Solar Panel- Ability to Produce Watts

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Does anyone know how often a 42 watt solar panel will produce that much power in direct sun?

Thanks

-- Rick in Southwest WV (Rick_122@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002

Answers

most are per hour panels

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 21, 2002.

A 42watt panel will produce 42watts when in full sun at an optimal viewing angle. That is 3.5amps at 12volts or 1.75amps at 24v depending on how the panel is wired. So this panel in most areas of the US could produce 252watt/hrs of electric (42watts x 6 hours).

-- gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), April 21, 2002.

gary,, that didnt make any sense,,ALL of my panels are rated at 42 watt (or whatever the rating is) per hour of full sunlight

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 21, 2002.

Is 'Watts per hour' the correct term? A Watt is amps times volts, which are both instantaneous parameters.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), April 21, 2002.

42 watts is the correct label to put on a panel , however marketing people take liberties with the 42watt label and creativly lie about the product. Skip the watt rating, get the current and voltage rating to get the true output power. A new 42 watt panel is going to cost several hundred dollars and going to be 2ftx3ft in size. I have seen $30 panels claiming to be 40 watts but its 40watt/week panels so be carefull when compairing.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), April 22, 2002.


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