Best Budget Solar Kit on Amazon? Here's Why I Say YES! - Callsun 400W Review + Real Tests!

0:00 I've hit the gold mine, you guys. I've finally found the cheapest yet highest quality order off Amazon, shipped to your door solar panels that are probably the most compatible panel out there to pair with just about any portable power station or for that matter standalone charge controller. And you don't have to

0:16 buy them by the pallet. You can order as few or as many as you want. These are the solar panels I've been looking for for months now. I can't wait to show you. These are from Kelson, which is two 200 W bacial solar panels. Let's unbox these solar panels from Kson. Look how nicely they shipped. The the glass is

0:32 face to face here, but there's obviously something spacing it. And uh it was just packed really nicely with this hard foam all the way around. As you can see, foam on the back side. Really, really nice packaging. Solar panels are hard to ship all in one piece. It looks like Coulson

0:46 has really kind of figured these out. And here they are all unboxed. I've got that one turned around. It appears we've got uh half cut cells and with a total of 16 bus bars going through each one. Believe these are end type solar panels obviously bfacial. Yes, they are end type and they're 200 watt rated panels.

1:05 We have a VMP of 23.74 volts. We have an IMP of 8.43 amps. The VOCC of 27.31 volt and an ISC of 8.91 amps. You can go all the way up to 1,000 volts DC is insane. If you ever have a solar array in that high voltage, you got to be very very careful. And here are the dimensions in millimeters.

1:26 1304x 770x35. Let me mention something else that I absolutely love about these Kelson solar panels. First is their size to performance. Behind this Kelson panel right here, you can see another 200 W panel sticking up. So, basically, we're aligned here on this edge. I guess technically the Kelson needs to come

1:45 over just a little bit more. So, the Kson is slightly wider, but not by much. But look how much shorter it is in height. And obviously, it's bfacial. That one is not. So, you're actually going to get even more performance uh just from by facial nature for getting the added efficiencies and all of that.

2:01 But hang on, it gets even better. Let's look at this old one quick. So, you can see that it's 200 W. But the main thing I want to point out to you is the VOCC. Notice that this one is 22.5 volts. Okay. Now, coming over here to the Kelson, check out this VOC. 27.3 volts. Why is that a big deal? Well, if you

2:18 guys have portable power stations, a huge, huge quantity of them. Not just this specific one. However, this one is an example of it. But notice its input voltage range. 11 to 60 volts. In the world of portable power stations, 60 volts max voltage for the solar input is very, very common. So, I can hook up two

2:38 of these panels in series and it's going to give me like 44 volts open circuit, which is safe, plenty safe for this power station. That's quite a bit of headroom and it's pushing more amps as a result of that lower voltage. Whereas two of these panels hooked together in series is going to get me much much

2:58 closer to that magic 60 volt range like 54 55 volts. So that's actually going to leave me more headroom to add maybe two more panels in parallel with these to truly max out the solar charge controllers on these portable power stations. If I add two more panels in parallel with these old panels, the

3:17 amperage will probably get clipped by the power station because it can't accept that much amperage due to the lower voltage of the panels. So, the Callisin ones are just the perfect voltage for the 60 volt limits on so many power stations. A lot of the EcoFlow power stations, especially the

3:34 older generations like this Delta 2 here and the Delta 2 Max, the Delta 1300, the original Delta, all of them have a max input voltage of 60 volts. The Anker F2000 has a max voltage of 60 volts. The Blue Eddie Apex 300 without its additional high power solar add-on kit just using its built-in ports is maxed

3:54 out at 60 volts. A lot of all powers power stations are maxed out at 60 volts. So, these Calon panels, if it's not obvious by now, are the absolute perfect fit for the vast majority of power stations. My favorite standalone MPPPT solar charge controller accepts up to 150 volts of opencircuit voltage.

4:13 Well, once again, these are the perfect voltage for that. Hook five of these up in series. That's still going to give you a little overhead for cold mornings and whatnot so that you don't fry anything in the charge controller. And then because they've upgraded this now to the 40 amp version. So, if you had a

4:28 48vt battery pack, get 2,000 watts of solar feeding into one charge controller. Be awesome. Now, just to show you how the technology has improved in just the last few years. To be clear, this panel I don't think you can even buy anymore. Okay? So, this isn't a hit on, you know, this brand or this

4:44 particular panel. This is a great panel and still is, but uh just to show you how much better technology you're getting now with these Calend panels. So, we have some half cut cells here, but uh notice we only have this many bus bars across here. And then notice it's top to bottom continuous cells. 200 W

5:03 panel. This is a 200 W panel. Once again, half cut cells. Might be able to see that, but check out how many bus bars there are. And then the coolest thing is my understanding is this is basically like two panels in one. See that silver separation there. So, I'm going to be testing this, but supposedly

5:18 that makes this substantially more shade tolerant. So, if this bottom section is shaded at all, but the top section isn't, this top section will still produce at full potential and not be dragged down by what's happening down here. whereas this panel, the entire thing gets affected as soon as any shade

5:33 comes across it. So, enough talk. Let's uh plug this in and show you. It's a beautiful day to be testing solar. So, we've got this set up. I did not make an attempt to make it angled perfectly. In fact, you can kind of see my shadow is going out at an angle. You can also see that the solar panel shadow is at an

5:50 angle. So, it's actually not high noon yet. Still slightly in the morning. But, we got both panels hooked up in series. They're plugged into this power station. Let's see what the performance is like. Oh, heck yeah. Look at that. 338 watts off of 400 watts rated. That is insane. That is really, really good performance.

