@@craigsolaradventures yes, a bit, but what else is there at that price point that actually delivers the same wattage. I can always fix or improve that. Ultimately the solar part and stated power is your number one criteria. Especially when there is no other 300W portables that delivers in that price range. I first wanted to buy the ItechWorld until I watched your videos.
Yeah mate - sure is the winner so far. There might have been a little 'cloud edge' glare effect in that 327W peak, but hey - it helps produce plenty of power. I actually thought for a sec there you were going to rest the Kickass array on top of the Thunder panels to get the same angle. With the poor (& now weak & broken) brackets that can't angle the panels high enough, Kickass need to redesign those support brackets completely. Then they'd be more worth the money. The irradiance meter is a good bit of kit too. The other bit of kit you need is one of Andy's S.P.A.T. tools (solar panel alignment tools) to calibrate the sun angle 🤣 Great test setup there Craig.
I’d say “cloud edge” for sure, but even without that advantage it’s still held it’s own. Wasn’t the perfect day and only had a short window to get the testing done. I’ve emailed KickAss about the leg issue. Let’s hope I get a positive response. We all need a good SPAT !
Great information. Thanks for doing that. I picked up a Thunder after watching your other videos and it’s been great. I think I might wait and see if they sort the legs on the KA before investing. Good to know they have the hard part right though.
Great reviews mate. It’s very interesting seeing the different solar panels in Australia being compared on a like for like basis. Keep up the great work.
Hi Craig, someone explained this to me, so I will try do the same. Its not watts that charge Batteries its Amps, watts are a unit used by appliences i.e toaster may draw 800 Watts. But batteries arnt using power they are being forced Current pushed in. Batteries have a resistance. So in that case we can only charge batteries with Amps not Watts, The Kickass panel produced 267 Watts but also was puting in 19 Amps Boxing well above its weight. this panel stats say 15.5 amps. So you cannot look at the watts. The panel is puting the rated Watts divided Vpm= amps ie Watts 300 / VPM 19.3 =15.55 Amps but it is actualy producing 19Amps, so the panel is working fine better than the stats suggest. When doing panel tests you must test for amps not watts. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for great videos.
That’s not really the whole story. Volts times amps is watts. The amps that can be delivered to your battery will be a factor of the voltage difference difference between the battery and the charge controller and the internal resistance of the battery. So the more amps you want to deliver, the more volts you will need to drive those amps into the battery. So, ultimately watts are the best measure of the ability of the panel charge your battery once the solar controller had optimised the delivery to your battery.
what you are saying is fair enough, but all Battery chargers are measured in Amps not watts, A solar controller is assenrtualy a battery sharger, So the watts dont matter. When I bought my 30 amp Victron charger it doesnt mention watts. It charges at 14.4V @ 30 Amp. constant Current then constant Voltage. This is what all solar controllers are supposed to do, a lot of manufacurers of panels use Watts, but it is Marketing BS. Who is going to buy a panel that is rated at 13Amps when you can buy one rated at 200Watts, sounds much better.
@@gazztracker true and I agree to a fair extent but the only way to supply the amps to charge the battery is to have sufficient voltage to cause the flow of charge in the first place. In essence, to get the battery to take a charge the charger needs to be able to present a voltage higher than the battery already has. So if you have a lithium battery at 13 volts you need to apply a higher voltage to charge the battery. The higher the voltage the faster the battery can take the charge on offer but conversely the lower amperage that is possible given a fixed wattage of the supply. A mppt solar controller juggles these competing factors to arrive at the highest possible amperage for your battery given the energy supplied from the solar panels but it can’t make energy. It can only juggle voltage against amperage to get the best possible charge rate for you battery at its current state of charge. For a portable camping solar set up there simply isn’t enough energy coming from the solar panels to achieve the maximum that the solar controller is capable of delivering. For example, let’s say that your battery needs 13.6 volts to be presented to it for it to absorb 25 amps, this mean it needs to supply 340 watts to energy to the battery to do so. Given losses in the mppt controller of around 5% plus some cable losses, you are probably going to need around 370 or so watts from the panel to do this. From the point of view of the solar controller, it doesn’t care if this energy comes as 20 amps 18.5 volts or 18.5 amps at 20 volts. The solar controller will modify this to the best voltage to the battery to achieve the highest charge current it can from the available energy available. So all up watts is the most appropriate measure in my view for a solar panel even though amps being absorbed by the battery is what counts for recharging speed. Clear as mud I know.
point taken but as far as I see things ,If you buy say 4 solar panels and put them on you roof to feed the power back to the national grid,, then you will be paid by your provider by the watts you provided back to them, thats when its important to measure solar panels in Watts. but campers are only interested in charging batteries we need to know how many amps go back into the batteries, as batteries are charged in amps. So i think all 12v camping solar panels should be measured in amps, just makes more sense to me. Then again what do i know.
