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diy solar

Rosen Solar from Alibaba, anyone have experience?

Some great questions, and I have no idea but very curious to see the answers!
 
I'm curious, as I don't know exactly how tariffs work so excuse my ignorance. Everyone says if you're in the US, it's not worth it to import from china. But US has a 15% tariff on solar (down from 30 when Trump first made the tariff. Or is it still at 20%?).

Rosen Solar, for example, sells a full 10Kw off grid kit, with mounting and battery backup, for $8000. Even 15% on 8k is just over $1000 which is still WAY cheaper than anything I could find in the US. Most kits I find here for a similar system run 15-20k easy. So what am I missing?
Make sure you are looking at real quotes. I contacted Rosen through Alibaba for one of their panel listings and their price was 20% higher than the listing showed.

You also have to factor in shipping, tax, and insurance into your cost plus tariffs, so it starts to add up. If you can get DDP by all means use it. Unfortunately, with DDP they often skimp on insurance in these cases so if something gets damaged, it can be a lot of hassle. FOB is considered the gold standard since you control the insurance and what happens in your arrival country, but it often requires a freight forwarder.

If all goes well, you can probably come in around 1/3 to 1/2 the price of buying locally with a bit of luck and effort. You also have to make sure that what you buy has the necessary approvals that you need. I've run into issues with the approvals recently since the IEC 61730 certificates are not longer valid for various suppliers current models.
 
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@gramos100, @jonasgranlund, and anybody else that has ordered from Rosen.

Any updates on product quality?

I checked with them on pricing and panels are competitive at US$0.22/W for 72-cell 400W all-black mono PERC panels (Alibaba listing showed US$0.19/W). Cables, mounting rails, and other items are less expensive to purchase locally.

Rosen isn't my top choice for solar panels since their assembly line appears to be largely a manual process, but they are actually willing to do a small order of 34 panels. All of the other places that have CEC / IEC61730 certification will only do full 40-foot container loads of all-black panels since they don't have stock.
 
I checked with them on pricing and panels are competitive at US$0.22/W for 72-cell 400W all-black mono PERC panels (Alibaba listing showed US$0.19/W). Cables, mounting rails, and other items are less expensive to purchase locally.
Curious, does this include delivery / custom fees ( I see you are in New Zealand ? ) ? If not what would be $/W including those ?
 
Curious, does this include delivery / custom fees ( I see you are in New Zealand ? ) ? If not what would be $/W including those ?
That is just the panel cost. For 1 pallet (typically around 30 panels), cost is likely about NZ$1,800 for shipping, insurance, and port fees. Add 15% GST and exchange rate and you are looking at roughly NZ$0.50 to NZ$0.60 per watt assuming you can purchase them for US$0.22/W. Most vendors that have all-black panels available in pallet-lot quantities seem to be selling them for US$0.245/W to US$0.30/W.

The best price I have found within New Zealand is around NZ$0.85 / W, so importing is cheaper, but any issues in shipping could quickly eat up the margin for a single personal import. When I started pricing everything based upon the prices reported in Alibaba it was going to be about 1/3 the cost, but once I added in the requirement for all-black and >= 390W per panel, the cost has crept up to the point where it is marginal.
 
Hi, all I'm also purchasing a carport designed for solar panels to be installed on it,$1200.00
24 430 watt half cell panels at $96
Combiner box 8 in 2 out $710
Growatt 10kt split phase inverter $$1495
3 Rosen 48v 200ah powerwall batteries $2150 each
Misc.other components. Total for solar components about $11000
Shipping will be direct from Gaungzhuo to the Caribbean, cost for my last container was $4000 . A container was my best option, I filled it up. I plan to again
Where in the Caribbean? Comparing Rosen, BSL, Sigineer, and United Power Tech for bespoke system quotes shipped as a kit to Belize.

Definitely interested in real reviews on Rosen and the other three. Impressed with Franklin's support at Sigineer.

Almost certainly using Sigineer (but Growatt is the same 5kW High Frequency clone of the same Taiwanese base model as far as I can tell) inverter, but most of them agreed to bundle it, even though Rosen seems to have a partnership with Growatt. Quoting a total of 6pc 48 or 51.2V 200Ah, four 5000W EU style inverters, and going for a pallet of 560W (RSM or Jinko Tiger Pro). Will then feed a generator into a remote (dock and garden) inverter + 5 panels and one battery out on a 20' shipping container. Will use that outdoors but also feed it into one of three parallel inverters with 5 batteries and three 7s strings on the roof of my house.
 
Where in the Caribbean? Comparing Rosen, BSL, Sigineer, and United Power Tech for bespoke system quotes shipped as a kit to Belize.