6:08 And for those of you solar panel power station nerds, I am using XT60i connectors to go into this power station. You might be able to see the orange there. So that we can get the max uh performance out of these panels into this power station. So the one I have currently plugged in is the Calen solar

6:23 panel full sun. It's producing 163 W. Okay. Now I have the old 200 W panel full sun 155 154 watts. So right off the top there, we're getting 10 watts more out of the calen than we are out of the other 200 W panel. I'm going to cover up just the bottom corner of that old 200 W panel. And check that out. It destroyed

6:46 the output 87 down to from 1554. I'm going to move that box over to the Klson. The Kson is plugged in now. See, we're still pulling in the 160 range. 162 161. Okay. And once again, I'm just covering up the bottom right corner of that Kelson panel. 90 W. So maybe not as big of a difference as I thought. The

7:05 other one was 87. Now, because those solar cells are larger, it's possible I was covering up less. I think I'm covering up threeish cells at the moment. Let's just try two. See if that makes any kind of difference. Yeah, that didn't make any difference at all. 90 W. Okay. Now, while it's connected, let's

7:20 just throw that on the bottom there just to cover up a big chunk of the bottom. So, not as major of an impact. Uh, 84 watts at this point. So, let's do the same test with the old 200 W panel. Okay, I removed the box to just kind of cover up the bottom middle of that panel. And you should be able to see

7:36 that the old panel is now plugged into the power station. And see, now we're getting only 67 watts. So, we can see that the calison even though it is affected by shade, which all solar panels really are, there's not as much of an effect on it as the old school panel. Let's do a little more shade

7:53 testing here. I've got the box going completely across the old panel, left to right, and I've got that plugged in. But check this out, you guys. Zero watts. Holy cow. Did I just manage to kill that uh solar production with that shade? That's insane. Probably because there's no way for the electricity to pass

8:09 around the shade anymore. Let's remove the box here. See, now we're producing 150 W. Wow. So, a fully shaded panel across the bottom, even though a solid 2/3 of the panel is still in the sun. completely and totally destroys all solar production from that old school panel. Let's see what happens with this

8:28 Kson panel. So, let's grab this cardboard. There we go. Look across the bottom. Let's go ahead and switch solar plugs. There we go. Now, we got the Kelson plugged in. Let's see if we get anything better than zero watts produced. Oh yeah, look at that. 84 watts. Now we're talking. So, there is a

8:44 big difference. Holy cow. So, where that kind of shade across the entirety of the panel on this old one completely destroyed its production to get down to zero, we're still getting a full 84 watts out of the cal. Let's uh raise this up so that we're blocking the middle. So, see now that's right smack

9:00 in the middle of the panel. So, we're blocking some cells on the bottom, some cells on the top. Are we going to get any production at all? Then that officially killed it. So, now let's move the shade up to the top so that the bottom section is exposed. There we go. The shade is above where the panel

9:14 splits right there, but covering a good chunk of that top portion. And we should see at least some production. 86 watts. Okay. Now, just for fun, let's turn that 90°. So, there is sun around the edges, but we are bridging across the middle uh bus bar there. Kind of solar production

9:31 we're getting now. Zero. Nothing. Okay. The old panel is reconnected. Vertical orientation with that cardboard shade. Let's see. Oh, how interesting. Look at that. 65 watts coming through on that panel. Now, shade rarely ever just covers the middle. But this is just again for interesting testing. So, that

9:47 works on that panel. The old panel does not work on the Kson panel. And I think that's because it's basically two panels put together. So, when you're covering up a good chunk of both of those, the voltage probably drops to a point that the power station just simply can't pick anything up or do anything with it.

10:04 Because this one is not split, some of the power can still eek by on some of those rows. So, if I were to tweak this slightly, I've I've adjusted this cardboard so it's covering up all the way to this cell block on this side, and then everything else is covered up. So, the only path for power to get past is

10:20 on this right side. And you can see that killed it. So, the sum total of the two rows on the outside still being able to generate power, which is basically 50% of the panel, was enough to still provide enough juice to this to get some charge. But, as soon as I eliminated one of those rows, same issue, same problem.

