diy solar

diy solar

Price of solar panels

Zanzibar

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Aug 7, 2020
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Hey guys

I just bought 5 310w Chinese solar panels for 110 dollars per piece here in Switzerland.
And Will talks about a 100$ for 100w.
Whats wrong im America ?

Erwin from Switzerland
 
Yes, you can buy super cheap panels direct from China. The difference will be seen in 5 years time. Drop in and let us know how your panels are going :)

If you want a decent panel from China, where most of them are made anyway, you still need to pay a reasonable price for it.
 
Yes, you can buy super cheap panels direct from China. The difference will be seen in 5 years time. Drop in and let us know how your panels are going :)

If you want a decent panel from China, where most of them are made anyway, you still need to pay a reasonable price for it.
Well today is August 7th 2020. What would you (all) say is it good price per hundred Watts right now? I'm gonna also post a question about some used REC panels I found..
 
price per hundred Watts right now?
If you are contemplating buying a stack of 100w panels, you should consider big cheap panels. Its pretty common to find $.50 per watt for panels on craigslist. Also santan solar among a couple others searchable here or recommendations for simply asking.
 
Hey guys

I just bought 5 310w Chinese solar panels for 110 dollars per piece here in Switzerland.
And Will talks about a 100$ for 100w.
Whats wrong im America ?

Erwin from Switzerland

I paid $159/330W panel shipped for a Taiwan made panel from a reputable U.S. vendor.

So you have panels that are a little cheaper. Cool. Come back and brag again when the cost of living in Switzerland isn't 70% higher than the U.S.
 
i live in switzerland and i am interested where you find this price.
delivery form china or pick up in switzerland ?
because panels are huge and heavy, so shipping cost should be very high.
probably higher than the price of panels.

cost of living in Switzerland is pretty steady around the country, that is not the case in USA, so i think it is difficult to compare.
probably we are at the level of a New-Yorker.
median salary is 4500$/ month and it is considered as low , so you get the idea.
good salary is about 8000$/month
over 10.000 is not uncommon (teacher at end of career for example)
the McDonald Big Tasty is about 9$ and the small french fries is about 4$
 
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I paid $159/330W panel shipped for a Taiwan made panel from a reputable U.S. vendor.

So you have panels that are a little cheaper. Cool. Come back and brag again when the cost of living in Switzerland isn't 70% higher than the U.S.


I have Hanwha 345w cells comming from a US supplier for $165. With shipping the panels will be $0.52/w

Links to vendors / panels please
 
well , i know people who sell 2nd hand panels from Germany where they dismantle a big solar plant.
you can get the panels for nothing (20$) but no frame, they are full glass transparent etc...
but new panels , 310W for 110$ (i paid mine 220$ for 250W panels), it looks to good to be true.
more details would be welcome.
 
Check out some of the deals that @upnorthandpersonal has all the way to Finland. I don't think they come all that way by Sea. They come through some big port in Europe if I am not mistaken.

Mine went on the Cosco shipping line, North Europe service. The ship mores at several ports in Europe, Piraeus in Greece is the first one, after that Rotterdam, Hamburg and on the way back Antwerp. Mine went to Rotterdam and then transferred by ship to Helsinki and from there on by truck to my place (500km further north).

For reference, this was a shipment of 20 500W (96 cell) panels. I paid €4140 for them, including shipment, VAT, etc. That's €207 per panel, or €0.4 per Watt. I could get them cheaper but I paid a premium to get them from Helsinki to my place. If I wouldn't have done that, It'd be at €0.35 per Watt. Pre-Covid, I would have gotten them for €0.33/Watt everything included.
 
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Hey guys

I just bought 5 310w Chinese solar panels for 110 dollars per piece here in Switzerland.
And Will talks about a 100$ for 100w.
Whats wrong im America ?

Erwin from Switzerland

Hello Erwin,

From which supplier did you buy? Are you happy and tested them?


Question to the experts of this forum:

I got some flexible panels from china, reviews are good, when I tested them I couldn't even get the Isc amperage.

My testing conditions were at noon on a full sun day, panel facing south and tilted towards the sun (ca. 35°). The Panel is at normal temperature since I just took it out for testing, so not sitting under the sun.
I should get close to the specifications right?

I've seen lots of youtube videos where people are showing their panels rated 80W or 100W and they get on a sunny day that power out of it.
I'm wondering if that should be the case or the ratings are difficult to achieve.

I tested a 50W panel, got 2.5 amps instead of 3amps under a load. Paid 50$ for it.
If I were to run that panel at Vmp (17.6) , I would "only" get 44W .

So my question is, do you guys get the rated Power out of your panels? can we rely on chinese panels? which supplier could you recommend?
 
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I bought 14 410W Tier 1 Panels the other week from a solar company for $900
More than I normally pay but they were new and they were 400's so worth it to me.
For used panels my Maximum I will pay is $50 Kw and they need to be REAL good panels for that. Mostly I pay 20-$25 Kw and usualy less.

As for Chinese panels, Not a lot aren't. I have handled Hundreds now and found only 3 that were no good when tested and one of those was a German made one. Even 10 Yo Chinese panels I have never seen have any problem and most seem to have experienced Minimal degradation. I'm sure there is some real crap out there but to assume all Chinese panels are Crap would be real ignorance. Some of the best rated panels are Chinese. Let me say that I'm talking about proper house type panels, not camping or any other type which are almost gauranteed to be suspect unless bought from a known Retailer... and then somewhat questionable.

What I'm wondering is why in hell anyone would be bothered stuffing round with piddly little 100W panels for home/ fixed use?

Maybe that's why people are finding them no good? I won't even touch 190W panels now because there is no market for them. I'm even starting to wonder about doing 250's Given how many 275's and 300's are on the used market. I'm taking all the 250's and lower off my own house and selling them off while I can still get something for them and the smallest I'm replacing them with is 285's and I'm a bit in 2 minds about that as well. Might put them on the shed and just keep the house roof for for the 360s and 410's I just bought.

Buying panels online from Fleabay and the like is asking for trouble. Nothing is true to rating on those sites and 90% of the sellers are sleazy con men selling this sort of product out of china.
You can turn it to your advantage though although not so easy with panels. I have been buying a LOT of electrical things like LED lights for one.
SO many of them are given ridiculous ratings that there is no possibility they can achieve. I order them knowing they are fake,. Do an unboxing Video and test the things with Multi meters and show they don't make rating. I then claim a return on not as described goods. 9 times out of 10 they will simply refund so I get the often OK but over rated lights for nothing. Some of them are really good, they are just not what the sellers inflate the claims to be and I haven't failed yet in picking them. One day I'll buy something that IS as advertised but that seems to be furter and further away with everything I buy that's completely over rated.
Friends and I are doing well out of calling out these scammers.

I thought at first I'd run out of shonky operators to buy from but I see now that's never going to happen. Fleabay is a complete and utter cesspit of shonky sellers and I would be very careful about buying anything I wanted to be right from there. Batteries are another one, always given laughable capacity ratings as is anything most people don't know about or have the knowledge to test.

Solar panels are well known to be of fictitious rating from online sites.
There are ways of getting top quality panels cheap but it's sure as heck not buying them online!
Can you give the link to where you bought them from? I am wanting to buy higher wattage panels myself!
 
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