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Solar panels for the Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus

Written by Ian Schneider·Solar & Off-Grid Tester

The spec table in the HomePower 3600 Plus manual gives the DC input a range of 12 to 60 volts. Turn to the solar chapter and the range narrows to 16 to 60. The band from 12 to 16 belongs to the car charger. Solar comes in through the same two DC8020 sockets, the round barrel plug Jackery's smaller folding panels end in, and 60 is a hard ceiling. Thirty-one of the forty-one panels we track publish a voltage, seven of them Jackery's own, and all thirty-one land inside the window.

Together the sockets take 1000 W, and the manual allows two panels on each. Four panels is the most this station will ever see, and four is what it takes to fill the input. Four of Jackery's SolarSaga 500 X do it, and the 3584 Wh battery is full in a little over three and a half hours of good sun. One 200 W folding panel on its own gives about 144 W and needs about twenty-five hours. The manual wants the same panel model and the same count on both sockets, so I'd buy the four together rather than two now and two next summer.

The door
16–60 V
Its width
1000 W
Plug
DC8020
Full battery, best case
~3.6 h
Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus portable power station
Run two HomePower 3600 Plus units in parallel and the manual takes the wall charger away. Solar is the only way to fill the pair.

The door

Every panel we track, lined up at the HomePower 3600 Plus's solar input

Every panel we track, lined up by its open-circuit voltage. That is the Voc on the back label, the voltage a panel makes in sun with nothing drawing from it, and the figure Jackery's manual asks you to check. The black line is 60 V. No bar reaches it.

The pale cap on each bar is what a −10 °C morning adds, about 10%. Cold raises a panel's voltage. The tallest bar, Renogy's 590 W rigid at 52.63 V, grows on a cold morning and still stops under the line. The window also has a floor at 16 V, and the same cold moves every panel further from it. On my deck in January that floor is the one edge I don't think about.

Hover a bar for the panel's name. If your panel isn't in the line, type its Voc in the box below and the chart stands a bar up for it.

Swipe sideways for the whole line-up.

020406080volts, open-circuit+1++yours?60 V · the lintel16 V · the step

Hover or tap a bar for the panel’s name and its verdict.

  • Fits through the door
  • Too tall
  • Extra height on a −10 °C morning
  • Maker prints only the operating voltage; the real height is above the dashes
  • 1Our pick: BLUETTI 350W

What we'd buy

The best solar panel for the HomePower 3600 Plus

Picked by the numbers on this station, not by brand.

Best overall

BLUETTI 350W Solar Panel (PV350)

4 panels deliver 888 W.

Check price at BLUETTI

Best value

Eco-Worthy 200W Flexible HJT Solar Panel 18V ETFE 18BB (GW-L02AM200HJT2)

About $1.25 for every watt it actually delivers here. 4 panels deliver 576 W.

Check price at Eco-Worthy

Best to carry

Jackery SolarSaga 40 Air (JS-40C)

30 W from a 1.98 lb panel, the most delivered watts per pound.

Check price at Jackery

A day on solar

How long the HomePower 3600 Plus takes to charge on solar

A little over three and a half hours with the input full. Two sets we track get it there: four of Jackery's SolarSaga 500 X, or four of Renogy's 590 W rigid panels. No single panel does it alone, and the manual's two-per-socket rule means no set bigger than four.

One 200 W folding panel gives about 144 W in good sun and needs about twenty-five hours. One 100 W panel gives about 72 W and needs about fifty. A good day has three to six hours of sun that strong, so the single 200 W panel runs on for more days than a weekend has. The system builder turns those hours into days for your state and month.

a good day's sun: 3 to 6 h0 h1 h2 h3 h4 h5 h6 h7 h8 h9 h10 h11 h12 h13 h14 h15 h16 h17 h18 h19 h20 h21 h22 h23 h24 h25 h26 h27 h28 h29 h30 h31 h32 h33 h34 h35 h36 h37 h38 h39 h40 h41 h42 h43 h44 h45 h46 h47 h48 h49 h50 h51 hInput full (1000 W) · full in 3.6 hOne 200 W panel (144 W delivered) · full in 24.9 hOne 100 W panel (72 W delivered) · full in 49.8 h

Hours of good sun, from empty. Where you live and the month decide how many of those a day gives; the system builder works it out.

Every panel that fits

Solar panels compatible with the HomePower 3600 Plus

Thirty-one fit. For each: the cable it needs, what one panel delivers in good sun, and the biggest set the input will take, four panels at most. Four of Jackery's own plug straight in. Eleven need an MC4-to-DC8020 adapter, MC4 being the weatherproof snap-together plug on rigid panels and most large folders. Three arrive on Anderson plugs, the SolarSaga 500 X among them, and want an Anderson-to-DC8020 lead. Two panels on one socket go through a solar panel connector Jackery sells separately. The sockets also take the car charger, and the manual says not to run the car and a panel at the same time. Sorted by delivered watts.

Jackery's own, the pairings it documents

Everyone else's

Own a panel that isn't in the line-up?

Type its voltage into the door chart above for the height test, then put the rest of the label into the panel checker, already set to the HomePower 3600 Plus, for current and plug too. Or build the whole system to see how it keeps up where you live.

The plain answers

How long does the HomePower 3600 Plus take to charge on solar?

One 100 W panel delivers about 72 W in good sun and refills the 3584 Wh battery from empty in about 49.8 hours.

One 200 W panel delivers about 144 W in good sun and refills the 3584 Wh battery from empty in about 24.9 hours.

At its 1000 W solar limit it refills in about 3.6 hours. More panel watts than that won't charge it any faster.

A day gives three to six hours of sun that good, depending on season and place, so one 100 W panel takes 9 to 17 days to fill it. The system builder works it out for your state and month.

What adapter does the HomePower 3600 Plus need for solar?

None, if the panel's plug is DC8020: Jackery SolarSaga 200W, Jackery SolarSaga 100 Air, Jackery SolarSaga 80W and 1 other plug straight in. No solar adapter comes in the HomePower 3600 Plus's box, so any other panel needs a cable bought separately.

The cables the other panels need: MC4 to DC8020 (11 panels), Anderson to DC8020 (3 panels), DC5521 to DC8020 (2 panels) and XT60 to DC8020 (1 panel).

10 panels don't have a named plug from their maker, so check the lead before you buy a cable.

Can you use non-Jackery solar panels with the HomePower 3600 Plus?

Yes. What decides it is the panel's voltage and plug, not the brand. 24 panels from Renogy, Anker SOLIX, EcoFlow, BLUETTI, Eco-Worthy and Rich Solar work with it, as long as the panel stays under 60 V on a cold morning and starts above 16 V.

The strongest single panels here are the Renogy 590W N-Type Bifacial (425 W delivered) and the Anker SOLIX 440W Rigid (317 W delivered).

Can you connect two solar panels to the HomePower 3600 Plus?

Yes. It has 2 solar inputs, so the simplest way is one panel on each. Use the same panel model on both. Jackery's inputs share a controller, and mismatched panels hold each other back.

Don't wire two BLUETTI PV100 FX Flexible panels in series: together they would pass its 60 V limit. Parallel them instead.

Past 1000 W delivered, more panels only help on cloudy days.

What is the HomePower 3600 Plus's solar input?

DC8020 input port 1 (shared with car charging): 16–60 V, up to 12 A. DC8020 input port 2 (shared with car charging): 16–60 V, up to 12 A. 1000 W across all inputs together.

Input limits from Jackery's documents, checked 2026-09-18 (source). Delivered watts assume 72% of the panel's rating in good sun.