That’s insane how indestructible the Cigs panels are. This is easily the best video illustrating how durable those panels are! I think it’s time to add one to my setup!
Wow! I had no idea the differences between the two. What an amazing video! I still remember watching your solar for beginners video. You taught me all I know about electricity. I was pausing the video, taking notes, getting screenshots. You’re a great teacher!!
Great demo video. The narrow 100 Watt CIGS panel will fit between the roof rack mounts and the ceiling vent fan with room left over. They are fairly long. Great shade performance! Of note though, my older Ecoflow RiverPro would not work with it because the CIGS has a higher voltage than the EcoFlow can handle. It does work with the EcoFlow River 2 power station.
I have 2 200 watt cigs panels on my RTT and my son has a 100 watt cigs on his jeep roof. They perform great. I find they actually produce more when driving because the panel is a bit cooler.
Great video. I too hate destroy good items but it was in yhe name of science! Bring the CIGS panel with you next time you visit and we will really torture it! I have some 12 guage mini slugs we can try on it!
I actually called Sam to discuss this vid. I really wanted to shoot it. I think YT restricts your outrage when you check the box that says there's firearms in the video... lol
We are planning a 6000 mile trip on the Great Loop on our Montgomery 17 sailboat. We are going to attempt to do it with just wind and sun, using a ePropulsion Navy 6kw outboard (overkill on that small boat) and 10kWh of LiFePO4. The parts of the trip that have me most concerned are not the Gulf and Atlantic, but rather the sections of the Mississippi river and more the part of the Ohio river where you have to travel upstream about 50 miles into Kentucky against 3kt current. There are no marina on that stretch for shore power charging either. Tugs pushing 25 stack barges. So we are going to need some solar. Really going to need some luck with wind too but as much solar as we can get. We have plans for a boom tent with a area of about 8 feet by 7 feet for use on sunny windless days and I have calculated that I could put three of the BougeRV 200 watt CIGS panels on that. With luck, this could give us maybe 400 watts per hour for a few hours in the day, maybe as much as 2kWh going back into our battery bank. We might be beaching a bit on the shore of the Ohio and chilling but it could work. Anyway, I had concerns over the durability of the panels with the flex and wind of the mount on our proposed boom tent but after this video, not so much concern. 🙂 I had also seen some edge delamination negative reviews about these panels but it really looks like even that wouldn't matter a whole lot. The final concern would just be aging of the coating surface, like if it turns milky white after some hours in the sun, but I think people on here have had them out in the sun for enough days that that isn't a concern either. So thanks for doing the abuse test!
I really enjoyed hearing about your trip, that sounds like a trip of a lifetime! You should do a lot better than 2kwh as a high, you'll probably do more than 2kwh as an average. Depending on what time of year it is, I wouldn't be surprised if you did not frequent 3kwh in a day with 600w of cigs. Do you plan on wiring them in series? Keep me in the loop, would love to hear updates ! Best Brian
@@DIYOutdoorLife 2kwh was just my hopefully lowish estimate because there will for sure be various shading from the mast and also even from the back stay, which while thin at about 1/8" steel wire, is going to cast a line across at least part of the panels during some part of the day. Figure the time of year will be late August through October to get from the Chicago area down to Florida. I was thinking of wiring all three in series, for about 95 volts open circuit, using a Victron MPPT 150V max input charge controller capable of outputting enough for our 51.2V nominal 200ah bank. It isn't a boost charger, so you need that overhead voltage such that partial shading still has enough output voltage for our battery bank voltage.
@@richardeverett1227 you have quite an experiment going on, but I have confidence that it's going to go great! there's a possibility for you to get 6 100W panels and do 3S2P, you'll still get your voltage and the higher current can be your friend with partial shading. I'm sure either configuration will work fine, just trying surmise which one will deliver the most watt hours in a day. Good luck, sounds like so much fun 🤩
Another awesome video! Although I learn a LOT from your videos I am wondering: Do you have a shop, one-on-one on-line help, or on-line classes to help people get set up with electric in their DIY campers?
That's amazing! Thanks for the video! You were scaring me at one point. LOL We just put one of these with the tape on the roof of my minivan camper today. Do you know it the tape will hold up in a car wash?
A lot of people use these as portable panels, you just roll them up instead of fold them. Check out my other solar videos for some fold out options as well, although they are not CIGS.
Can I ask what your thoughts are on using these AS portable panels? If you were going to do that, how would you transport them? What would you do to make them more efficient (vs. just laying them on the ground), etc.? I'm still learning and essentially tent camp, but have some power requirements and where we camp, there's never power. I also just bought a 12 volt dual zone cooler that I'd like to power.
