Re: Where to Buy Solar Panels For A Small Home Setup

 

 I think that Harbor Freight panels are fine for smaller systems, price per
watt is not bad and you get the mounting hardware with them and a couple of
5watt 12 volt lights.
 However, if you need a system over 200 watts or so, I would look elsewhere.
 The HF 45 watt kit comes with 3 15 watt panels. They are big for the amount
of energy they produce and I do not think the panels could take much of an
impact.( I have 3 sets of them)
 Joe KI4ILB

 

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

If you live in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas
you might be able to find inexpensive used (surplused) solar panels
locally. Solar panel lose their generation efficiency over time
so commerical solar array panels are replaced periodically.
Surplused solar array panels are often about 10 to 15 years
old (retaining 100% to 90% of their original generation efficiency).
Solar array panels that have previously been installed with
light concentrators ( freznel lense, mirrors arrays ) tend to
lose their power generation capacity more often than those
not subject to light concentrators. Older surplused solar
panels often generate less watts per hour than a newer
more efficient solar  panel of the same surface size. Surplused
solar panels are also often attached to heavy frames,
so transporting surplus panels can be problematic.
Surplused solar panels may also need to be tested and repaired
before they are reused. IMHO recycling a working surpluse
solar panel is actually a much more ecologically friendlier
act than buying newer more efficient  solar panel .

Harbor Freight's solar panels are rather expensive per watt
because they are selling mainly smaller solar array panels.
FWIW  the last time I looke the $/watt sweet point
for new solar array panels appears to be when one is using
about 100W-160W solar array panels.  However, the major
startup cost of a solar array system is not the panels (which
last from 20 to 40 years) but the power inverter/converter
(?lifespan?) and the deep cycle heavy duty battery array
( 4-12 years lifespan ) which is used to store the power
generated by the solar array panels. IMHO the quality of
the power inverter/converter and the electrical storage
system is more likely than the solar panels to be enhance
the reliablity of any proposed  solar panel array system.
The ROI for a solar panel array system is dependent
on the average  amount of annual sunlight at the
proposed site.

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drydem wrote: