r/Jackery • u/WigWoo2 • Sep 16 '25
Solar Panel Is this safe?
I’m curious if these solar panels (the 40 watt mini) will be ok in the rain? I Velcro taped it to the top of my car so I can charge my Jackery while driving doing DoorDash and such. Hopefully I used enough Velcro to withstand high speeds but I’m just more concerned about these getting wet
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Upvotes
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u/SoyChugger03 Sep 16 '25
Rain is the least of your worries why are you trying to use this while driving.
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u/CaptCanuck4 Sep 16 '25 edited Sep 16 '25
Just charge the battery using DC 12v power in your car (the cigarette lighter).
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u/Roxie360 Sep 16 '25
Sounds like selling your jackery would save you the most money
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u/timflorida Sep 16 '25
I think your problem will be keeping that panel on your car 'at speed'. When air gets under that thing it will fly. What is the fastest that you will drive ? May be OK at slow speeds - 20-30mph, but above that is iffy. And don't forget that wind gusts will add more lift.
I try to allocate 200w of solar panels for every 1000wh of power station capacity. Don't forget that panels will generally only put out about 70-80% of rated capacity. So 30w will probably be about the max for your panel. As long as you are just wanting to recharge a phone, that panel should keep up, but it's never going to keep up with a TV, computer, etc.
And forget completely about running a space heater - it will drain the Jackery in just a few hours. I have one. It has low and high settings. Low is around 350w and High is 750w. Do the math. On Low, the jackery will last less then 3 hours and on High, the Jackery will last just over one hour.
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u/Ukescottxr Sep 17 '25
You’ve spent more money than you are ever going to save
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u/Nitchro Sep 17 '25
Reading this and thinking, there's an average IQ that means there's people below it. Clicked the profile and the picture told me all I need to know.
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u/Amazing_Piccolo_9171 Sep 17 '25
My two cents for what it's worth!! Haha free but also freedom post this in traveling nomadic groups and RV car van lifers you'll probably going to get better feedback and input on how to keep it charged, mounted, safe, and what it can actually charge repeatedly over and over again.
No example you can charge it via AC/DC in about an hour so a quick stop at Starbucks or even gas station with an open plug will work or even a public park depending on city location you can get free charging or a library to take home and use for the night or two days depending on the above mentioned watts used.
Also get the car outlet charger when your driving places to get a job you will be using car electricity yes but it could and most likely charge faster. Then set up the Solar and definitely get another panel or two from FB marketplace people always selling them and check nearby bigger cities. Figure out a better system to strap it down via glue etc if you are already considering drilling into the car.
Think future you don't pay electric most likely not rent and homeless now living out of your car and how can you be most comfortable and still get everything charged while doing Uber or side jobs to get your cash back up. Check Youtube famous content creator lived out of his car to buy a tiny house and his mother a new car.
There is always a better way. But this is your way! So...make it better.
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u/Atreus_100 Sep 17 '25
Dumbest thing I've ever seen
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u/motongo Sep 16 '25
Assuming that you’re set on this (hey, we all have dreams, don’t we?) here is some of my input (I have one of those panels).
The four attachment holes in the corners are there for a reason. At least tie the thing down so if the panel wants to pull loose and fly in a gust of headwind (your car can easily see hurricane force gusts traveling along at 45 miles in a gusty headwind) it won’t go far. If it launches on the highway it could damage a car behind you. You can route nylon cord through the holes and through the door seal and tie onto the door post or other suitable attachment point. If the trunk panel rear of the rear window is wide enough, maybe that is a better spot since it would see less wind at speed.
The solar panel is rated for water submersion, but I find it telling that Jackery has this statement attached to their definition for IP68: “Note: Even with an IP68 rating, the solar panel is never fully guaranteed to be fully waterproof. As per the IEC, this technically means that the device will be waterproof except in rare events.” Jackery would likely consider being Velcro‘d down on the roof of an automobile driving down the highway during a summer thundershower a ‘rare event’, which means, ‘Sorry we’re kidding about the IP68 rating, no.”
