Lightweight solar panels?

T
Sundodger said:
Anyone using any lightweight solar panels to trickle charge their battery banks in the back country?

I see there are some 10ish watt options that are in the 5oz and under range.

Any recommendations, pro tips, pitfalls, etc?


Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lixada-Porta...=ultralight+solar+panel&qid=1747162764&sr=8-3
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The Lixada is very very slow, atleast in my experience. Used it on a sheep hunt that had minimal sun. It was basically useless. Kind of have to jump up to panels in the 10oz range to do any good. YMMV in a place like Arizona.
 
Sundodger said:
Any recommendations, pro tips, pitfalls, etc?
Click to expand...

Pitfalls, or more so limitations folks need to keep in mind with solar is sun angle and intensity. Getting some off angle sunlight on an Xwatt panel isn't going to deliver anywhere close to Xwatts.

My camper flat mounted roof panels in bright summer CO deliver about 60% of there listed capacity (which is in a certain set of lab conditions) and that level of production is in the middle of the day with less at the front and back end of the day.

If the panels are more accurately tilted to the sun that will increase things and that would be improved by moving during the day. So that means you need to have a panel out fully exposed somewhere during the sunny day which may or may not correlate with your camping situation (constantly moving doesn't work well).



TLDR, don't expect to hang a panel off your backpack while you move in the woods and get any meaningful capacity out of it.
 
B_Reynolds_AK said:
T

The Lixada is very very slow, atleast in my experience. Used it on a sheep hunt that had minimal sun. It was basically useless. Kind of have to jump up to panels in the 10oz range to do any good. YMMV in a place like Arizona.
Click to expand...
How slow? I am just looking for trickle charging. I don't have high electrical needs in the back country.
pods8 (Rugged Stitching) said:
Pitfalls, or more so limitations folks need to keep in mind with solar is sun angle and intensity. Getting some off angle sunlight on an Xwatt panel isn't going to deliver anywhere close to Xwatts.

My camper flat mounted roof panels in bright summer CO deliver about 60% of there listed capacity (which is in a certain set of lab conditions) and that level of production is in the middle of the day with less at the front and back end of the day.

If the panels are more accurately tilted to the sun that will increase things and that would be improved by moving during the day. So that means you need to have a panel out fully exposed somewhere during the sunny day which may or may not correlate with your camping situation (constantly moving doesn't work well).



TLDR, don't expect to hang a panel off your backpack while you move in the woods and get any meaningful capacity out of it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I wasn't expecting to hang it off my backpack. My thought was to set it up at camp, and charge my battery bank all day while I am out hunting with my phone, at night I can top off my phone from the battery bank.

My home cell phone wall charger is 5 watts, and it can charge my phone is a couple hours. So I figure even if the thing is only putting out 1 or 2 watts for part of the day that should be enough to keep me topped off.
 
BuckRut said:
If you only have limited electrical needs just take enough battery banks.
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Yeah, that's what I currently do, just looking to cut some weight.

Replacing a battery bank with a 3oz panel sounds pretty nice.

Also, had some battery failures, so this could help hedge against that.
 
Sundodger said:
How slow? I am just looking for trickle charging. I don't have high electrical needs in the back country.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting to hang it off my backpack. My thought was to set it up at camp, and charge my battery bank all day while I am out hunting with my phone, at night I can top off my phone from the battery bank.

