, but remained silent until you confirmed it as I did not want to get it wrong.

You purchased a solar panel kit off me in March 2020 with a 1 (one) year warranty, as all my kits had back then. I also gave you 10% off the whole order for a promised publicity campaign on your twitter and facebook feeds ( which never happened as far as I'm aware).

In March 2022 you tracked down my personal mobile number through another business I ran, and called me whilst I was having breakfast. I had received ZERO emails from you since the installation. There was no "ignoring" of emails.

I asked you how you found my personal phone number and you laughed along the lines of "its not hard! I'm an investigative journalist". So you know what, I told you to email me and hung up on you. I finished my breakfast.

I then got an email, copied to my personal email and texted to my phone telling me about your (saldly) failed panel, I would note, ending with "I hope this can be resolved amicably".

I informed you that your warranty was one year, and this was the best part of 2 years in, BUT, my supplier in the UK would replace the panel under an extended warranty (to me, not you) for you free. I also pointed out that purposefully getting around my phone privacy, and opening the email conversaion in an agressive tone was not the way to start a conversation on the right footing.

I charged you a handling fee of £39 and shipping of £18.50. The handling fee I don't normally charge people, but I charged you. Take from that what you will.

As a final chapter to the saga, I sent the replacement panel to you missing the foam backing. I must have been distracted. Wasn't the most enjoyable job I've done TBH. Upon receipt you demanded I have the whole panel collected and replaced. I sent you the foam tape you needed in the post and that was the last I've head from you, until this post.

For anyone interested in the current situation, the panels I have made for me now, and for the last 3 years, have not had a single failure. Not one, and I give a warranty of 3 years which is beyoned what I receive from my manufacturer when you take into account stock holding over winter. The panels I used to use were not "Unbranded Chinese" panels, they were Photonic Universe ARFLX panels which were the best I could buy at the time.

I would also add that I go out of my way to help all of my customers with any issues, as best and as reasonable as I can.
 
@Roger Donoghue What Amps should I be getting from one of your 4 year old panels? I never seem to get above 3.3a even when aligned as perfectly as possible (I thought it should be around 6a but it is old obviously).

Is that normal or is there something amiss?

(Also due to having your panel and kit installed since I've owned the van I've never hooked up to EHU - and only last week tried it just to see how it works - the Solar has been a brilliant addition).
 
Mr B said:
@Roger Donoghue What Amps should I be getting from one of your 4 year old panels? I never seem to get above 3.3a even when aligned as perfectly as possible (I thought it should be around 6a but it is old obviously).

Is that normal or is there something amiss?

(Also due to having your panel and kit installed since I've owned the van I've never hooked up to EHU - and only last week tried it just to see how it works - the Solar has been a brilliant addition).
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It will very much depend on what the van "needs" aswell as the panel condition, and the time of year. It should still give you good power after 4 years. If your battery is close to full it'll drop down the charging rate regardless of the sun. This time of year you'll see far lower amps than in summer, even on a sunny day, as the sun is much lower in the sky.

In the summer, with the correct demand (1st thing in the morning after a night of fridge running) I'd expect to see over 5.5amps with the roof raised. New, they peak over 6amps - but bear in mind, if you have an Epever charger - it doesn't show the MPPT "uplift" like the Victrons do - you see the panel amps on the Epever Duos, not the battery charging amps - and the difference can be significant.

When I do installs in the summer I see these kind of numbers when I plug in the MPPT, but, they quickly drop as the battery reaches near-full (as they've driven to me the batteries are usually already close to full).
 
Roger Donoghue said:
It will very much depend on what the van "needs" aswell as the panel condition, and the time of year. It should still give you good power after 4 years. If your battery is close to full it'll drop down the charging rate regardless of the sun. This time of year you'll see far lower amps than in summer, even on a sunny day, as the sun is much lower in the sky.

In the summer, with the correct demand (1st thing in the morning after a night of fridge running) I'd expect to see over 5.5amps with the roof raised. New, they peak over 6amps - but bear in mind, if you have an Epever charger - it doesn't show the MPPT "uplift" like the Victrons do - you see the panel amps on the Epever Duos, not the battery charging amps - and the difference can be significant.

When I do installs in the summer I see these kind of numbers when I plug in the MPPT, but, they quickly drop as the battery reaches near-full (as they've driven to me the batteries are usually already close to full).
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Yeah - I have Epever Duo MPPT so maybe that's part of the issue.

Also my batteries have never run out, even wild camping for days so - it is obviously doing what it needs to :)
 
You might well notice, when you are seeing 3.5amps, that your starter is also being charged - so there is actually 4.5amps going in, just you see the 3.5amps going into your leisure batteries - unless you select the solar panel info, in which case you see the total, but, that total is "pre MPPT" - so if it shows, say 4amps from the panel, if you then go and check the battery info for both Main and Start, the total amps will exceed the 4amps you saw at the panel side.
 
Roger Donoghue said:
Very neat ! - I might adopt those cable clip sticky pads - are the strong in terms of adhisive?
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Hi Roger,

Some yes and some no XD
From the same batch, ones stick very well but others don't. Maybe it is me.
Now I believe that we have to stick them and leave them for a while before putting the cable.
Maybe you can find a good brand.

They look very neat though.

Thanks again for the selling the kit. It is great.

Cheers,

Manoel
 
{_TaKuMiKiTe_} said:
Hi Roger,

Some yes and some no XD
From the same batch, ones stick very well but others don't. Maybe it is me.
Now I believe that we have to stick them and leave them for a while before putting the cable.
Maybe you can find a good brand.

They look very neat though.

Thanks again for the selling the kit. It is great.

Cheers,

Manoel
Click to expand...
you should prepare the surface with Isopropanol alcohol before applying the sticky pad, any hint of grease buggers up the stickiness of the pad
 
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