DC-Solar trailer: ponzi scheme. The backgound story

[Hedges]

Load shedding relays? Did a quick Google search but still seems a bit opaque. Seems to be for intermittent large loads that shut off quickly?

RTFM Sunny Island. If battery drains to shut-off, you have the problem of needing to black start.
Not such a big problem with DC coupled PV, just inconvenient when internet powers down because you ran the washing machine.

If a DC coil relay, look for good "economizer". The SMA branded one has two coils in series, shorts one out when open for high pull-in strength.

"One" for your sister will likely be DC coupled.
But we just learned Sunny Boy -41 model works at 120V!

I like AC coupled, which is how mine is set up. Old model Sunny Boy are fine for off-grid, although not accepted by utility for new on-grid installations.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I found this story about the dc-solar trailers that some of us here have acquired.
I have one.

The Billion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme That Hooked Warren Buffett and the U.S. Treasury

How a small-town auto mechanic peddling a green-energy breakthrough pulled off a massive scam

www.theatlantic.com

Some interesting new info.

I do question the one fact where the IRS valued the product at only $13,000.
When I did the calculations I thought it would come about to $30,000 to build.

Wow. All that money to a guy who didn’t know the first thing about what he had made or how it worked.
They googled it.

 

[fromport]

I bought 13585 for $7150 after buyer's premium.

That is imo not a bad deal!
I paid more for mine and it doesn't have a generator!
Mine did have the 2 light towers, but I took them off because of shading issues.

I still have to pay 6% sales tax and then the trailer license fee when the title arrives in about 2 weeks. Yes, it has the generator, but batteries were frozen and bulged. I knew that going in when bidding though. A gentleman who was helping pick up another one had a key and we were able to start the generator, but a lot of crap came out of the exhaust. These have been sitting for a few years, so not sure what to expect. I set my bid limits accordingly.

I got 2x 6Kw diesel light towers on trailers from craigslist instead. Just in case i need them.

Also note that you will need a truck with towing capacity about 9,000 lbs and a pintle hitch (unless you bring wrenches and ball to change it out). I just got the $77 Curt off Amazon and it worked fine with a 4WD Silverado with 4 cyl turbo.

Solid advice!
I pulled it with a pintle hitch with a 9600 lbs rated pickup without a problem. Had to drive 70 miles to pick it up.
I did change the pintle ring out to a ball setup at a later point. so much easier.

I gathered all information I could find about the DC-Power trailer and put them on my personal server (hosted at home, no trackers, slow connection)

Index of /solar/trailer/dcsolar/

If you have something I don't have yet, please share with me.

 

[TOU47]

That is imo not a bad deal!
I paid more for mine and it doesn't have a generator!
Mine did have the 2 light towers, but I took them off because of shading issues.



I got 2x 6Kw diesel light towers on trailers from craigslist instead. Just in case i need them.


Solid advice!
I pulled it with a pintle hitch with a 9600 lbs rated pickup without a problem. Had to drive 70 miles to pick it up.
I did change the pintle ring out to a ball setup at a later point. so much easier.

I gathered all information I could find about the DC-Power trailer and put them on my personal server (hosted at home, no trackers, slow connection)

Index of /solar/trailer/dcsolar/

If you have something I don't have yet, please share with me.

I would love to get one of the Kabota generators & think the light towers look pretty cool. So if anyone wants to get rid of a set... ?

 

[fromport]

I would love to get one of the Kabota generators & think the light towers look pretty cool. So if anyone wants to get rid of a set... ?

Those light towers LED lights run off 48V DC directly from the battery.
In the DC power setup they used a timer to turn them either manually on/off or on a programmable timer.
Small detail: that timer runs on 120V AC so you would need to power on one of the sunny islands to operate the timer unit and manually on/off.
That is a lot of power overhead to operate the LED lights

 

[TOU47]

Those light towers LED lights run off 48V DC directly from the battery.
In the DC power setup they used a timer to turn them either manually on/off or on a programmable timer.
Small detail: that timer runs on 120V AC so you would need to power on one of the sunny islands to operate the timer unit and manually on/off.
That is a lot of power overhead to operate the LED lights

I really like the telescopic & high power LED aspects of them & could see some useful applications on my ranch for them. Definitely didn't know those details though. Thank you for the clarifications. ?