Solar Panels - Whats The Latest News?

[liveaboard60]

Originally Posted by Symphony

thanks for this thread. besides cost, what are the implications or differences between the controllers?

thank you in advance

If you do a google search on "MPPT and PWM controllers" you will find several white papers which are wonderful.. I spent the past hour reading a couple of the articles - very informative.. flk k

[Boatguy30]

Calder and Bruce Schwab did the best marine based testing. Basically they suggest a separate MPPT controller for each panel. That what I have (genasun) and it works great plus you have the redundancy.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

Brand New Solar Synergy 320W Semi Flexible US $399.00 per 320W panel.

Given that on a cat you could easily have 4, 5 or even 6 panels I think the cost for max power is incredible. I am still looking for 400W and above single panels but these 320 W ones look great. They are a little larger than the 100W panels so i don't understand why a person would worry about a couple of hundred dollars difference when you could get so much more power for the higher Watt output panels. At the end of the day don't forget what you are doing. Your are instilling your own portable reusable power plant. The cost of the panels in my opinion is the last thought given the portable reusable power that you gain. And what is the price saving while traveling when you can live off the hook with all mod cons rather than paying like hotel room rates for a marina berth.


New 320 Watt Semi Flexible Frameless Solar Panel 24V Volts 320W Made In USA!
24 Volt 320W Solar Panel Mono w/Junction Boxes

320 Watt 24 Volt Frameless Glass Front Semi Flexible Solar Panels

(Only $0.40 / Watt !! )


If you have any questions please call us at 1-888-202-1573. Thanks!

These panels are semi-flexible, glass front, framless, and include the junction boxes (packed separately.)

http://i66.tinypic.com/2vll2xu.jpg




New 320 Watt Semi Flexible Frameless Solar Panel 24V Volts 320W Made in USA | eBay

You would be amazed how ridiculously cheap some people are. They'd rather take a big risk on something and do it the hard way than just spend a few dollars to do it right.

Not only do they want free advice from people who actually do this for a living, a lot of the time they have no intention of even following through with any of it.

This isn't just in the boating world, this is universal. Incredibly cheap people everywhere. On one website I'm on, there is a married guy who actually starts threads begging for free stuff - a ride of about 300 mi, a replacement blender glass and lid, motox riding clothes for his kids, quad tires - you name it, the "man" has no shame. There's also a couple on there who would always post "oh, we wish we could make it to your get together but we can't afford the gas, boo hoo" until they got some gullible soul to actually send them gas money to attend. The right answer is: if you can't afford it, don't bother. Especially other people.

[liveaboard60]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

Brand New Solar Synergy 320W Semi Flexible US $399.00 per 320W panel.

<snip>
New 320 Watt Semi Flexible Frameless Solar Panel 24V Volts 320W Made In USA!
24 Volt 320W Solar Panel Mono w/Junction Boxes

320 Watt 24 Volt Frameless Glass Front Semi Flexible Solar Panels

(Only $0.40 / Watt !! )

<snip>

Did I read it correctly?? $250 shipping and handling costs for that $399 panel. Wow! At that price I could afford to drive out and pick it up myself..

flk k

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

I agree Newhaul. The price compared to other semi flex panels is a great price. Working out the best way to mount on a frame high up over the davits and in line with the back cockpit roof on a the cat is needing some thought. But I think attaching them to low gauge metal tubes that you can also run the wire through may be best solution.

By the way the shipping price doesn't go up very much for more panels.

3 - 8 Laminates = $296 S/H Anywhere within the USA mainland.

Looking at the spec sheet, that's the same address as Solarblvd.com, in Norco, CA. I've bought panels from them a number of times, usually 250 -280w panels in the 60 cents/watt range with free pickup.

While the frameless panels are slightly less weight, I think I'd prefer regular panels with frames for a boat install due to rigidity and mounting issues with teh frameless.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

You would be amazed how ridiculously cheap some people are. They'd rather take a big risk on something and do it the hard way than just spend a few dollars to do it right.

Not only do they want free advice from people who actually do this for a living, a lot of the time they have no intention of even following through with any of it.
.

I run into this all the time. But in the end customers do it my way . I don't give much on free advice . ( you get what you pay for)

[CaptBob84]

If you are looking to install a couple of KW of solar panels on a land based project and don't mind Chinese panels, you can find them out there for $0.60 per watt. Most boaters are looking for one or two panels, at that point the price goes up to the $1.00 to $1.50 per watt.
If you are look for smaller size panels, or ones the are flexible, the price can jump up even higher as those panels require more manual labor to make and do not have the same economies of scale as the larger solar panels

[newhaul]

Here's an update on those 320 watt panels the price per unit just got dropped severely. Don't know for how long but right now they are 139.00 USD each plus shipping as we already discussed
New 320 Watt Semi Flexible Frameless Solar Panel 24V Volts 320W Made in USA | eBay
Now it is actually about. 44¢ per watt.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Here's an update on those 320 watt panels the price per unit just got dropped severely. Don't know for how long but right now they are 139.00 USD each plus shipping as we already discussed
New 320 Watt Semi Flexible Frameless Solar Panel 24V Volts 320W Made in USA | eBay
Now it is actually about. 44¢ per watt.

Wow. Though larger in size than lower watt panels I think the size would work on a Cat.

[Matt Johnson]

With the glass front of these semi flexible panels, the weight goes up to the framed verity. Whats the value in going frameless if the weight is about the same? You can't walk on them. You cant flat mount them due to heat. They are too heavy to mount on a non-rigid bimini. I cant see the point. Now the 100 watt 3.5lb semi flexible seems great.

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[senormechanico]

Which begs the question. Even for a home system, how the heck DO you mount them??

[newhaul]

Mounting is a good question
An observation while looking for mounting options I found the 17% efficiency coupled with the comparable weight of 3 100watt ridged panels with a 22% efficiency that I install and the redundancyof multiple panels make it less and less of an option iI would recommend to my customers.

[GoingWalkabout]

On another thread dealing with electric motors, someone made the following statement. I haven't seen any reference material to the this claim but would sure like to understand if it is correct.

"One large bank will provide more usable power than two smaller ones. Battery output capacity drops as a function of how quickly you pull power out see Pukerts laws."

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

On another thread dealing with electric motors, someone made the following statement. I haven't seen any reference material to the this claim but would sure like to understand if it is correct.

"One large bank will provide more usable power than two smaller ones. Battery output capacity drops as a function of how quickly you pull power out see Pukerts laws."

Actually its a bit different than that . 22% efficient mono panels will provide usable power earlier in the day ( lower light ) than the 17% efficient poly flexible panels . So that equates to more power produced per day . Also several small panels also reduce the effect of shading on any one panel.

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Actually its a bit different than that . 22% efficient mono panels will provide usable power earlier in the day ( lower light ) than the 17% efficient poly flexible panels . So that equates to more power produced per day . Also several small panels also reduce the effect of shading on any one panel.

But in any install, you're now wasting sqin to extra frame of smaller/multiple panels. There's a entire row of cells that could be in that space of two frames butted together.

Matt



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