I Bought Amazon's CHEAPEST 200w Solar Panel — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey everybody, I bought the cheapest 200
2. 0:02W solar panel on Amazon, so let's test
3. 0:05it out and see if it's worth the price.
4. 0:07Now this is Dokio's 200 W 12 V
5. 0:09monocrystalline solar panel. It uses
6. 0:12quarter cut cells with 12 bus bars, and
7. 0:15I purchased this solar panel right under
8. 0:17$100. I flipped the panel around and you
9. 0:20can see that it is not a bifacial solar
10. 0:22panel, but the junction boxes are here
11. 0:24in the middle. Usually what that means
12. 0:26is that the top portion operates
13. 0:28independently from the bottom portion,
14. 0:30so you have a 100 W panel up here and a
15. 0:32100 W panel here that are combined
16. 0:34together in the middle for 200 W.
17. 0:36Now one of my favorite things to do on
18. 0:37the channel is to take two products and
19. 0:39compare them side by side to see which
20. 0:41one has the best performance. But it's
21. 0:42not always about the most wattage
22. 0:45output. For example, the Dokio 200 W
23. 0:47panel comes in at $99 and the Colsun 200
24. 0:50W bifacial panel comes in at $150.
25. 0:54So is that $50 increase worth it or is
26. 0:56it better to go with the more affordable
27. 0:58solar panel? I have a super interesting
28. 1:00way to test this out. So I just finished
29. 1:02setting up both of these solar panels
30. 1:04and got the kickstands installed. You
31. 1:06can see they are mounted the exact same
32. 1:08angle. Let me quickly walk through the
33. 1:10testing setup that I'm going to be
34. 1:11putting these through for the next week.
35. 1:13So if we swing around to the back of
36. 1:15each of the solar panels, I'm going from
37. 1:17MC4 to Anderson PowerPole and using this
38. 1:2012 gauge wire. Each of the wires are the
39. 1:23same length and then they go over into
40. 1:24the shed. So here in the shed we have
41. 1:26both of the solar wires coming in and
42. 1:28then they are connected to individual
43. 1:30charge controllers. These are the
44. 1:32Victron 75 15s and then those charge
45. 1:35controllers are connected up to these
46. 1:36bus bars, which then go to this battery
47. 1:38here. Now the reason I chose these
48. 1:40Victron smart controllers is because you
49. 1:42can access the live data in the app
50. 1:43anytime you want. For example, the
51. 1:46Colsun solar panel connected up to this
52. 1:47one here is producing 202 W
53. 1:50and the Dokio 200 W panel connected up
54. 1:52to this one here is producing about 162
55. 1:55W.
56. 1:56Now my favorite feature of these charge
57. 1:58controllers is the ability to log the
58. 2:00data so we can actually do this test
59. 2:02side by side for each of the solar
60. 2:04panels and check back a week later and
61. 2:06compare the data to see how each one
62. 2:08did. Now I mentioned both the charge
63. 2:10controllers are connected up to this
64. 2:11battery here. This is the Epoch 460 amp
65. 2:14hour lithium iron phosphate battery. It
66. 2:15does have heaters and I am expecting
67. 2:18quite the mixed conditions for weather
68. 2:20moving forward. So as the temperature
69. 2:21drops below freezing, the battery will
70. 2:24enable the heaters and continue to
71. 2:25charge. We are sitting at 83% state of
72. 2:28charge with about 26 amps going into the
73. 2:30battery. Now in order to make sure these
74. 2:32solar panels produce the most power
75. 2:34possible, I will be keeping this battery
76. 2:36from hitting 100% state of charge. Each
77. 2:39night I'm going to come in here and
78. 2:40connect up an inverter and heater and
79. 2:42I'll discharge the battery back down so
80. 2:44it can be charged the next day. Now I'm
81. 2:46actually pretty excited about this test
82. 2:48because we'll get to put these solar
83. 2:49panels through different weather
84. 2:51conditions. I was looking at the
85. 2:52forecast and we have some snow, some
86. 2:55rain, some clouds, and of course sunny
87. 2:57days. So it'll be interesting to see the
88. 2:59power difference between these two solar
89. 3:01panels in different weather conditions.
90. 3:03And of course at the end of the test,
91. 3:05we'll be able to see how each one
92. 3:06compared side by side. So let's go ahead
93. 3:08and start the testing. We'll see you
94. 3:10guys in a week. Now on our first day of
95. 3:12testing, we actually had a bit of clouds
96. 3:14and overcast weather.
