Folda Solar Fact. This is a long post folks but I am sure it will interest many of you, or your Fb friends. CHEAP SOLAR KITS How easy is it to make a portable solar kit cheap for customers? The answer is real easy just use cheap components and take shortcuts. Most retailers have the solar regulator mounted or even glued on the back of their hard frame panels. WRONG! Technically speaking they should be within one metre of the battery and as panels generate power they also generate heat and the regulators dont like heat anymore than the panels themselves do. The key reason so many retailers do this is because it makes it easier/cheaper for them and the manufacturers to package and ship a kit. If the regulator is separate then more packaging is required and a different set of cables too. Our solar regulators are placed within one metre of the battery by the design of our cable system. This costs us more but it is the best system. Connecting and extension cables. We see mainly automotive or house wiring cable being used by other retailers. WRONG. The cables on your solar kit are out in the sun. Auto cable and house wiring cable is not designed for extreme exposure to heat, they are designed to be protected and undercover. They are cheap but are they ideal. NO they are not. We use solar rated and double insulated solar cables. They are rated by TUV and others, who are International Rating Agencies who test all sorts of products against industry Standards to ensure that they are safe, and of a high quality, to do the job they were designed to do. They cost us more but we know they are safe and work properly with no loss of voltage. Our cable connectors too are TUV rated and are dedicated solar connectors and are waterproof. Another way to save money is to have small diameter wire. We use nothing less than 4mm wire. Too many solar panel retailers use 2mm or even less and with this you will surely suffer voltage drop over the distance of many extension cables. For our 10metre extensions we use 6.00mm wire - just to be sure. Solar regulators. There are many different quality solar regulators available on the market, and it is possible to pay as much for a regulator as you might for a whole kit for the very best with all bells and whistles. Therefore quality kit prices include a regulator of a modest qualityitself and valued at or around $70 - 80 for one to suit a 120Watt kit. All regulators have a failure rate - it is a piece of hardware that has to stand up to some knocking around and they dont like that. Our failure rate is less than 1/2 of 1.0%. Others we dont know of course but we could save money if we used cheaper regulators - but we wont. The solar panel. This is a tough one for you to judge. Solar panels are either A, B or C grade and today mostly Monocrystalline. Sadly they are not marked accordingly and to look at them is impossible to see any differences. Warranties normally reflect the difference and you should expect a Pro Rata 25 year Performance Warranty for an A grade panel. Less that that reflects a much lower quality. This simply means they are much cheaper for a retailer to buy and provide them with extra profits. It also means that they will not perform as well and certainly for not as long. We even see panels being offered for sale without a Warranty? Who on earth would buy those? I wouldnt buy anything without a warranty no matter how cheap it was, I dont know about you? The choice is yours BUT quality is the key if you want good service from your kit for a long time. Frames & legs. Yes this to makes a difference too. The frame should be solid and robust with good hinges and either strong pop rivets or a nut ands bolt fixing. Small gauge pop rivets will ultimately fail. We dont see too many frame failures but we do see a lot of broken hinges and legs ... you know, the ones that are just a stick with no leg frame itself . they ultimately break off and then there is a problem. The legs should ideally be an H frame of similar with some real strength to it. sticks just cant handle the outback treatment and dont last. There is an old saying and it goes something like this: The Bitterness of poor Quality remains long after the Sweetness of a low price is forgotten! So, yes it is easy for retailers to be cheap but it isnt easy to be cheap and maintain a quality that customers deserve and for us that is much more important for our business Brand as well as for you. We know our balance is right, we are happy with our higher volume lower profit margin model, and you need us to make a profit or we wont be here next time; and you can count on that staying the same. Happy Camping folks and stay safe.. JB 1800 900 999 foldasolar.au
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 06:47:05 +0000
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