ACOPOWER Omni 200W Solar Panel Suitcase

18 months ago, I purchased a pair of ACOPOWER 120W Portable Solar Panel 3x40W Foldable Suitcase, with Charge Controllers. I had previously purchased a pair of Renogy 100 watt solar suitcases to charge my “Solar Generators” in an emergency. While the hard solar suitcases worked well, they were too heavy, bulky and clumsy to set up. I decided I needed a more manageable solution that utilized a more compact, easy to store and set up solution. After much research, I settled on the Acopower line of folding suitcase panels. Prime reason for choosing this panel was overall high quality, very thin and compact footprint when stored, high quality SunPower cells, integrated kick stands and the length of the MC4 cables included. This panel will charge almost anything. I went with the 120 watt size because I quickly found that those “perfect sun days” are far and few and even fewer when they last all day. In the real world I wanted to be able to generate sufficient power. The 120 watt panel generates around 90 watts in a full sun situation. At times, somewhat more for a few hours during the day and somewhat less during overcast or spotty clouds. I operated this unit briefly with my new Jackery Explorer 300 and was getting 78 watts at approx. 10:00 in mostly clear but some minor haze. Later in the day I was able to get the panel to produce 102 watts in mid-day sun, but the Jackery’s limit is around 80 watts so it was almost maxed out at 10:00 a.m. My old Jackery 240 was limited to 42 watts charging so this is a big improvement. Panel set up is about 15 seconds and consists of opening the suitcase, flipping out the three attached kickstands and removing the attached MC4 cable from the roomy pouch. The included cable is 12 feet long and that is more than enough to connect up to 8 panels together without having to worry about too short a cable or needing any extensions. I love the option of the charge controller because it simply plugs in or can be disconnected if not needed. The charge controller is utilized to charge RV house batteries or stand alone batteries. I keep the charge controller detached and stored in the pouch on the back side of the panel. Less than 30 seconds are required to attach the controller if needed for stand alone battery charging. Recently, I purchased a Bluetti AC200, a Bluetti AC50S, Two Ecoflow R600 Pros, Two Ecoflow EF1500i and a Jackery Explorer 300. With the AC200 having the ability to accept 700 watts of solar with a max of 150VDC, I wanted to have more wattage available to charge. I could connect my existing pair of Renogy 100-watt panels to my existing pair of AcoPower 120-watt panels to charge the AC200 but I wanted matching panels for max efficiency. With that in mind, I decided to get another pair of the Acopower 120-watt panels to have four matching units with a max power of 480 watts connected in series. I still have the option of connecting the four Acopower panels with the pair of Renogy 100-watt panels in series for a total of 6 panels. The specs on the Acopower and Renogy panels are fairly close as they both utilize SunPower cells. With the four Acopower panels, I can charge any of my units and have the option of using single panels charging multiple units simultaneously or in Parallel. The AC200 likes multiple panels in series connections. The Ecoflow units work best with two panels connected in parallel while the AC50S and Jackery work well connected with a single panel. The Acopower 120 panels produces 24.35 VDC open circuit voltage which is a sweet spot. Not too high to allow use on some generators and not too low to produce efficient charging. Bottom line is that these panels work well with a wide variety of generators and uses for both lower and higher wattage charging applications. The ability to store and set up easily was key to me because I have them occasional camping, Hurricane and power outage situations. I wanted a solution that does not take up any more space than necessary, have easy set up and take down while being usable for a wide variety of products present and future. The Acopower panels in this series are available with 50, 70, 80, 105- and 120-watt sizes. You can connect multiple panels in any size group. The cost is at the high end, but the value and performance are there to justify the cost. I highly recommend these panels. You won’t regret it.