10:36 Let's just tweak it. I'm just having too much fun here. Tweak it slightly. So again, we're not covering this at all. And I'm covering a good chunk of this side, but not completely. There's a little bypass right there. Let's see if there's any kind of juice coming in. Okay, so 23 watts. Okay, so much like

10:51 that one where I had the middle two rows of cells covered, but the outside ones were uncovered. So I had 50% of the panel uncovered. I've done the same thing now vertical. So covering 50% the two outside rows of panels on this. The two inside ones are still uncovered. Let's see if we get any power. And you

11:08 can see the Kson is the one plugged in right now. Still nothing on that. Very, very interesting. So, what's it gonna take? What if I uh uncover it just a smidge more here. So, the majority of three panels are open there. My cardboard's sliding. Let's hurry and look and see. Still nothing. Let's do a

11:24 diagonal number like that. So, we're blocking a good chunk of the bottom part of the panel. We should be getting all the power from that top portion again. Yep. Look at that. Back up to the 85 watt range. Okay. So, what did we learn? Overall, the Cal Sun is substantially more efficient power-wise, especially in

11:40 full sun and potential partial shading depending on the kind of shading you're getting. So, as soon as a little corner of this old panel gets covered in shade, it yanks the entire panel down. As soon as a little corner of this panel gets shade, it yanks half the panel down. But because of it being split right there,

11:59 the unaffected full sun half continues to work at its full potential. And it doesn't matter how much of the bottom or top section gets shade. If the other section is in full sun, you're still going to get the full performance. Whereas this panel here, as even more of it gets shaded, the production continues

12:16 to just drop off a cliff. Where this panel does not do so good is if there's shade coming up across the bottom and the top, bridging that part where the two halves come together. And as we saw, depending on how the shade is configured, potentially a full panel like this could maybe actually give you

12:32 a little more production than the split type like this. But I think if you were to chart this over time, I think with the added production that this gives you when it's in sun and its partial shading on the top or the bottom, I think your net overall result is going to be more production overall than a standard

12:50 panel. A full 10 watts more in full sun production. That is pretty darn substantial. Maybe we're picking up a little bit of bfacial gain. I am on the concrete that reflects a little bit, but behind it, you know, I've got my deep green grass there. So, we're not getting a lot of reflection off the backside uh

13:06 for that panel. But, you know, if you had some snow or something like that uh or a bright surface uh behind the panel, you could probably even get more production than what we tested here today on these Kelson panels. I want to give you a pro tip. I have the perfect stands to pair with these panels. I

13:22 don't have it attached here today because they're on my other larger panels, but let me insert a clip here that shows you what they look like. There's some front stands that kind of hold the panel up off the ground. And then on the back side, there are telescoping stand legs, and they are

13:38 fully adjustable in angle as well. They come with some really nice tie down uh straps and earth screws and stuff if you want to build a semi-permanent installation, but they also work really well to just deploy, you know, at an extended uh stay, you know, campsite or whatever. They're from Powered Portable

13:55 Solar. And I'll be sure and leave links to them down in the description below as well, cuz they would be the cat's meow with these Calend solar panels. This Calend solar panel just became my new favorite solar panel for the reasons we saw tested, but it is insane. high quality for a tremendous price. Buying

14:12 solar panels, especially in small quantities, online and having them shipped to your door is always a big issue because it costs a fortune to ship solar panels. They're large and they're heavy. But somehow Kelson has cracked the code on that or something. I don't know. Cuz at the time of filming this

14:28 video, you can get uh a pack of two of these, which is what I have. Total 400 watts for just shy of $300. You can buy a minimum quantity of two or any quantity above that. And you just order them on Amazon. is crazy. So, for the convenience that brings and the quality and function that these have, that is a

14:44 fantastic deal. Now, I can already hear the comments flying from some diehard solar geek out there saying something like he can get, you know, full-size residential panels from his neighbor around the corner that sells them for pennies on the dollar and that this is such a waste of money. That is true. If

14:58 you want full-size residentializ panels and the absolute most bang for your buck, your best bet is to find a local supplier. but they're huge and they're heavy and I have to drive out and pick them up in a large vehicle and borrow a large vehicle because I don't own a vehicle large enough to haul them.

15:14 Anyway, it's just more of a hassle. So, you are going to be paying some convenience to have Amazon deliver this to your doorstep. And then the fact that you're buying, you know, 200 W panels instead of one giant, you know, 400 W panel obviously also adds a little to the cost. But for a lot of you, that is

15:28 well worth the cost. And comparatively speaking to other solar panels available online to buy, this deal is something you really can't beat. So, links to the panels are down below. Be sure and check them out. I've got some fantastic content still in the pipeline, guys. You won't want to miss. Like, comment,

15:42 share, subscribe, hype, five 100% free things for you to do that really help the channel and allow me to continue to bring this free content to you. I sure appreciate all of you. Stay safe and we'll catch you all next time.