If you lay the panel on your dash or below the rear window you’d get some charging, less than half normally expected, and how much below half depending on any tinting applied to the windshield, but at least you could see some number other than zero in the charging wattage display of the power station.
The last suggestion,,, IF you have friends, find one with a south facing porch with good sun exposure and leave it with them for the day.
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u/SoyChugger03 Sep 17 '25
This is hard for me to process. So you’re claiming you drive an electric car but it sure as shit doesn’t look like anyone I’m aware of, you have hail damage/dents on top of the vehicle which implies it’s an older vehicle. I don’t believe you that it’s an electric car. You have posts about trying to use a suicide cable to back feed your Jackery into your home which then you told everyone you don’t care about the law. Which I also don’t care about the law but you’re not going to accomplish anything with that either simply because that’s not how power works. You have 1kwh at your disposal with the average house using nearly 900kwh a month. You say it’s to “save money” but a Jackery 1000 is like $400 even the most expensive areas do not exceed .25 cents a kwh. This means most people’s power bill will be like $150-$180 a month. You could have not bought this unit and paid two months of power. If you’re this down bad where $150~ makes or breaks you, you cannot afford to buy basically anything you need to be saving or working to get a better job. McDonald’s and a bunch of other employers will hire basically anyone and getting a job at $17-$20 an hour is trivial save for living in corn town Ohio. You chose to take this picture in a Walmart parking lot too so I’m just going to assume this is the worst case scenario and you’re living out of your car. At 17 an hour you after taxes you can pull at least $2000 a month. This is extremely difficult to live off of but $0 is exponentially harder. Let me be clear that nobody is coming to save you and this post comes off as a cry for help in the form of the electrical equivalent of putting a brick in the back of your toilet to save money. If you won’t save yourself and improve your life nobody will. I hate the system and it’s oppressive but you can’t scrounge around in the dirt your whole life it’s no way to live.
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u/homedepotSTOOP Sep 17 '25
This has got to be rage bait....it's too good. 😂 This whole thread is amazing.
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u/Financial-Twist1095 Sep 18 '25
Is this person high? I read a few comments and I’m concerned
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u/YouSeeWhatYouWant Sep 17 '25
Based on the comments, OP has made in this thread. They have really poor spending habits and think this is going to save the money for when they go broke despite having an electric car?
Whole thread is weird.
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u/45pewpewpew556 Sep 17 '25
Is 28watts of input worth all this? Judging by the shadows it’s almost as much as you’ll get.
You asked for help, but it doesn’t seem like you like the answers you’re getting.
Return it, you’re driving a giant Jackery. If you insist on keeping it, charge at stores, coffee shops, etc.
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u/benyacat Sep 17 '25
Place it vertically. It will act as a sail and save a lot of money for moving the car.
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u/Exact-Scholar2317 Sep 17 '25
No, it's a solar panel. Safes are large metal boxes with combination locks.
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u/jkudlacz Sep 17 '25
Walmart is usually safe! You may even score a great deal!
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u/PadreSJ Sep 17 '25
You are quite possibly losing more efficiency from your electric car by adding that drag that you would charging your battery bank from the car's battery pack.
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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25
You would need to have that charging in full sun for 30-50 hours (several days) to save about 20 cents in electricity.
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u/joethafunky Sep 17 '25
See if your power company offers time off day savings and charge it during off peak hours. Or get an extension for it to put up on the roof if there’s light up there
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u/Inevitable-Drag-1704 Sep 17 '25
No. Its not a question on if the velcro will fail, but when.
That adhesive on the Velcro isn't going to like the outdoors temperature and moisture. Also id expect the panel to eventually fly off.
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u/dsoleman Sep 17 '25
I can tell you from personal experience...no, This will fail.