97. 3:15And then that actually transitioned into
98. 3:17a small snow storm which covered up the
99. 3:19panels completely. Now I cleaned off the
100. 3:21solar panels and the next day we were
101. 3:23able to get some decent sun. We had a
102. 3:25few wispy clouds in the sky and then
103. 3:27that actually transitioned to a few
104. 3:29really solid days of solar production
105. 3:31because we didn't have many clouds. Now
106. 3:33let's go ahead and break down the data
107. 3:34for each of the solar panels. I
108. 3:36basically screenshotted the Victron app
109. 3:38and that's what you see on the screen
110. 3:39here, the Dokio on the left and the
111. 3:41Colsun on the right. Now if you look at
112. 3:43the bottom, we have a total production
113. 3:45for the 7 days. For example, the Dokio
114. 3:47produced 3.78
115. 3:50kilowatt hours and the Colsun produced
116. 3:524.796
117. 3:54kilowatt hours, and I have the average
118. 3:57watt hours per day there. So, the Dokio
119. 3:59is 540, and the Colsun was 685. Looking
120. 4:03at these numbers, you can see the Colsun
121. 4:04did produce quite a bit more power,
122. 4:06especially if you look at the P max
123. 4:08wattage on each of the graphs here. You
124. 4:10can see the Colsun averaged over 200
125. 4:13watts peak on each of those days, except
126. 4:15for the winter day. And then, the Dokio
127. 4:18solar panel kind of averaged around 170
128. 4:21to 180 watts per day. Now, when
129. 4:24comparing these solar panels side by
130. 4:25side, I think there are two different
131. 4:27ways that we can compare them. Let's say
132. 4:29we had a budget of $300. You could
133. 4:32actually purchase three Dokio 200-watt
134. 4:34panels versus two Colsun 200-watt panels
135. 4:37for that price, which means you can get
136. 4:39more energy for the price.
137. 4:41For example, the Dokio would give you
138. 4:43about 1.62 kilowatt hours per day using
139. 4:46the averages we got through my testing,
140. 4:48and then the Colsun 200-watt panels
141. 4:50would only give you 1.37 kilowatt hours
142. 4:52per day. So, on a limited budget, you
143. 4:55can actually get more energy going to
144. 4:57the Dokio solar panels. Now, moving on
145. 4:59to the next scenario, what if budget
146. 5:01wasn't the limiting factor, but you had
147. 5:03a very small space and you wanted to get
148. 5:05peak production? So, let's say we had an
149. 5:07RV roof where we could only fit four
150. 5:10200-watt panels.
151. 5:12If we chose the Dokio 200-watt panels,
152. 5:14four of them would give us a total
153. 5:16energy of 2.16 kilowatt hours per day.
154. 5:20Choosing four of the Colsun 200-watt
155. 5:22panels, we get a boost in total energy
156. 5:24at 2.74 kilowatt hours per day. So,
157. 5:27going with the Colsun solar panels gives
158. 5:29you more energy for that limited space.
159. 5:32So, what's the bottom line? Which panel
160. 5:34should you choose?
161. 5:35If your goal is the best bang for your
162. 5:37buck energy, the Dokio 200-watt panel at
163. 5:40$99 wins with about 20% better watt hour
164. 5:43value per dollar. It's 50% less
165. 5:46expensive, allowing you to buy more
166. 5:48panels for the same price.
167. 5:50Now, if you're looking for the most
168. 5:51output and your space is limited, the
169. 5:54Colsen 200 W panel gives you 27% more
170. 5:57daily energy over the cheaper panel.
171. 6:00Now, in this video, we only compared the
172. 6:02performance and the price of the solar
173. 6:05panel. Obviously, the Dokio solar panel
174. 6:07is less money, and the Colsen 200 W
175. 6:10panel puts out more power, but there's
176. 6:12probably a bunch of different ways to
177. 6:13compare these. For example, if we look
178. 6:15at the voltage output, the Dokio solar
179. 6:17panel doesn't have nearly as high
180. 6:19voltage as the Colsen solar panel, but
181. 6:22the voltage is a little too high to put
182. 6:23three of them in together in series for
183. 6:26a 60-V charge controller. So, if you
184. 6:27happen to have a 60-V charge controller,
185. 6:30I think the Colsen solar panels are
186. 6:31going to be better for you. Now, you
187. 6:33guys want to let me know what you think
188. 6:35about comparing these two solar panels.
189. 6:36Obviously, there are some advantages to
190. 6:39buying the cheapest 200 W solar panel on
191. 6:41Amazon because you can get a lot more
192. 6:44energy for a less price, but if you have
193. 6:46limited space, it's probably not the
194. 6:48best idea. Let me know what you guys
195. 6:49think. Make sure you post a comment down
196. 6:51below. I will include the links to both
197. 6:53of these solar panels, and I'll
198. 6:54recommend a couple of videos that you
199. 6:56guys can check out. Thanks for watching
200. 6:58the video. Hope to see you guys in the
201. 6:59next one.