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Solar Panel Deal Thread

O

OKC Yeakey Trentadue

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 24, 2021
Messages
3,136
This will be an ongoing thread for those looking for panels.

** edit, out of stock **

Signature Solar had 575w panel pallets that come to 11 cents a watt. Caveats are they need to be shipped to a dock or buisness and they have blemishes.

Still, they are new and should produce plenty of power. You could probably sell half of them and get most of your money back.

https://signaturesolar.com/waaree-pallet-of-575w-bifacial-solar-panels-grade-b-31-panels/

Ends 5/26/26
 
That was quite the deal, I paid 20 cents a watt a couple years ago from signaturesolar for my 100 500 watt bifacials panels (400 watt on the front, 500 with bifacial).
 
for smaller deals, I've seen a surge lately of people getting 100watt Ecoworthy panels off aliexpress.us for $33

it requires the latest aliexpress codes which can be easily googled but it ships from US warehouse
 
I dunno if I'd do the Eco-Worthy panels, there is a reason they being moved at $33. Out door lighting projects, something for a shed on occasion maybe. There are better panels to be had.

Now the batteries they have......

48v 314ah $1600 on Ebay with code LONGWEEKEND
The EW 12v 280ah I have seen for less than $300 lately on AliExpress. with code JJY30K
 
well $33 was an all-time low, it's been over $40 most times

as far as batteries the 12v 100ah has been $96 recently with bluetooth monitoring and I'd rather have an array of those than a single point of failure in one of their monster-sized packs, it is also easier to move around a 100ah pack than 280ah


DealzRGood4U said:
ECO-WORTHY (Brand+) Store via AliExpress [aliexpress.us]. ECO-WORTHY 12V 100AH LiFePO4 Lithium Battery with Bluetooth 1280Wh 4000+ Cycles $96 + Free Shipping from US warehouse.

Orange battery is $96 using coupon for $12 off at checkout USSS12
Click to expand...
 
I support this thread. I'm in a bad state for solar (Oregon), but if I ever get some land I will probably build my own array on the ground.

Also, yeah, not sure about eco-worthy for panels, but I have their batteries for my boat trolling motor, my nephew's electric tractor, my trailer winch, etc and they have been good so far.
 
vibe said:
well $33 was an all-time low, it's been over $40 most times

as far as batteries the 12v 100ah has been $96 recently with bluetooth monitoring and I'd rather have an array of those than a single point of failure in one of their monster-sized packs, it is also easier to move around a 100ah pack than 280ah
Click to expand...
All depends on what the usage is for. I'd rather run a single 48v than an array of four 12v. Easier to balance, wire up, (smaller wire size needed) and maintain.
While the 48v 314 ah battery has some weight to it, it does roll around on it's wheels pretty well. Not that it gets moved around a lot. 16kWh makes for a decent backup for a home

The 12v 280ah are a bit longer than the 100ah versions, but they are still pretty easy to manage. I have two of them setup as an "extra" capacity for an Ecoflow Delta 3 Max. Makes for a portable 8700 watt hour power source.

The Bluetooth that comes with the batteries is, ok. The app is trash but says most of what you would need to look at. It's not perfect though. A proper battery monitor is usually needed. Especially if you intend to use the batteries for anything that really matters during an emergency or outage.

The Eco Worthy 12 100ah for $100 is a pretty fair price. It's nice to see batteries that are affordable these days.
I have some Eco Worthy 195 watt monofacial panels. They work but they aren't super efficient. They usually run between $120 to $150 these days. The bifacial ones haven't gotten the greatest reviews. They seem to do worse than the monfacial ones. They do work though, as long as you plan your system out accordingly
 
I'm not sure if I would ever bother with batteries. The economics of the battery just don't make sense to me. Expensive to set up, might wear out very fast. Would rather just offset AC/PC cost during daytime. Would make a huge difference and pay itself off in probably 4-6 months to be honest.

Maybe they've gotten better or more affordable lately though. Haven't looked.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I'm not sure if I would ever bother with batteries. The economics of the battery just don't make sense to me. Expensive to set up, might wear out very fast. Would rather just offset AC/PC cost during daytime. Would make a huge difference and pay itself off in probably 4-6 months to be honest.

