mjlorton Reviews Aukey 20 Watt Portable Solar Charger
Thanks sidecross. Its an interesting review. :+1:
Nice!!!
Subbed
What a jealous making “mancave” ypu got there
Good voice and clear explaining, no wonder you got so much subscribers, gonna watch more of your vidjeos!
Thanks.
sidecross you are mjlorton?
No, I just appreciate learning. 
Another Review
Review & Test: Lensun 100W Semi-Flexible Solar Panel
I don’t know. Until solar chargers get a lot better I’d be hesitant. I do like Aukey though. The Anker 21W seems alright too.
The trick with solar panels is to use them to charge a battery pack then use the power gained to charge your devices.
Yup. Seems like a mugs game to do it any other way.
Most solar panels will put out only half the stated output. And because of the current state of design of how the solar panels are connected in series, shade over a portion of the solar panel will reduce the current of that part of the whole solar panel.
According to whom? Any decent solar panel is rated at 25C with a 1000W/m² irradiation level and they will hit the rating in real use under equivalent conditions.
I think he means USB Solar Chargers in particular.
I have tested a 20W solar charger by BlitzWolf, and am currently testing a 24W solar charger from RAVPower.
And my experience is that about 60% of the stated Watt’s is the (max) output you’ll be getting…
The 20W panel outputs 3A max, so that’s 15W. I measured a total combined output of 2,45A, that’s 12,25W.
The 24W panel I’m still testing, but I think a total combined output of about 3A is attainable, but not much more.
Oh, well that’s a different thing all together. They probably have them wired up to make about 8V open circuit and then use a linear regulator to make 5V or something equally inefficient, like a low efficiency DC/DC converter and a mismatch from the peak power point on the solar panel to the voltage the DC/DC will drag it down to.
You could probably be right. I’m not that well-versed in this stuff, I just play around with fancy meters and write about it 
It’s been a fun summer of effectively getting free power from the sun, all with stuff I got sent to review; solarpanels, cables and powerbanks…
If you clicked on the links I provided you have at least one persons results of testing.
Believe what you want.
The panel itself would probably produce the rated power but at the USB output end is a different story… I have one of the early “20W” USB solar panels and I’m lucky if I get 5W. This is somewhat misleading to the consumer but so are the ratings in the powerbanks.
I am not sure that the panels would receive the ‘stated wattage’ in real world situations.
The way current is supplied even shade over 20% of a panel would reduce current to all of that particular panel because of how the current is passed on in series.
We need more testing from outside of the people selling these products.
“…Shading obstructions can be from “soft” or “hard” sources. If a tree branch, roof vent, chimney or other item is shading from a distance, the shadow is diffuse or dispersed. These soft sources significantly reduce the amount of light reaching a solar panel’s cells. Hard sources are defined as those that stop light from reaching solar cells, such as a blanket, tree branch, bird dropping sitting directly on top of the glass. If even one full cell is hard shaded, the voltage of that module will drop to half of its un-shaded value in order to protect itself. If enough cells are hard shaded, the module will not convert any energy and will, in fact, become a tiny drain of energy on the entire system.
Partial shading of even one cell on a 36-cell solar panel, will reduce its power output. Because all cells are connected in a series string, the weakest cell will bring the others down to its reduced power level. Therefore, whether 1/2 of one cell is shaded, or 1/2 a row of cells is shaded, (as shown above), the power decrease will be the same and proportional to the percentage of area shaded, in this case 50%.
When a full cell is shaded, it can consume energy produced by the remainder of the cells, and trigger the solar panel to protect itself. The solar panel will route the power around that series string. If even one full cell in a series string is shaded, as seen on the right, it will likely cause the module to reduce its power level to 1/2 of its full available value. If a row of cells at the bottom of a solar panel is fully shaded, as seen in Figure 7, the power output may drop to zero. The best way to avoid a drop in output power is to avoid shading whenever possible.”
It’s not a matter of believing what I want. It’s a matter of facts. The solar panels are rated according to a well established testing standard. Further, one of the review links you posted that I clicked on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVInRQJMtzU showed the panel made it’s rated power. You’re really talking about the total power output through the USB ports, not the solar panel’s output into the USB power circuitry. They’re not the same thing. It’s not that the solar panels are overrated, it’s that the USB power circuitry connected to them is crap. As you’ve shown, laundering solar energy through USB charging ports is not an efficient use of the solar energy.
Is it misleading to call a 20W solar array connected to a USB charging circuit that can only deliver ~10W from the USB output a 20W solar charger? Probably, but it’s no different than power banks being labeled based on the mAh capacity of the cells in them, not the the mAh they can output at 5V (which would account for the voltage difference and the efficiency of the output circuitry).