They make excellent portable panels that can last for decades. I wrapped them up like a large poster and tie a small string around them. Not quite as handy as the foldable ones but really easy to do. If you lay them flat on the ground, they will kill grass after a couple days. I usually lean them on something like a cooler or a chair.
@@DIYOutdoorLife Thank you! I'm actually struggling to find a place to "safely" bring my folding portable panel and not have it get cracked or bent so a "roll" might be easier. Just have to figure out how big the roll is for the different watt options.
I finally got around to ordering one of the Yuma 200 watt panels and I do agree they would be pretty ideal for camping if your goal is a lot of power for the weight. While one 200 watt panel rolls up into about 11" diameter by 27 inch long tube, three panels would only increase that to perhaps 12 inch diameter and the same 27 inches long. They would be quite happy to roll together (keep the cells on the outside and I would recommend putting the packing foam they come with in between each panel. I would then stuff this 18 pounds into a large sleeping bag type sack and tie it onto my backpack. With 600 watts of panels, you would probably see around 400 to 450 watts during the day in the northern latitudes for maybe generating a total of 2.5kwh during a day. The problem would almost become how to store that much energy...because even batteries weigh a bit. The reason I stress about the panel surface, is that I believe this is the weak point of this (and any portable panel). Yes you get funny videos like this one showing the panel surviving extreme abuse, but the copper, indium, gallium , selenide can oxidize/corrode/degrade eventually, if exposed to the elements, which is why they have the epdm type thin film coating on the panel surface. Scratching it or tearing holes in it isn't going to immediately cause corrosion, but eventually it will. Leave a penny outside for a month in the rain and see if it discolors or turns green. Far better to try to minimize the scratches and damage on the surface for long life of the panel. All that being said, there really is no other good alternative for a 200 watt panel that only weighs 6 pounds if you want extreme portability. I think, although I do not know for sure, that if you take care with the surface during transport and use, you could get quite a few years out of the panels before that coating starts to just naturally degrade from UV exposure as almost any coating would, except heavy glass.
Solid video Bryan. I think 2025 is the year I start the teardrop camping journey so very helpful video as I like to future proof things. I do have one question. Do you think companies like Goal Zero and others will start adopting this CIGS technology going forward? Seems like a no brainer to me but I’m not sure if BougeRV owns the tech or not.
Great question! BougeRV does not own CIGS, other companies are making and selling this already. I like the BougeRV price, availability, and warranty... but you can get panels made with CIGS from a number of distributors. As for Goal zero , I would just get this panel and use it with my yetis. When power station companys brand a panel, they charge 33% more. I charge my yetis this Bouge cigs regularly.
@@DIYOutdoorLife yeah I think your video (and others) have made all mono and poly solar panels obsolete. I'd be interested in seeing how your CIGS panel connects to your Yetis and the performance that you get out of them.
@@DIYOutdoorLife I have the 3000X and it is for home back up and I had electrician install transfer switch. You may remember me because I reached out to you a while back and I live near Albany. I’d like to get a camper next year (wife won’t let me purchase until baby is born!) and with it, probably the 1500X or another brand that supports the 8mm connectors. I don’t really want to disconnect and lug the 3000X around ! It looks like the BougeRv CIGS has the mc4 connectors. I know you can work around that though. Anyway, just interested in how the CIGS works with your various portable systems.
@@KrikenNoxidI do remember you, great to see youre still tuning in! The 1500 and 3000 can work with CIGS very well. Even though you can get 8MM to MC4 adapters, it's a better route to go with anderson (HPP) to MC4. The Anderson ports on GZ will take solar as well as the 8MM, but all around theyre a better plug. amzn.to/3L9FXfI
Ouch! That video was so CRINGE! Painful to watch you walk on them… and that was just the start!!! Another great technology demo Brian! Thank you. I absolutely love the BougeRV CIGS panel I adhered to the roof of our Taxa Cricket. So much easier to install and live with than mounting a standard rigid panel which was my original plan. I believe, but not 100% sure, that “normal” rigid or flexible panels end up with efficiency degradation if they are installed without an air gap to help them stay cooler in hot weather. The CIGS doesn’t seem to have that problem. That’s huge for surface mounting on the roof of a trailer.
They really are as easy as putting a bumper sticker on! You are correct, all solar panels decrease their output as they heat up. CIGS has best in industry heat tolerance, everything is better about it except it's slightly larger.
No sponsorship, I have never taken a dollar from them. Since I organically love the company, and have spent a TON of my own money, I will take some free products for testing once in a while. Nothing compared to what I spend with my own money. No offense taken, I think transparency with the audience is key, i'm annoyed by the same stuff on YT.
A little bit of both, I had fun, but I don't like to destroy things. I kept saying, "in the name of science"... lol I do think I have a much greater understanding of what these panels can do, I hope that a lot of people are educated by it as well.
That’s insane how indestructible the Cigs panels are. This is easily the best video illustrating how durable those panels are! I think it’s time to add one to my setup!
I watched about 10 vids on the cig but this was the one that sold me on it.
Making the video made me a believer! I bought more
You had fun making this video! 😜 Well done 👍
It does pain me to break really nice gear, but it was fun… lol
That’s insane how indestructible the Cigs panels are. This is easily the best video illustrating how durable those panels are! I think it’s time to add one to my setup!
I agree... I couldn't believe my own testing... lol
Wow! I had no idea the differences between the two. What an amazing video! I still remember watching your solar for beginners video. You taught me all I know about electricity. I was pausing the video, taking notes, getting screenshots. You’re a great teacher!!
That's great to hear that that video helped you out, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and tell me that. It motivates us to continue.
Great demo video. The narrow 100 Watt CIGS panel will fit between the roof rack mounts and the ceiling vent fan with room left over. They are fairly long. Great shade performance! Of note though, my older Ecoflow RiverPro would not work with it because the CIGS has a higher voltage than the EcoFlow can handle. It does work with the EcoFlow River 2 power station.
That is a bummer, although its rare, there are some older power stations with 22v limits. Good catch, a lot of folks just fry them.
Love it, best video you have ever put out Brian. Truly enjoyed watching and laughing along with you and Ripple.
She was very confused with what I was doing, but seemed to have a good time! 🤣 thanks for tuning in!
Extremely rugged (and never seen before) testing! I’m convinced 😊
Me too! I want to put them on everything. Thanks for watching.
Amazing. The first solar panel that can be used as a boogie board.
Haha... bring it to the beach!
Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide...had to look it up. Awesome video, great torture test. Those things are tough!!
Not to be confused with cigarettes... lol
I have 2 200 watt cigs panels on my RTT and my son has a 100 watt cigs on his jeep roof. They perform great. I find they actually produce more when driving because the panel is a bit cooler.
I think they're the perfect fit for the roofs of Overlanding vehicles! Now that I know what it would take to hurt one, I wouldn't hesitate
That’s crazy damage and it still puts out power! If I need panels I know what I will get!
It's actually doing better than the video even showed. I've had better solar conditions since filming this and the output is even higher!!
That was a LOT more damage than I expected.
Haha... it was a lot more than I expected too
Fantastic video. Very informative.
Thank you, I appreciate you watching and commenting.
Great video. I too hate destroy good items but it was in yhe name of science!
Bring the CIGS panel with you next time you visit and we will really torture it! I have some 12 guage mini slugs we can try on it!
I suggested that to him already! If you do that, film it!
OK, it's settled, the things getting shot...
@@DIYOutdoorLife now were talking! Lets see what it takes to incapacitate a CIGS!
@@DIYOutdoorLife 👍🤣
Very entertaining! Shotgun time with Sam!
Sounds fun to me!
I actually called Sam to discuss this vid. I really wanted to shoot it. I think YT restricts your outrage when you check the box that says there's firearms in the video... lol
We are planning a 6000 mile trip on the Great Loop on our Montgomery 17 sailboat. We are going to attempt to do it with just wind and sun, using a ePropulsion Navy 6kw outboard (overkill on that small boat) and 10kWh of LiFePO4. The parts of the trip that have me most concerned are not the Gulf and Atlantic, but rather the sections of the Mississippi river and more the part of the Ohio river where you have to travel upstream about 50 miles into Kentucky against 3kt current. There are no marina on that stretch for shore power charging either. Tugs pushing 25 stack barges.
So we are going to need some solar. Really going to need some luck with wind too but as much solar as we can get. We have plans for a boom tent with a area of about 8 feet by 7 feet for use on sunny windless days and I have calculated that I could put three of the BougeRV 200 watt CIGS panels on that. With luck, this could give us maybe 400 watts per hour for a few hours in the day, maybe as much as 2kWh going back into our battery bank. We might be beaching a bit on the shore of the Ohio and chilling but it could work.
Anyway, I had concerns over the durability of the panels with the flex and wind of the mount on our proposed boom tent but after this video, not so much concern. 🙂 I had also seen some edge delamination negative reviews about these panels but it really looks like even that wouldn't matter a whole lot. The final concern would just be aging of the coating surface, like if it turns milky white after some hours in the sun, but I think people on here have had them out in the sun for enough days that that isn't a concern either.
