Monocrystaline or Polycrystaline solar panel

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I understand that monocrystaline solar panels are more efficient than the polycrystaline but the mono stop charging if there is any shadow across the panel unlike the polycrystaline which will carry on charging at reduced capacity, if there is shadow on the panel. What is your experience?, are the cheap chinese panels on ebay any good?

 

[dovekie]

4 polycrystalline panels, 10W each, trickle charging the batteries while we are not on board (300Ah capacity), no regulator, worked fine for 10 years so far. So very good for fit and forget based on our experience.

No experience with monocrystalline, but clearly you get more power per unit area, and that may become important if you need the charging capacity. Hopefully someone will be along soon who has used both.

 

[BabaYaga]

unlike the polycrystaline which will carry on charging at reduced capacity, if there is shadow on the panel.

I thought mono and poly were fairly similar in this respect and what you describe here is a characteristic of thin film panels...
Could be wrong though.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Amorphous tolerate shadows the best and also produce more on a grey day. For these reasons I think they are the best for a boat in the UK. This one is good, if expensive...

http://www.force4.co.uk/7602/Spectr...rrer=froogle&gclid=CJTVvIrU7r0CFXMPtAodznUA5A