School me on portable solar panels

[Jester60]

I'm looking to buy a couple of portable solar panels, one for the house to use with battery chargers (AA/AAA mostly) and for a laptop or tablet. The other would be for my GHB for my truck (I'm an OTR truckdriver), this one would be pretty much the same usage but hopefully would weigh less that the one for home.

I'm not looking for brand recommendations. What I need help with is the power ratings. Like, what's the difference between 2 panels by the same company where one is 18v/28 watt and the other is 18v/14watt?? I don't want to get something that won't do what I want it to do. Do I need the extra watts for more power hungry devices (laptop) or is it that they both do the same, but the 28 watt model does it in less time (battery charging)?

 

[gadgetgeek]

A higher wattage panel will supply more power and allow a faster charge time, generally. Watts are what you are looking for as far as a comparable measurement. a solar charger big enough to run even a pretty small laptop is going to be pretty big and heavy. Solar just doesn't provide that much power. For example, my laptop, which is a power hungry beast requires an input of 19.5 volts, at a max of 7.7 amp, which is about 150 watts. Or most of a single panel from an average home solar installation.

As to whether you need the extra watts, that all depends on what you are doing and how much capacity you need. The larger panel you mention would be able to put out 1.5 amp at max power, that isn't alot.

Unless my math is all wrong