Maybe they've gotten better or more affordable lately though. Haven't looked.
Click to expand...
lifep04 batteries still have 80+% capacity after 5-6000 charges, they last a long time and are super stable.
 
if anyone sees deals or has experience/opinions on those super thin and flexible solar panels I am specifically interested in them as I live in an apartment and cannot put up a permanent hard fixture

but I've seen ads for the flexible ones hanging off campers so I was thinking I could hang them like outside curtains, lol

I also have a door overhang that I could probably hide one above until the landlord is someday on the roof and looks down but it would have to be thin

too bad they don't make them in brown roof tile colors so you can hide them, the black makes it too obvious

I know the flexible puts out less power but only option really for me, also you typically cannot get than more than 100 watts

I have a 1500watt power station with a XT60 input so want to plug it into that, can a DC XT60 connector go 20 feet without too much power loss?

it can take any input volts/amps up to 60v 500watts
 
The thin portable panels I was always told to avoid. They under perform and just don't last.

With that being said I have three of the Ecoflow 220 Watt bifacials. They always seem to do their job when I used them. I wouldn't suggest them at their current price. I managed to get mine on sale for about $250 ea.
Looks like on the site currently, you can get one for $479 or two for $100 more.

The 400 watt ones don't seem worth the price.

As for the XT60, I run 12awg MC4 to XT60 in 20' with no issues. How long of a run are you looking at?
 
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vibe said:
if anyone sees deals or has experience/opinions on those super thin and flexible solar panels I am specifically interested in them as I live in an apartment and cannot put up a permanent hard fixture

but I've seen ads for the flexible ones hanging off campers so I was thinking I could hang them like outside curtains, lol

I also have a door overhang that I could probably hide one above until the landlord is someday on the roof and looks down but it would have to be thin

too bad they don't make them in brown roof tile colors so you can hide them, the black makes it too obvious

I know the flexible puts out less power but only option really for me, also you typically cannot get than more than 100 watts

I have a 1500watt power station with a XT60 input so want to plug it into that, can a DC XT60 connector go 20 feet without too much power loss?

it can take any input volts/amps up to 60v 500watts
Click to expand...
Have you looked to see if balcony solar kits are allowed in your area? Might be worth looking into instead of the thin portable panels.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I'm not sure if I would ever bother with batteries. The economics of the battery just don't make sense to me. Expensive to set up, might wear out very fast. Would rather just offset AC/PC cost during daytime. Would make a huge difference and pay itself off in probably 4-6 months to be honest.

Maybe they've gotten better or more affordable lately though. Haven't looked.
Click to expand...
Depends on your juristiction/company. Once you supply power, you're liable for additional grid service and distribution maintenance fees, which includes destabilizing the grid with non-reactive power, resulting in more capacitive storage needing to be built.
 
Gorilla said:
I support this thread. I'm in a bad state for solar (Oregon), but if I ever get some land I will probably build my own array on the ground.
Click to expand...

I'm in Washington, which was a bad state for solar, but with PSE, $/kWh just about doubled over the last three years and there's some more price hikes scheduled. I have a nice south facing roof on an outbuilding, and the math pencils out, so we're in progress of getting a new roof and solar on top. No batteries because the outbuilding is on its own meter and the house has an automatic generator; it's never been a big deal that the outbuilding goes offline with the utility power, losing the generation credit for a day or two won't be awful either (probably in the winter with bad weather anyway)
 
were these from the location near dallas tx? just wondering as its not far from me and thought about visiting when i'm able to add batteries and a system to my home after getting the roof done in a few weeks.
 
I'm needing to add some lightinng to a hundred year old detached garage that used to be a barn.

No power currently and I'm thinking one or two batteries, about 4 big 6 foot LED strips, and some panels on the east side of the roof (the peak runs N/S so only one face or another).

Only needs to run for 15 to 30 minutes a day and maybe 2 hours tops on a weekend in the winter.

Any ideas on how much panel?
 