So thanks for doing the abuse test!
I really enjoyed hearing about your trip, that sounds like a trip of a lifetime!
You should do a lot better than 2kwh as a high, you'll probably do more than 2kwh as an average. Depending on what time of year it is, I wouldn't be surprised if you did not frequent 3kwh in a day with 600w of cigs. Do you plan on wiring them in series?
Keep me in the loop, would love to hear updates !
Best
Brian
@@DIYOutdoorLife 2kwh was just my hopefully lowish estimate because there will for sure be various shading from the mast and also even from the back stay, which while thin at about 1/8" steel wire, is going to cast a line across at least part of the panels during some part of the day. Figure the time of year will be late August through October to get from the Chicago area down to Florida.
I was thinking of wiring all three in series, for about 95 volts open circuit, using a Victron MPPT 150V max input charge controller capable of outputting enough for our 51.2V nominal 200ah bank. It isn't a boost charger, so you need that overhead voltage such that partial shading still has enough output voltage for our battery bank voltage.
@@richardeverett1227 you have quite an experiment going on, but I have confidence that it's going to go great!
there's a possibility for you to get 6 100W panels and do 3S2P, you'll still get your voltage and the higher current can be your friend with partial shading.
I'm sure either configuration will work fine, just trying surmise which one will deliver the most watt hours in a day.
Good luck, sounds like so much fun 🤩
Another awesome video! Although I learn a LOT from your videos I am wondering: Do you have a shop, one-on-one on-line help, or on-line classes to help people get set up with electric in their DIY campers?
No shop or classes these days but always happy to help when I can.
diyoutdoorcontent@gmail.com
Please explain why this wouldn't be better than a foldable panel ie Jackery if you want a portable option?🤔
It is better. Some might like foldable, but this roll up option is great.
That's amazing! Thanks for the video! You were scaring me at one point. LOL We just put one of these with the tape on the roof of my minivan camper today. Do you know it the tape will hold up in a car wash?
If you're talking about the VHB tape, that will do fine for many years and hundreds of car washes!
@@DIYOutdoorLife Thank you!!
I need a foldable model to use for car amping.
A lot of people use these as portable panels, you just roll them up instead of fold them. Check out my other solar videos for some fold out options as well, although they are not CIGS.
Can I ask what your thoughts are on using these AS portable panels? If you were going to do that, how would you transport them? What would you do to make them more efficient (vs. just laying them on the ground), etc.? I'm still learning and essentially tent camp, but have some power requirements and where we camp, there's never power. I also just bought a 12 volt dual zone cooler that I'd like to power.
They make excellent portable panels that can last for decades. I wrapped them up like a large poster and tie a small string around them. Not quite as handy as the foldable ones but really easy to do.
If you lay them flat on the ground, they will kill grass after a couple days. I usually lean them on something like a cooler or a chair.
@@DIYOutdoorLife Thank you! I'm actually struggling to find a place to "safely" bring my folding portable panel and not have it get cracked or bent so a "roll" might be easier. Just have to figure out how big the roll is for the different watt options.
@@jennyb3850although the 200w is bigger, they cant both roll up like a roll of paper towels or coffee can
I finally got around to ordering one of the Yuma 200 watt panels and I do agree they would be pretty ideal for camping if your goal is a lot of power for the weight. While one 200 watt panel rolls up into about 11" diameter by 27 inch long tube, three panels would only increase that to perhaps 12 inch diameter and the same 27 inches long. They would be quite happy to roll together (keep the cells on the outside and I would recommend putting the packing foam they come with in between each panel. I would then stuff this 18 pounds into a large sleeping bag type sack and tie it onto my backpack. With 600 watts of panels, you would probably see around 400 to 450 watts during the day in the northern latitudes for maybe generating a total of 2.5kwh during a day. The problem would almost become how to store that much energy...because even batteries weigh a bit.
The reason I stress about the panel surface, is that I believe this is the weak point of this (and any portable panel). Yes you get funny videos like this one showing the panel surviving extreme abuse, but the copper, indium, gallium , selenide can oxidize/corrode/degrade eventually, if exposed to the elements, which is why they have the epdm type thin film coating on the panel surface. Scratching it or tearing holes in it isn't going to immediately cause corrosion, but eventually it will. Leave a penny outside for a month in the rain and see if it discolors or turns green. Far better to try to minimize the scratches and damage on the surface for long life of the panel.
All that being said, there really is no other good alternative for a 200 watt panel that only weighs 6 pounds if you want extreme portability. I think, although I do not know for sure, that if you take care with the surface during transport and use, you could get quite a few years out of the panels before that coating starts to just naturally degrade from UV exposure as almost any coating would, except heavy glass.
