Solar Panels Compatible With NusGear Portable Solar Generators/Power Stations
Today I am going to help you find solar panels that are compatible with NusGear portable power stations. There are two models on the market that I will be focusing on: the No products found. and 167Wh.
Using solar panels to charge up your NusGear battery means that you can be outdoors and use your electronics as you would be at home. Since these solar generators also have AC outlets, you can use larger devices like laptops as well.
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Now, let’s take a look at the two NusGear power stations and what they can handle. Then I will answer the most common questions when it comes to charging a portable battery like this with solar panels. Questions like, how long will it take, and what can you do to improve the charging efficiency further?
Note: Scroll left/right on small screens to see the whole table.
Solar Panel Recommendations For NusGear Portable Power Stations
Here are some solar panels I recommend for both of the NusGear batteries.
Kingsolar 40W Portable Solar Panel – The Kingsolar panel is compatible with the NusGear power stations out of the box. It’s not only compatible with DC ports, but it has a USB port as well so you can charge several devices at once. It folds and becomes a very portable solar panel. It even has a little pocket so you can store your DC adapters and phone charger cable.
Renogy 50W Eclipse Monocrystalline Portable Solar Panel – Renogy is a very popular solar panel brand, and for good reasons. They make durable, high-quality panels. A lot of them are portable, and this is one of them. The 50W eclipse panel with a built-in kickstand is a perfect solar panel for the NusGear power stations. You will need a No products found. to connect it to your battery, but when you do, it will be maxing out those input watts and charge the NusGear fast.
No products found. – A very portable solar panel from a company called Giaride. It folds and can be stored in a backpack with ease. Note that this is a 21W solar panel and will probably output between 7-10 watts at best. So it will take a long time to recharge the NusGear battery, but if you can leave it out all day and only need to recharge your devices at night, it will be enough as long as it’s sunny outside.
Connect Any Solar Panel To NusGear Solar Generators
If you already have a solar panel with MC4 connectors that you would like to connect to your battery, you’re going to need an No products found..
You just need to make sure the solar panel you want to use outputs between 18-23V and has a positive MC4 male connector/negative MC4 female connector coming out of it.
How Long Will It Take To Charge The NusGear Power Station With Solar Panels?
This depends on a couple of factors. The first one is which solar panel you’re using, then what time of the day it is during what day in the year, and if it’s sunny.
A 40W solar panel doesn’t generate exactly 40W since it’s not 100% efficient. You should expect between 20-30W on a sunny day. So with that number, we can calculate how many hours it’s going to take to charge the battery from empty to full.
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Starting with the NusGear 155Wh, it has a 155 watt-hour battery capacity. So if we take 155 and divide it with 30, we get 5.17 hours. This tells us that we should expect the NusGear 155Wh to be full in less than six hours of good sun.
The NusGear 167Wh has a 167 watt-hours battery. If we do the same calculation as above: 167/30=5.57 hours. So this would also be charged in less than six hours.
I would expect both to take a full day of sun to charge from 0 to 100%, since the early and late hours of the day won’t generate at much as between 12-3pm.
How Can I Improve The Charging Efficiency Of My Solar Panel?
The most important thing you can do is to angle/tilt the panel to face the sun. This means that you’re going to have to change its position throughout the day, but it’s worth it because it will increase the charging efficiency.
If you’re going to leave the panel all day, set it to where it will be angled towards the sun at noon so you can take advantage of the sun when it’s the strongest.
Another thing that is important is to make sure the panel isn’t shaded, not even a little bit. A 5% shadow on the solar panel can decrease the efficiency by ten times that, depending on the panel. So no matter where you put it, make sure it’s not shaded.
Can I Connect Several Solar Panels?
If you connect the panels in parallel and stay within the max wattage rating, you can connect two or more panels to the same solar generator if they have MC4 connectors.
The adapter you’ll need to combine panels is a Signstek Y Branch MC4 parallel connector. The way it works is that you take the positive wire from both panels (if you’re combining two) and attach them to one of the adapters. Then you take the negative wires from the two panels and attach them.
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These adapters should not be connected to each other in any way. One is responsible for the positive current, and one is responsible for the negative.
In a parallel connection, the positive wires do not connect to the negative wires, so remember that when you’re making the connection. If you do it right with compatible panels, there should only be one way to do it, so it’s hard to do it wrong.
Let me know down below if you have any questions.