Definitely interested in real reviews on Rosen and the other three. Impressed with Franklin's support at Sigineer.

Almost certainly using Sigineer (but Growatt is the same 5kW High Frequency clone of the same Taiwanese base model as far as I can tell) inverter, but most of them agreed to bundle it, even though Rosen seems to have a partnership with Growatt. Quoting a total of 6pc 48 or 51.2V 200Ah, four 5000W EU style inverters, and going for a pallet of 560W (RSM or Jinko Tiger Pro). Will then feed a generator into a remote (dock and garden) inverter + 5 panels and one battery out on a 20' shipping container. Will use that outdoors but also feed it into one of three parallel inverters with 5 batteries and three 7s strings on the roof of my house.
This is fascinating, so hope to hear more when it arrives and you get it set up! Also any idea what import duty fees are on all of this?
 
The system all arrived ok ,but there was some handling damage to the main box with the 400w panels . After unloading I can find no actual damage. What is strange though is that the 28 panels were stood UP on edge on the pallet ? This of course allowed them to shift left and right so it was inevitable the plywood box would come under strain.Thanks to a skilled forklift driver the crate stayed together as it was put inside my van.They should have been stacked flat , not on edge .Minus 1 for Rosen my advice to anyone buying from Rosen solar is to specify stronger packing crates , the smaller crates were made in the same cheap base plywood and there are various compression dings , so far no damage has been found .
 
This is fascinating, so hope to hear more when it arrives and you get it set up! Also any idea what import duty fees are on all of this?
In Belize 12.5% GST and steep duties on components. Bona fide kits get favorable treatment, but I am just getting started with customs aspects. I expect 25% all in on the kit. Pallet of panels, six batteries, a rack, and four inverters MIGHT fit on two pallets and cost a bit over $1000 freight from one estimate. I am not ordering till fall. Planning and filing for building permit soon.
 
The system all arrived ok ,but there was some handling damage to the main box with the 400w panels . After unloading I can find no actual damage. What is strange though is that the 28 panels were stood UP on edge on the pallet ? This of course allowed them to shift left and right so it was inevitable the plywood box would come under strain.Thanks to a skilled forklift driver the crate stayed together as it was put inside my van.They should have been stacked flat , not on edge .Minus 1 for Rosen my advice to anyone buying from Rosen solar is to specify stronger packing crates , the smaller crates were made in the same cheap base plywood and there are various compression dings , so far no damage has been found .
Sorry to hear that. Is 28 their full pallet for those panels or did they just load panels onto a pallet?
 
This is fascinating, so hope to hear more when it arrives and you get it set up! Also any idea what import duty fees are on all of this?
Aha , there's , I'm glad someone has asked about this ?I am in EU, Greece and I paid 24%VAT plus 434e customs charges . But the shipping agency charged me 464USD plus this and that plus vat on all of the extra charges and it came to more than the customs bill ! On a listed import cost of 5195 USD it added 2923 USD /2400 euros !!! Rosen had originally advised me that there were very few charges made for RE equipment entering Greece/EU , they were wrong ,I paid dearly.
 
How did that work out @gramos100?
It has arrived and looks ok , packaging was not strong enough for the contents and for some reason the panels were packed inside a crate on edge? This caused them to shift left and right , at sea? so the crate was damaged , luckily the panels are fine , see my other recent post.
 
Sorry to hear that. Is 28 their full pallet for those panels or did they just load panels onto a pallet?
I only ordered 28 panels and the crate must have been made to suit , but why on edge? Flat stacking is safest for solar panels , that's how they're stacked now ?
 
Well I just placed my order from Rosen for 2 DEYE 8k inverters and 6 48v 200Ah batteries... I'll let everyone know how it goes once it arrives.
You receive the order how much rhey charge you for the deye inverters
 
No... just ordered less than 2 weeks ago, so still hasn't shipped.

$2080 USD for the inverter and probably 18% duties on top (I'm assuming it will be probably more like 25% with some unexpected fees)

$750 total for shipping to the port of Tulsa, but that included 2 inverters and 6 batteries.
 
No... just ordered less than 2 weeks ago, so still hasn't shipped.

$2080 USD for the inverter and probably 18% duties on top (I'm assuming it will be probably more like 25% with some unexpected fees)

$750 total for shipping to the port of Tulsa, but that included 2 inverters and 6 batteries.
I ordered 2 8 kw Deye’s as well. They shipped about 3 weeks ago. Talking to the customs agent in Chicago, I’ll get hit with around a 25% import fee plus a couple hundred dollar fees along the way too. Still cheaper than 2 sol-arks though.
 
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