I’m sold on it, the silicone panel on my hiker worked good when it was new but after I added the third cross bar it is junk in my opinion
Shading can really hurt our numbers more than we'd think. Always best to get up on top of the bars, CIGS is definitely the next best option.
Solid video Bryan. I think 2025 is the year I start the teardrop camping journey so very helpful video as I like to future proof things. I do have one question.
Do you think companies like Goal Zero and others will start adopting this CIGS technology going forward? Seems like a no brainer to me but I’m not sure if BougeRV owns the tech or not.
Great question! BougeRV does not own CIGS, other companies are making and selling this already. I like the BougeRV price, availability, and warranty... but you can get panels made with CIGS from a number of distributors.
As for Goal zero , I would just get this panel and use it with my yetis. When power station companys brand a panel, they charge 33% more. I charge my yetis this Bouge cigs regularly.
@@DIYOutdoorLife yeah I think your video (and others) have made all mono and poly solar panels obsolete. I'd be interested in seeing how your CIGS panel connects to your Yetis and the performance that you get out of them.
@@KrikenNoxidsome glass mono panels are great bc theyre cheap, but youre right.
What GZ yeti do you have?
@@DIYOutdoorLife I have the 3000X and it is for home back up and I had electrician install transfer switch. You may remember me because I reached out to you a while back and I live near Albany.
I’d like to get a camper next year (wife won’t let me purchase until baby is born!) and with it, probably the 1500X or another brand that supports the 8mm connectors. I don’t really want to disconnect and lug the 3000X around !
It looks like the BougeRv CIGS has the mc4 connectors. I know you can work around that though. Anyway, just interested in how the CIGS works with your various portable systems.
@@KrikenNoxidI do remember you, great to see youre still tuning in!
The 1500 and 3000 can work with CIGS very well. Even though you can get 8MM to MC4 adapters, it's a better route to go with anderson (HPP) to MC4.
The Anderson ports on GZ will take solar as well as the 8MM, but all around theyre a better plug.
amzn.to/3L9FXfI
I wonder how the panel will hold up in saltwater after all those holes you drilled into it. One more year? 3 months? 5 years?
I'll hold onto it and keep beating on it. They advertise pretty heavy on marine use, they claim it's no problem.
Ouch! That video was so CRINGE! Painful to watch you walk on them… and that was just the start!!!
Another great technology demo Brian! Thank you.
I absolutely love the BougeRV CIGS panel I adhered to the roof of our Taxa Cricket. So much easier to install and live with than mounting a standard rigid panel which was my original plan.
I believe, but not 100% sure, that “normal” rigid or flexible panels end up with efficiency degradation if they are installed without an air gap to help them stay cooler in hot weather. The CIGS doesn’t seem to have that problem. That’s huge for surface mounting on the roof of a trailer.
They really are as easy as putting a bumper sticker on!
You are correct, all solar panels decrease their output as they heat up. CIGS has best in industry heat tolerance, everything is better about it except it's slightly larger.
Great video. I'm assuming you'd tell us if you're sponsored by Bouge? I'm just so jaded by TH-cam reviews that I gotta ask… hope no offence is taken.
No sponsorship, I have never taken a dollar from them. Since I organically love the company, and have spent a TON of my own money, I will take some free products for testing once in a while. Nothing compared to what I spend with my own money.
No offense taken, I think transparency with the audience is key, i'm annoyed by the same stuff on YT.
Wood chipper🔥
Haha... if it wasn't bad for the environment, I would do it
the belly flop/ boogey board test was epic!!!
Haha, if I was closer to the ocean, I would've tried to ride some waves!
Why was Yuma mentioned?
Yuma is the name of the panel we're reviewing.
BougeRV Yuma 100w CIGS
You’re the greatest Brian, I wish you were my Next door neighbor!!!i would pick your brain dry, thanks for all you do !!!
Maybe we'll meet up on the road some time! Thanks for tuning in 😎
This hurt to watch! I don't know if you were having fun or cringing the whole time! 😂
A little bit of both, I had fun, but I don't like to destroy things. I kept saying, "in the name of science"... lol I do think I have a much greater understanding of what these panels can do, I hope that a lot of people are educated by it as well.
@@DIYOutdoorLife I learned a lot!
Seems like it will be ok in hail. Lol
Hahaha.. i think so
Good grief! That's panel abuse!
LoL... im still in disbelief how well its working
That’s insane how indestructible the Cigs panels are. This is easily the best video illustrating how durable those panels are! I think it’s time to add one to my setup!
I agree... I couldn't believe my own testing... lol