Opinions about HF 45 Watt solar panels

 

   Hi guys,
I see Harbor freight has their 45 Watt solar panels on sale.
 Think The would last 20 years on the roof in Florida.
 Thinking about using it to drive solar water heater pump.

http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-90599.html?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign&10B

--
MikeK

 


amdx wrote:

http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-90599.html?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign&10B

Those are 15W panels, three of them in a kit. There are also 20% off
coupons floating around in places like the AAA magazine. The panels are
decent enough, but the charge controller isn't very good. You can of
course buy a good MPPT charge controller and use it with the HF panels.
As for life expectancy, hard to say, but I doubt 20yrs, and certainly
you would need a plan to cover them or take them down in hurricanes and
such.

 



There is really no reason to mess with HF stuff when real brand name merchandise
is selling at record low prices.  If you are anywhere in the south half of
Florida, jump in your car and take a trip to Sun Electronics in downtown Miami.
http://sunelec.com/

Vaughn

 



--
MikeK

 Wow, a 40 watt unit for $104 + $14.00 shipping.
           MikeK

 



For central Georgia, $14.20 is the UPS quick time and cost rate for
$100 and under and the package taken to a UPS store (or the shipper
has a daily pickup schedule).  Using the calculator on the sunelec
site, the 10lb shipping weight computes as 13lb and the shipping is
$30.47.

Using the UPS calcuator for a non-daily-pickup shipper and a value of
$105 gives a rate of $21 and change to central Georgia.  

Looks as though there is some "packing and handling" included in the
sunelec calculation.

John