diy solar

diy solar

good panel brands and ....

J

JamesW

New Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2023
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33
Location
Planet X
Found an east coast source with panels for sale. Some of the brands available are:

Canadian Solar
Qcells
Mission Solar
REC
JA Solar
Trina Solar
VSUN
Aptos Solar
Hyundai
Phono Solar
SunTech
Silfab
Longi


How would you rank this list? Or perhaps, what would be your top three?

Just as important -- What brands would you avoid?

One other thing: How do you folks feel about bi-facial panels?
 
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Q Cells, because of there push for US manufacturing and great quality in general.
I don't have experience with any others besides LG Neon's.

Who is this supplier, where are they located? I will likely be upgrading my 18 315w Q Cells and 12 305w LG Neon's in the spring.
 
One thing to note when comparing brands, some of extended warranty benefits touted by these brands only apply when installed by a certified professional
 
42OhmsPA said:
Q Cells, because of there push for US manufacturing and great quality in general.
I don't have experience with any others besides LG Neon's.

Who is this supplier, where are they located? I will likely be upgrading my 18 315w Q Cells and 12 305w LG Neon's in the spring.
Click to expand...


a1solarstore.com

Solar Panels in Florida for sale - A1 SolarStore

Solar panels in Florida for sale | Cost solar panels for business in Florida | Buy the best solar panels online at best prices in Florida | Save money, choose the right solar panel in Florida
a1solarstore.com a1solarstore.com

I need to buy 6500 watts, preferably 400+ watts.
 
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I don't think any of those brands would be a bad choice, things to consider are price per watt with shipping, and panel size(bigger panels may produce more power or be cheaper, but may limit total power based on space available for installation).
 
Hanwha QCells is a South Korean company but they have manufacturing facilities right next door to you in Georgia. The 480W QCELLS I got earlier this year were still made in South Korea but they are currently building out more manufacturing facilities in Georgia to make more of the components in Georgia to the point that 100% of the panel will be sourced from USA or Canada if that matters to you.
 
REC I think is a quality brand.

Bifacial helps if and only if your setup will get sun on the back side. In the most extreme, one member has panels mounted vertical way up north in snow country.

Follow the links from this post. There is a site you can register with to download years of PV panel accelerated test reports.
It discusses degradation modes and names top performers in each test. What sort of degradation matters to you depends on your environment, e.g. ammonia may not matter if you're not a rancher.

diysolarforum.com

Are LFP prices artificially high?

Cost is irrelevant to sale price. market value is king. profit drawn from building, marketing, future sale reduction pricing, etc. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if sales were anywhere close to material and labor and manufacturing costs... It's like the cannabis market. It costs MAYBE $50 to...
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
Well, that was an interesting experience. I went to check out and the shopping cart jumped from around $4200 to $5800.
 
Try Santan Solar.
Virtually everybody here is satisfied with that vendor.


They have quantities of peeling apart cr*p panels, good condition used panels, limited amount of new panels.

It is possible local installers have used panels that were pulled down and extras of new panels left over from jobs. That, and decommissioned solar farms, would be the source for liquidators like Santan.

I've seen a bit on Craigslist, many sellers on eBay which is how I found Santan.
 
I bought 6 - 450 W ZNShine panels from A1 Solar. I chose those because they were available locally, and were the highest wattage that fit the available space on my RV. They seems decent for the money given they are chinese built. A1 Solar contracts with local solar distributors to handle the warehousing of the panel delivery they have in the locations they list. I think A1 Solar's originally and maybe only physical location is in the Miami area. My purchase went well & they provided the Florida solar sales tax break/refund after I took delivery.
 
I went looking for a couple of A1 Solar's pickup locations in New Jersey, first of the map they provide of locations is pretty inaccurate. Investigation of one pickup location led to solar distributor BayWa r.e. who happens to have the same panels in stock, and the other locations also stocking the panel on A1 solar's site.
 
pvgirl said:
I went looking for a couple of A1 Solar's pickup locations in New Jersey, first of the map they provide of locations is pretty inaccurate. Investigation of one pickup location led to solar distributor BayWa r.e. who happens to have the same panels in stock, and the other locations also stocking the panel on A1 solar's site.
Click to expand...
I'm sure A1 doesn't give the exact location of their warehouses until you order is to prevent potential customers from contacting the locations and arranging the purchase through the local solar companies. At least that's what I've concluded in the Tampa, FL area where there are dozens, if not 100+ solar companies.
 
Also they seem to use Soligent and Fortune energy.

If you are considering buying from A1solarstore consider looking for the actual distributor they are using and see if they will sell cash and carry to individuals, maybe at a better price.
 
pvgirl said:
I went looking for a couple of A1 Solar's pickup locations in New Jersey, first of the map they provide of locations is pretty inaccurate. Investigation of one pickup location led to solar distributor BayWa r.e. who happens to have the same panels in stock, and the other locations also stocking the panel on A1 solar's site.
Click to expand...
For NJ check this seller, they put pallets and singles of used panels up cheap every now and then. I drove to them to get my Qcells for $0.31/w, fuel included. They don't have any listed now, unfortunately.

Security Measure

www.ebay.com www.ebay.com
 
I kept at it -- looking for a place that would answer questions and felt "right". Most places advertising in the SouthEast are installers and it appears to be rare to find distributors at all.

Anyway .... went to mobile-solarpower and clicked on their "components" menu. Found a link to Rich Solar 400W with free shipping. Got to the website and found a code for 15% off (ignore the 5% off link). Couldn't resist. :)
 
I just clicked buy on 26 'new' Mission Solar 345w panels from https://www.ebay.com/str/surplussolarproducts I had gotten a pallet from these folks 4 years ago at a good price and kept their link. Also had good experiences with Santan Solar a few years ago but these are the right wattage and Santan didn't have what I wanted.
1715977920192.png1715977964075.png1715978000543.png
The $3200 includes shipping, so that's $123 per panel. They seem at least 'good' review wise and 25yr but we'll see and I have a mild climate so I don't need to spend $ on extreme best. I'll try to report back once I have them installed / running for a while :)

It's interesting, due to the fire, I have to re-panel my ground mount but the mount itself wasn't optimized for 400-550w panel sizes and they just don't fit well. Also the other 1/2 of my system is all around 285w panels and 345w is almost compatible but 500w no so much.

A lesson from this - try to design in for larger panel sizes in the future when doing you're mount for today's panels.
 
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