Watts = amps x volts, both are needed to charge a battery. Watts is simply the total measure of power regardless if it's being consumed or recharged. Batteries are often stated in ah - e.g. 100ah, but this is half the story, you need to know the voltage to know the stored power. E.g. 100ah @ 12v is 1200wh or 1.2kwh. So you really need 1200wh to recharge your battery, which is what your solar charger produces - e.g 300w x 4hrs. The amps and voltage will be different on the solar side of mppt and the battery side, and this confuses people. Power in watts remains the same
Is the Thunder water proof? It seems that solar cells are fragile. The Kickarse is built so light it will be prone to fatigue. If the Thunder is water proof (I can find nowhere saying that it is where Kickarse claim to be water proof), then buying two Thunders and wiring them in parallel seems like a better idea.
Ive had my Kickass 300w for a bit over 2 years and now its only producing 120w in full sun at 22c (so not hot) using a Victron 100/30 MPPT , so dissapointed in them, I have contacted their support team to see what can be done as they have a 3 year warranty apparently..
Hi, I’d be interested to know the outcome. I was happy with the after sales service I got from them. In the end I got a $100 refund for the broken leg which I fixed myself.
I have a 24volt battery setup and a 24-volt all in one inverter with Max. PV Array Open Circuit Voltage 450VDc and PV Array MPPT Voltage Range 60-400VDc with Voc: 37.7Vdc . Can I connect this KickAss 300w panel directly to my inverter all do I need a 24volt solar panel ???
Kickass is configured as 4P at around 20v open circuit, you could change to 2S2P . Or check out the Wise 400w panel in my other video, I’ve got it a in 4S which would work for you so easy change to 2S2P also.
Great test and review. Would love to see you test the portable 225w folding panel from lithium battery wholesaler
Thank you very much!! I really appreciate your videos. I now made up my mind thanks to you.
Did the leg falling off sway your decision ?
@@craigsolaradventures yes, a bit, but what else is there at that price point that actually delivers the same wattage. I can always fix or improve that. Ultimately the solar part and stated power is your number one criteria. Especially when there is no other 300W portables that delivers in that price range. I first wanted to buy the ItechWorld until I watched your videos.
Yeah mate - sure is the winner so far. There might have been a little 'cloud edge' glare effect in that 327W peak, but hey - it helps produce plenty of power. I actually thought for a sec there you were going to rest the Kickass array on top of the Thunder panels to get the same angle. With the poor (& now weak & broken) brackets that can't angle the panels high enough, Kickass need to redesign those support brackets completely. Then they'd be more worth the money. The irradiance meter is a good bit of kit too.
The other bit of kit you need is one of Andy's S.P.A.T. tools (solar panel alignment tools) to calibrate the sun angle 🤣
Great test setup there Craig.
I’d say “cloud edge” for sure, but even without that advantage it’s still held it’s own.
Wasn’t the perfect day and only had a short window to get the testing done. I’ve emailed KickAss about the leg issue. Let’s hope I get a positive response.
We all need a good SPAT !
Will be interesting to see the new kings solar range
Great information. Thanks for doing that. I picked up a Thunder after watching your other videos and it’s been great. I think I might wait and see if they sort the legs on the KA before investing. Good to know they have the hard part right though.
Great reviews mate. It’s very interesting seeing the different solar panels in Australia being compared on a like for like basis.
Keep up the great work.
Hi Craig, someone explained this to me, so I will try do the same. Its not watts that charge Batteries its Amps, watts are a unit used by appliences i.e toaster may draw 800 Watts. But batteries arnt using power they are being forced Current pushed in. Batteries have a resistance. So in that case we can only charge batteries with Amps not Watts, The Kickass panel produced 267 Watts but also was puting in 19 Amps Boxing well above its weight. this panel stats say 15.5 amps. So you cannot look at the watts. The panel is puting the rated Watts divided Vpm= amps ie Watts 300 / VPM 19.3 =15.55 Amps but it is actualy producing 19Amps, so the panel is working fine better than the stats suggest. When doing panel tests you must test for amps not watts. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for great videos.
That’s not really the whole story. Volts times amps is watts. The amps that can be delivered to your battery will be a factor of the voltage difference difference between the battery and the charge controller and the internal resistance of the battery. So the more amps you want to deliver, the more volts you will need to drive those amps into the battery. So, ultimately watts are the best measure of the ability of the panel charge your battery once the solar controller had optimised the delivery to your battery.
what you are saying is fair enough, but all Battery chargers are measured in Amps not watts, A solar controller is assenrtualy a battery sharger, So the watts dont matter. When I bought my 30 amp Victron charger it doesnt mention watts. It charges at 14.4V @ 30 Amp. constant Current then constant Voltage. This is what all solar controllers are supposed to do, a lot of manufacurers of panels use Watts, but it is Marketing BS. Who is going to buy a panel that is rated at 13Amps when you can buy one rated at 200Watts, sounds much better.
@@gazztracker true and I agree to a fair extent but the only way to supply the amps to charge the battery is to have sufficient voltage to cause the flow of charge in the first place. In essence, to get the battery to take a charge the charger needs to be able to present a voltage higher than the battery already has. So if you have a lithium battery at 13 volts you need to apply a higher voltage to charge the battery. The higher the voltage the faster the battery can take the charge on offer but conversely the lower amperage that is possible given a fixed wattage of the supply. A mppt solar controller juggles these competing factors to arrive at the highest possible amperage for your battery given the energy supplied from the solar panels but it can’t make energy. It can only juggle voltage against amperage to get the best possible charge rate for you battery at its current state of charge. For a portable camping solar set up there simply isn’t enough energy coming from the solar panels to achieve the maximum that the solar controller is capable of delivering. For example, let’s say that your battery needs 13.6 volts to be presented to it for it to absorb 25 amps, this mean it needs to supply 340 watts to energy to the battery to do so. Given losses in the mppt controller of around 5% plus some cable losses, you are probably going to need around 370 or so watts from the panel to do this. From the point of view of the solar controller, it doesn’t care if this energy comes as 20 amps 18.5 volts or 18.5 amps at 20 volts. The solar controller will modify this to the best voltage to the battery to achieve the highest charge current it can from the available energy available.
So all up watts is the most appropriate measure in my view for a solar panel even though amps being absorbed by the battery is what counts for recharging speed. Clear as mud I know.
point taken but as far as I see things ,If you buy say 4 solar panels and put them on you roof to feed the power back to the national grid,,
then you will be paid by your provider by the watts you provided back to them, thats when its important to measure solar panels in Watts. but campers are only interested in charging batteries we need to know how many amps go back into the batteries, as batteries are charged in amps. So i think all 12v camping solar panels should be measured in amps, just makes more sense to me. Then again what do i know.
Watts = amps x volts, both are needed to charge a battery. Watts is simply the total measure of power regardless if it's being consumed or recharged. Batteries are often stated in ah - e.g. 100ah, but this is half the story, you need to know the voltage to know the stored power. E.g. 100ah @ 12v is 1200wh or 1.2kwh. So you really need 1200wh to recharge your battery, which is what your solar charger produces - e.g 300w x 4hrs. The amps and voltage will be different on the solar side of mppt and the battery side, and this confuses people. Power in watts remains the same
Not in the u.s. yet they do have a 200w one cause id buy that in a heartbeat
Is the Thunder water proof? It seems that solar cells are fragile. The Kickarse is built so light it will be prone to fatigue. If the Thunder is water proof (I can find nowhere saying that it is where Kickarse claim to be water proof), then buying two Thunders and wiring them in parallel seems like a better idea.
I split my KickAss 300w in 2 150w panels, way easier to setup
How does that work?
Ive had my Kickass 300w for a bit over 2 years and now its only producing 120w in full sun at 22c (so not hot) using a Victron 100/30 MPPT , so dissapointed in them, I have contacted their support team to see what can be done as they have a 3 year warranty apparently..
Hi, I’d be interested to know the outcome. I was happy with the after sales service I got from them. In the end I got a $100 refund for the broken leg which I fixed myself.
@@craigsolaradventures They tested them and are sending a brand new replacement set to me, great outcome
Old solar panels are the bomb
I was given 4 old rooftop 200w panels
About 5 years old as they were upgrading
true free energy!
I have a 24volt battery setup and a 24-volt all in one inverter with Max. PV Array Open Circuit Voltage 450VDc and PV Array MPPT Voltage Range 60-400VDc with Voc: 37.7Vdc . Can I connect this KickAss 300w panel directly to my inverter all do I need a 24volt solar panel ???
Kickass is configured as 4P at around 20v open circuit, you could change to 2S2P . Or check out the Wise 400w panel in my other video, I’ve got it a in 4S which would work for you so easy change to 2S2P also.
Can someone provide the ebay link for this. When i search for it i get a minefield of crap panels
where did you get the solar meter from
Jaycar