I bought a pair of cheap 15 Watt amorphous solar panels, from Northern Tool, to power a couple of LED feeder lights. Two 3-watt led lights, 18 amp/hrs of battery, and a charge regulator gave me a great setup...the first year. Less than 2 years later, the lights were going out within a couple of hours of sunset. I replaced the batteries back in February, thinking the originals had cooked in the metal box. Well, to my surprise, new batteries did not help, so I took my DVM with me this last weekend. When installed less than 2 years ago, I measured panel output at slightly over 0.8 amps from each, under strong sunlight. Saturday, shortly after noon, I measured 0.19 amps from one panel and 0.22 amps from the other. So much for the lifespan of amorphous being "almost as good" as crystalline. The panels had a 5 year warranty, but Northern says no-go without the original sales receipt...

"Cheap" turned out to be pretty expensive.

Just order a 40 watt, name brand, aluminum framed, crystalline panel.

Buy cheap chinese shit, get cheap chinese quality.

I pay with everything with the same cc, but they "could not locate the transaction"... which takes us back to lesson #2.

The 40 watt crystalline panel I order will end up being cheaper than the two 15watt panels I bought two years ago.



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I agree, that's why I am pissed. Decrease in power output is typical with age, but over a period of 15 or 20 years you expect them to still have 60% - 75% of their original capacity. These Northern Tool panels seem to have failed, not aged, and the failure mode appears to have been identical in the two panels.

I buy a lot of crap there. Honestly, this the first thing I have had a problem with, that they did not stand behind.

Solar panels do degrade, just should not that rapidly. On quality panels, they have the estimated range of degradation over a determined lifespan of the panel.
Solar Degredation

wrong thread