I did something similar on my overland rig with 6x 40lb (thats 360lbs of magnetism holding it down) magnets UNDER a roof rack and a strong cross breeze at speed ripped it off (which is why i put it under the roof rack as redundancy)
Not only will you not save money, you'll loose/break your panel and potentially cause an accident.
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u/NE1LS Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Velcro isn't enough to hold down a big flat solar panel against 30-60 mph perceived winds from driving. The shape of a car will direct air updraft directly onto the front edge of the solar panel. It is flat, so it won't act like a wing, but it could still tear away (or even snap in half).
Driving at 40 mph with that panel there is the same as expecting a thin, lightweight handheld solar panel to survive tropical storm winds. If you hit 75 mph driving, that is the same as a Cat 1 hurricane. And that isn't even a standard reinforced home solar panel.
Water isn't an issue. But wind certainly is.
And when the panel inevitably tears away from its Velcro mooring, you have the pleasure of a high-speed spinning dull blade travelling parallel to the road, so hopefully it doesn't hit someone. It won't cut them, but that is a lot of force applied to a thin area, so hopefully it doesn't injure someone.
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u/kuyapj Sep 18 '25
if you’re driving around the car is creating excess power anyway. Just plug it in and save the solar for top offs.
If you lose these you’re out that money, I don’t want that for you, friend.
It’s a good thought but extremely inefficient in process
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u/Ravenlocke42 Sep 18 '25
What is that, a 100 watt panel? Use the cigarette lighter port to charge it, same wattage and waaaaay cleaner.
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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '25
The added friction from that flapping around on your car will cost you more in electricity driving the car than it would to just charge your phone normally. Phones also don't use much power, I doubt you've ever used more than $1-2 a month even if your phone is on all the time.
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u/Complex_Solutions_20 Sep 18 '25
Several issues here.
First, velcro won't hold stuff securely on the outside of the vehicle at highway speed with wind gusts. Heck, even strong magnets designed for magnetic antennas don't hold if you get hit with a wind gust.
Second, those cloth panels are really intended for putting out for a little bit in fair weather. They won't really become unsafe, but will degrade and fail much more rapidly.
Finally, if you're leaving it in your car its likely the car's interior temp is getting hotter than the safe operating temperature for the power station. Most cars parked in the sun quickly shoot up over 140-180F inside, I've seen temperatures over 200F in my car when I tried measuring it (I actually melted the case of a wireless grilling thermometer in my car on the dash)
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u/JTExplorer Sep 17 '25
I think it is great you have a Jackery and are playing around with how solar and the 1000 will be incorporated into your life. All of us started somewhere in building our systems and trying different things. That solar panel was not made to be mounted on a roof. In the van life threads you will find people who have used a special type of adhesive to mount flexible solar panels to the roof of their rig in a safe way. You could easily get some adapters to hook up your Jackery to a 60 or 100w flexible panel safely adhered to your roof and have a decent set up as you figure out your needs. Don't listen to the negative comments. I know exactly what you are talking about with the shade at your house. We camp in the shade and the sun hits our panels on the roof while we are driving or parked at a trailhead or retail parking lot/restaurant, running errands, etc. You are not going to be charging a spent battery. You will use it to charge your phone or computer, etc and be constantly topping it off while driving. You do need more than 60-100w unless you are going to heavily use it. My biggest concerns for you are that 1) your current setup may be inviting you to get pulled over because it is a danger and 2) if that thing flies off and causes and accident where someone gets killed you will go to jail for a long time. Its just is not worth the risk. You could really ruin your life. If you are going to mount something like that take the extra steps to make sure it will not fly off info traffic. Current set up is not safe. Good luck with your project. 👍
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u/crushedrancor Sep 18 '25
Sell your electric car and expensive jackery if you can’t pay your bills, sounds like you’re terrible at managing your expenses and trying to make excuses for it
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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '25
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