Goal Zero 12401 Nomad 13.5M Solar Panel

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Price: $133.51 $130.00   

Product Feature

• 13.5-watt mono-crystalline solar array
• Foldable Nylon construction is lightweight and portable
• Water-resistant to protect from the elements
• Built-in pocket to store connector cord
• Four sturdy grommets provide various hanging options

Product Description

The Nomad 13.5M collect 13.5 watts of power from the sun, and stores power with the Sherpa 50 power pack for use anytime. The solar panel charges the Sherpa 50 power pack in 6-10 hours from the sun, giving you the power you need to use your smartphone, GPS, portable media player, or any other device you carry. On the mountain or at the beach, the Nomad 13.5M goes wherever you do.

Goal Zero 12401 Nomad 13.5M Solar Panel Review

Some time ago i felt the urgent need to own one of these foldable solar panels. This panel was meant to be one of my "zombie apocalypse is coming 2012"-gadgets for my "BOB" or "Get Home"-Bag. Better be prepared! To be honest: Neither am i a serious backpacker, nor a real survivalist, but i do collect knives and survival gear to just own it in case of an emergency, "catastrophes" or "terrorist attacks". Funny, huh?

For the review part: For whatever i want to purchase i do A LOT of investigation in advance (Youtube videos, (amazon) reviews, forums, blogs) and always want to spend my money on the ONE best option available. This only works in theory (at least for me...), in practice i nearly always end up in ordering two or more items, because i simply can't decide between them.

The solar panel was supposed to power a Galaxy Tab 7 (battery = 3,7v * 4000mah= 14,8wh), a HTC Desire HD (3,7v * 1230mah = 4,5wh), some portable USB Speakers (<2,5wh) and my stone age sony mp3 player (<2,5wh). All these devices have a minimum runtime of one day per charge except the USB speakers.

My masterplan: To power all these devices at the same time, you do of course need some type of buffer battery (pack) with at least one 5V/2Amp USB out (necessary to charge the G-Tab) and a capacity of about 30wh. I ended up in orderimg two power packs: Anker2 (8400mah at 3,7V = 31wh) and powergorilla (120wh -> BAMM!!).

Each Powerpack has its own advantages / disadvantages (size, weight, capacity, limited outputs, adapters, charge time...), but they both get the job done WITHOUT a solar panel. Both can charge all my equipment at least once per day without seeing a wall outlet or a solar panel.

blablabla. To make it short: i thought a panel rated from 10 to 15wp should be able to do the job of charging about 30wh into either battery pack on one day (no matter if it's sunny or cloudy).

What should i buy?

Goal Zero nomad 13.5:
Technology which already has proven to perform (monocrystal, hey, that's what my neighbour got on his roof: I know it works!)
Durable and foldable
highly efficient
Darn cool looking (i say)
made in USA (i thought)

Sunlinq/Sunload 12w panel:
Rather new technology (CIGS cells - no long term experiences yet)
Durable and foldable and lightweight
12-15% efficiency compared to 18-20% of goal zero
takes up more space -> unfolded!

I took my two panels, my USB stuff and a multimeter outside on a semicloudy day (which is pretty much "standard weather" where i live).

Both panels were lying flat on the ground, with no shadows and partly cloudy sky. Both panels delivered about 18V (sunlinq 17 and goal zero higher with 18-19V) with no load. When switching the multimeter to Amp measurement was when my jaw dropped. GZ: 0.04A and Sunlinq: 0,5A (* 12V). Tilting the GZ panel towards the (non visible) sun though increased output to 0,138A. Tilting the sunlinq towards the sun is tough, because its similar to truck canvas and folds together too easy. Did not improve output by much anyhow...

To make it short: Both panels fell short in delivering the necessary power for my needs and my weather conditions. The Sunlinq did perform better on this partly cloudy day, but still i needed the whole day to charge the Anker2! It might work for me, but most likely i will upgrade to a 20+ watt panel with CIGS cells.

What i liked about the nomad:

- The formfactor when unfolded (folded it's quite a brick)
- The looks (designed in the US)
- Quality seemed alright (made in China)

What i disliked:

- too bulky when folded (in comparison to the sunload panel)
- danger of breaking (Manual says NOT to bend and NOT to walk on the panel - because of the non flexible solarcells - The sunlinq feels softer, more like a tarpaulin). That's propably why they throw in an empty pack in the commercial video.
- I do not want to carry a multimeter all day, only to find the correct angle for this panel to perfom. That might be the reason why mono cells are installed on roofs with special calculated angles. This is where they perform best.
- weight in comparison to the sunlinq / in relation to it's performance
- 4.7mm special connector (SAE on the Sunlinq is motorcycle standard)
- Output of the USB out not clearly declared (GZ-Website says 5V and 0,5A, printing on panel says 5Watt - bad transformation? or bad translation?). Did not even get the 0,5 out though, when it was cloudy.

The Sunlinq panel is technically identical to the Brunton, Motomaster, Me2 and Sunload panels , as there is only one company which builds/"prints" these CIGS cells ("global solar" in Tucson and Berlin). Differences are only connectorwise.

In a perfect world Goal Zero would use CIGS cells for their future products

Hope this helps (pretty time consuming as i am native german and have to think twice before i write sth. in english, but i benefit a lot from american reviews and thought i'd share a "kind of" objective review).

Update 6/16/12: Got myself 2 higher rated panels for comparison: The P3 with 30wp and the sunlinq 25wp ("sunlinq 5").
First impression:
The P3 is about 2-3 times thicker than the other sunlinqs (12wp and 25wp). Apart from that, there is no big difference (in performance) at all. The only difference technically is a much higher open circuit voltage for the p3 (28V!!!), which does require a (MPPT?) charge controller as an extra investment. So all in all it depends on whether you are willing to pay nearly double the price for a ridiculous amount of extra performance, a 2yr warranty and a military tag, or not.

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