My home cell phone wall charger is 5 watts, and it can charge my phone is a couple hours. So I figure even if the thing is only putting out 1 or 2 watts for part of the day that should be enough to keep me topped off.
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Read the reviews on a given panel, often someone will have done some measurements of actual power produced off a given panel if its been around long enough to have gathered some sales. That'll help you calibrate your expectations on reality vs listed wattage.
 
pods8 (Rugged Stitching) said:
Read the reviews on a given panel, often someone will have done some measurements of actual power produced off a given panel if its been around long enough to have gathered some sales. That'll help you calibrate your expectations on reality vs listed wattage.
Click to expand...
Call me lazy, but I was kind of hoping I wasn't the first person in the lightweight forum to go down this rabbit hole. :)
 
I use on occasion a RavPower (not made anymore) 16W double panel folding that works well. I previously used a Goal Zero panel at 10W and it wasn't enough. I used the solar more when I had a smaller power bank but now that there are more options for larger power banks the need isn't there as much for the solar. For 7-10 days I can carry a power bank that does what I need (phone & inReach) for a week instead of the solar charging a smaller bank daily.
 
Beendare said:
I tried the Goal Zero and it was a total fail....the Anker battery packs are a lightweight solid solution.
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When I had Goal Zero, any time there was a cloud mine would stop charging. I would have to remove and re-connect the cable (panel to battery pack) for it to start charging up again. This was in the AZ desert so that put the kibosh on plants to use it anywhere else.

Be mindful of power usage and bring an extra battery pack.
 
I had my eye on the dark energy one and also this one on amazon. Any reviews for either?

I plan on making longer trips on an upcoming sheep hunt vs typical elk hunt, somewhere between 7-10 days at a time. Can't decide between trying a solar panel or overpacking battery banks?
My phone sometimes needs a midday topoff and if I'm alone and running inreach on tracking it needs a charge by the end of second day. I'd like to think a 20k mah battery bank would be enough, but not for sure?
Somebody had a really good battery bank comparison here on the forum a while back.
 
I have yet to hear a single hunter I respect that liked the Solar panels for backpack hunting....and found out myself; Slow, clunky, waste of time really.

I can easily get 10 days with 2- 10,000k Anker battery packs. Yeah, I like 2 vs one as I have one with me...and the other back at camp.

Now I do have 4 big panels and a 100AH battery on my trailer that powers the whole trailer-I never run out of electricity but those are appx 100sqft of panels that put out a lot.
 
Beendare said:
I have yet to hear a single hunter I respect that liked the Solar panels for backpack hunting....and found out myself; Slow, clunky, waste of time really.

I can easily get 10 days with 2- 10,000k Anker battery packs. Yeah, I like 2 vs one as I have one with me...and the other back at camp.

Now I do have 4 big panels and a 100AH battery on my trailer that powers the whole trailer-I never run out of electricity but those are appx 100sqft of panels that put out a lot.
Click to expand...
That seems to be the general consensus. I think I'm going forget about the panel and just do either two- 10k, 1 - 20k or bring the 20k and a 10k.

Has anyone run out of juice on a 8-10 day hunt with 20k of battery bank?
 
CMF said:
Has anyone run out of juice on a 8-10 day hunt with 20k of battery bank?
Click to expand...
I’ve only carried 2 10K’s and no I haven’t run out of power with them. I pretty much get by with just 1. Phone is in airplane mode and inReach is off for lots of the time. It gets turned on when tracking a route or I want to send or check for messages. My lighting makes it for well over a week so no need to charge those. I carry a spare battery for the Petzl because it weighs near nothing and I want an instant swap if it goes.
 
Sundodger said:
Anyone using any lightweight solar panels to trickle charge their battery banks in the back country?

I see there are some 10ish watt options that are in the 5oz and under range.

Any recommendations, pro tips, pitfalls, etc?


Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lixada-Porta...=ultralight+solar+panel&qid=1747162764&sr=8-3
Click to expand...
A solar panel is never going to compete with a lithium ion battery. Even the best panels are shockingly inefficient and almost useless outside of direct full sun covering the entire surface of the panel at the correct angle.
 
I have a Suntactics from like 15 years ago that’s as fast as a wall charger in full sun. As near as I can tell they don’t make them anymore. But I’ve had decent luck with a GoalZero Nomad 5. Call me crazy but I like having a way to make power on top of storing it in case things go fully sideways…
 
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