Looking on amazon a 6ft LED shop light uses 60 watts so even x4 thats 240 watts at 30 minutes that only 120watt hours. so a 12v 100ah battery thats probably around 100 bucks has 1200 watt hours so that would last 10 hours on those alone. One 400 or 500 watt panel would run the lights and still have enough to charge the battery but probably wouldn't be necessary.
 
hot battery deals borrowed from SD

$111 for 150ah has to be some kind of record outside of refurbished

iconian said:
ships from the USA warehouse
Click to expand...
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I'm not sure if I would ever bother with batteries. The economics of the battery just don't make sense to me. Expensive to set up, might wear out very fast. Would rather just offset AC/PC cost during daytime. Would make a huge difference and pay itself off in probably 4-6 months to be honest.

Maybe they've gotten better or more affordable lately though. Haven't looked.
Click to expand...
Depends a great deal on your solar production hours and peak rates. For me, the battery covers the second half of peak time when my solar is producing little to nothing. So I'm using solar, or $0.16 off-peak power to charge it and riding through the $0.38/kWh peak time. Most of the time, baring cloud cover, I'm fully charged by ~2 PM and exporting from then until peak time occurs, then the battery and solar together usually get me through to 10 or 11 PM before hitting the 30% reserve I have set. Between battery and solar (and my crappy roof geometry and overly tall neighboring trees) I'm at ~70% usage offset. Considering a monthly usage of ~2500kWh, it's definitely making a billing difference to be able to offset peak power that's nearly 2.5x the cost of off-peak.

On the ECO-WORTHY 5kw 48v, I see the max discharge amps is 120, is that peak or continuous? I have on and off thought of getting some of these 48v LiFePO4 batteries to use in place of SLA for my UPS (seeing as they have very similar voltage ranges), but I keep finding units that may match SLA for a peak discharge, but not continuous (the 4x12V strings in the UPS are delivering ~29 amps continuous at the UPS max output of 1350W).

And that 16kWh unit certainly has my interest, even at its normal $2k price.
 
w1retap said:
Depends on your juristiction/company. Once you supply power, you're liable for additional grid service and distribution maintenance fees, which includes destabilizing the grid with non-reactive power, resulting in more capacitive storage needing to be built.
Click to expand...
This. Backfeed hybrid inverters also cost more. My 314ah lifepo4 has almost cut my bill in half using TOU service. Plus its great for potential outages.
 
Baenwort said:
I'm needing to add some lightinng to a hundred year old detached garage that used to be a barn.

No power currently and I'm thinking one or two batteries, about 4 big 6 foot LED strips, and some panels on the east side of the roof (the peak runs N/S so only one face or another).

Only needs to run for 15 to 30 minutes a day and maybe 2 hours tops on a weekend in the winter.

Any ideas on how much panel?
Click to expand...
Honestly a couple of cheap used 300w panels would be plenty for your use. I run a chicken coupe off a single 350w panel with a victron 100/20 at 12v and it is fine most days. Lights plus heat lamp winter, fan summer. 2x 12v used agm batteries I got for free.
 
LodeRunner said:
Depends a great deal on your solar production hours and peak rates. For me, the battery covers the second half of peak time when my solar is producing little to nothing. So I'm using solar, or $0.16 off-peak power to charge it and riding through the $0.38/kWh peak time. Most of the time, baring cloud cover, I'm fully charged by ~2 PM and exporting from then until peak time occurs, then the battery and solar together usually get me through to 10 or 11 PM before hitting the 30% reserve I have set. Between battery and solar (and my crappy roof geometry and overly tall neighboring trees) I'm at ~70% usage offset. Considering a monthly usage of ~2500kWh, it's definitely making a billing difference to be able to offset peak power that's nearly 2.5x the cost of off-peak.

On the ECO-WORTHY 5kw 48v, I see the max discharge amps is 120, is that peak or continuous? I have on and off thought of getting some of these 48v LiFePO4 batteries to use in place of SLA for my UPS (seeing as they have very similar voltage ranges), but I keep finding units that may match SLA for a peak discharge, but not continuous (the 4x12V strings in the UPS are delivering ~29 amps continuous at the UPS max output of 1350W).

And that 16kWh unit certainly has my interest, even at its normal $2k price.
Click to expand...
5kw 48v server batteries are almost always 100a continous.

Look into Basen Green. They have good 16kw deals and they are JK BMS.
 
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