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2025.05.18 solar panel comparisons 2025.05.18 solar panel comparisons:


Today was just a quick comparison test between my old (36 cell) and new (33 cell) Dokio and my Renogy panels
The new Dokio is currently installed on my old Explorer, and the Renogy is installed on my Escape. The other
panel is an old spare Dokio. (the slightly larger, 36 cell design that my big portable solar array uses)

The idea was to see how the panels compared to each other. I was expecting the 33-cell Dokio to perform worse
than its older 36-cell version, because it has fewer cells (which should translate to lower voltage) and also
it's slightly smaller overall. (which should translate to less current and power, due to less surface area)
It's not fair to compare old tests with new because the results vary dramatically with differences in panel
angle, sun angle, season, and air quality. So they all have to be tested at the same time.

All three panels were cleaned before testing. The sun was high with clear skies just after noon, and I tested
each panel twice. Test readings were very consistent, with only very slight changes in Voc in all cases.
panel       install   Cells    Pmax    Vmpp    Impp   Voc
----------  --------  -------  ------  ------  -----  ------
Dokio 2022  ground      36     69.07w  15.77v  4.38a  20.73v
Renogy      Escape      36     68.76w  15.70v  4.38a  20.69v
Dokio 2024  Explorer    33     71.31w  15.11v  4.72a  20.95v

To my surprise, the new Dokio not only isn't worse, it's actually slightly better than the old version AND the
Renogy. As expected, it has a slightly lower Vmpp, but somehow makes up for it with a noticeably higher
Impp. It also has the highest Voc of the three panels, despite having fewer cells. It must be using an improved
chemistry in the cells? But this is good, I don't do these tests because I know it all, I do these tests to learn!


  Escape panel  
   Escape test  
   Explorer panel  
   Explorer test  
   spare panel  
   spare test  
  Escape panel     Escape test     Explorer panel     Explorer test     spare panel     spare test  


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last updated 05/18/2025 at 13:19:50 by make_www_index.command version 2025.05.13.A