How to not get completely scammed when purchasing solar panels.

[snoobler]

Too many times folks purchase panels from something like Wish or from anonymous on eBay, and they later realize they were sold LIES.

Sanity check your purchase in the following two ways:

Panel Length, L, in meters
Panel Width, W, in meters.

1000W/m^2 * L * W * 0.2 = absolute maximum possible power output from the panel.

Additionally, you can multiply Vmp and Imp to get max power. That should get you a near exact number.

If those aren't available Voc and Isc values can be multiplied to an optimistically high number by 20-30%.

The less information available to confirm the above, the more likely it's a scam.

Good luck.

 

[HRTKD]

Local retailers are available to buy new panels from. Sometimes they're hard to find though.

I found a retailer that had the panels I wanted but they were located a day's drive away (round trip). I was so frustrated at what I could find online and how much I was going to pay for shipping that a day's drive sounded pretty good. It turned out the retailer was going to have me pick up the panels from a "warehouse" 25 minutes from my house. When the retailer got pissy on other components, I bailed. I then tracked down the "warehouse", which turned out to be a normal retail warehouse. I called them up and ended up buying the exact same panel for $60 less (each).

When looking around I found a number of panels that were skimpy on specs. Like snoobler said, a lack of information should be a red flag.

 

[GXMnow]

If buying a used panel, try to meet close to noon, bring a meter and check the VOC and ISC to see if the panel is even working.

 

[Forbisher]

Don't get scammed on Wish.com by Never buying solar panels, inverters and other solar gear on there.
Yes. Do not buy from Wish as even if the description, photos and specs check out you can't guarantee you will be receiving that.
Wish is loaded with scams and fakes plus low quality merchandise.
Once one merchant on Wish claims a 100 watt panel as 300 watts, etc most of the others will follow suite to compete.
And sales tactics like claiming a so called 300 watt panel was marked down from $2000 to $200! should be a huge red flag of not to send money.

Wish preys on people who know liittle to nothing about solar.

 

[snoobler]

Cheap 20,000watt inverter from (WISH) claim its ready to go plug in panels and battery and it is the real deal

Hope anyone on here has tried/ debunk there supposed amazing 20000 watt inverter solar powered system capable of running 110 volt to 220 volts and DC 12 volt and DC 24 volt... The solar panels in batteries are not included but that's the cheeks Park compared to the 20000 watt inverter system if...

diysolarforum.com