Thunderbolt 100 watt solar power kit from Harbor Freight

[Twebster]

I need advice! Quicly! Is $45 a good deal or worth it? I have the opportunity to purchase one but I don't know if u should get it. Where I'm doing my van build I have no power been using battery power tools but need some way to recharge the batteries. Can I use this without having to buy a house battery? Plus I'm in Oregon & its barely sunny right now! Please help me out!

 

[Almost There]

Short answer - No!

HF stuff is rarely worth the price paid for it.
You can't use it without having some kind of battery to put the charge in to.
Solar in Oregon in the winter won't get you anywhere for days at a time.
Shore power is going to get those tool batteries charged much faster.

IMO, put the $45. in to a second or third battery pack for the tool set so that you can rotate the batteries to be able to keep on working.

 

[jonyjoe303]

100 watts will give you about 5 amps of charge power when pointed at the sun, but in cloudy condition it might not do so well. It might give you 1 amp or less. But 44 dollars on 100 watt of panels might be too good to pass up, the reviews on harbor freight arent all bad for those panels. But you might be dissapointed with their performance in cloudy conditions. When I had a 120 watt panel, I hated cloudy days, I got no usable charging done on those days.
For cloudy condition what works best is a giant panel with mppt controller, with my 240 watt panel and ecoworthy 20 amp mppt I get 4 to 5 amps in cloudy weather, I can even get at least 1 to 2 amps when its raining. As long as there is some daylight it will extract some power from it.

 

[highdesertranger]

what AT said^. also get a 12v charger for your tool batteries. highdesertranger

 

[Twebster]

Ok, thanks! I appriciate your advice!

 

[RVTravel]

Here is another thread on the subject.

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-New-100W-Harbor-Freight-Solar-Kit