DOKIO Foldable Portable Solar Panel 100 Watt 12 Volt

Apr 28, 2021
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I bought this solar panel last year and can say that the kit is excellent, easy to set up and has kept the battery topped up throughout the winter.
The only issue with the kit is the battery terminal leads are only 3 meters. I want to buy an
extension but am confused about the lead sizes which are described as:
10awg
12awg
14awg
There is no information within the instructions or the makers web site to assist.
It would be great if anyone else has this system and can advise on the correct wire size
Regards Mike.
 
Jun 16, 2020
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I bought this solar panel last year and can say that the kit is excellent, easy to set up and has kept the battery topped up throughout the winter.
The only issue with the kit is the battery terminal leads are only 3 meters. I want to buy an
extension but am confused about the lead sizes which are described as:
10awg
12awg
14awg
There is no information within the instructions or the makers web site to assist.
It would be great if anyone else has this system and can advise on the correct wire size
Regards Mike.

Don‘t know, but I do know that the heavier and shorter the wire, the less the voltage drop. So go towards the heavier.

John
 

Ern

May 23, 2021
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It is an American designation referring to a table of cross sectional area of the cable. (american wire gauge). We use the metric system here. Google will show you a cross-reference of sizes.
 
Feb 13, 2022
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Great solar kit, mine works a treat, but the cables are rather short. I extended mine with some spare cable I had. Didn’t have a the gauge marked on the spare cable, I just matched it by eye. Any cable will do as long as the cores are same or a bit bigger. I extended mine by about three metres. I wouldn't overly worry about the length as long as it’s not ridiculous . There are voltage drop calculators online if you are worried. I joined to the existing cable with solder and heat shrink and resoldered to the croc clips. Only thing I don’t like is lack of an on/off switch.
 
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Nov 16, 2015
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Can anyone just give a laymans answer to the OP's Question please. Whats the best bit of wire that he needs.
 
Sep 29, 2016
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Can anyone just give a laymans answer to the OP's Question please. Whats the best bit of wire that he needs.

10 AWG, (AmericanWire Gauge) readily available from multiple sources.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 AWG equates roughly to our 6mm squared cross section cable.

Some of the cheaper kits come with 12 AWG.

Preferably I would use 10 AWG througout, but if extening by say up to 6 meters total then adding on 10 AWG or 12 AWG to existing 12 AWG would be OK.

I have found that 5 metres of cable allows me to position the panels towards the Sun at any point around the caravan.
 
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Aug 5, 2022
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A relevant calculation for this example:

At 12v/100W theoretical power yield current=100/12= 8.3A

10awg=6mm2, 12awg =4mm2

Total cable length=2x5=10m

Voltage drop = Amps x length x 0.017 / mm2 = 8.3x10x0.017/6 = 0.2V
0.2/12 x100 =1.6%

So I think 10 awg is slight overkill for a 100w panel over 5m of two core cable,you should be happy here with 2% loss or more? I’ll let others do the calc for thinner cables but it’s linear so 3mm2 would still only give 3.2% loss. In reality the panel won’t usually generate anything like the theoretical max power either , also affected by voltage which is actually higher than 12V

Steve
 
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JTQ

May 7, 2005
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To place our free-standing 85 Watt panel away from the local shaded areas and into the sun shine, I simply use one or more of my lengths of EHU cable, that I already carry anyway.

I simply terminated the solar panel's cable joint with the appropriate Blue plugs and sockets. [Reversed so a socket at the input to the solar controller, thus countering any interfering idiot ever trying to plug me into the mains!]

Configured so EHU lead uses all its copper, positive via one core, negative via the two other cores, to minimise losses and fully exploit what is there.
 
Last edited:
Oct 3, 2013
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I bought this solar panel last year and can say that the kit is excellent, easy to set up and has kept the battery topped up throughout the winter.
The only issue with the kit is the battery terminal leads are only 3 meters. I want to buy an
extension but am confused about the lead sizes which are described as:
10awg
12awg
14awg
There is no information within the instructions or the makers web site to assist.
It would be great if anyone else has this system and can advise on the correct wire size
Regards Mike.
awg = American wire gauge.It's easily to find the nearest equivelant mm2 size cable on the internet.
 

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