Harbor Freight Solar Panel Review & DIY - Episode 3

[@jackraintree4351]

I mounted the same panels on my camper and at 60 mph there doing great

[@DIYJeff]

@jack raintree, wow, that's impressive. I would never have trusted these panels at those wind loads, lol.

[@michaelrizzo5492]

I love in Florida as well. I used rectangular plastic stock and VHB tape to mount it to my metal roof. I then screwed the panels to the solid plastic stock. No holes in my roof. I only have 2 sets so far. But I plan on more. Eventually I will put a rack system on the main roof along with better panels. But these aren’t panels I have from Irma, so it’s my start.

[@davidpotter9462]

Yeah there's quite a bit of shade on the roof there...that probably won't work out...I welded up some one inch square pipe frames to go around my panels, I put 2 in each frame...we had 50 mph wind here today but it might blow one day then nothing the next..could be worse..I hear Colorado is gonna get 30 inches of snow...their solar ain't gonna work for awhile either

[@gene4390]

For starters the Harbor Freight solar panels come with their own stands. I don't believe the figures given to you by Harbor Freight are accurate. More than likely they didn't know and gave you an easy answer. When you link them together with their brackets (top and bottom) they are pretty sturdy. Up here in PA as far as their glass I leave mine out all year in a large open garden (powering various pond water and air pumps). Mine have taken winds up to 60-70MPH without a problem (again attached to each other). A bear played with them once and I had to clean the muddy paw prints off the glass. But no breakage. I have known others who have mounted these panels on the roofs of their garages and houses without any issues (Georgia and CA). Their videos are all over KZbin. I don't know how well they would handle "large" ball hail but have been ok through the small stuff. If you were worried about hail you might be able to mount a plexi glass shield over the whole solar array or use a tarp. My only recommendation is if you mount any kind of solar panels to your roof frame a small air gap under the panels for proper cooling. This is standard for any kind of solar mounting. Hope this info helps.

[@jacobbell8078]

Looking for Episode 4. I am assuming you returned them because of the lack of wind protection. 90 day warranty is short. Amorphous is the best for me though. I seen some amorphous 24v 136w rolls that are 18 foot by 15 inches wide. Those are tempting to just have outside along the south ground or something like a side of a fence. So so far i have 1 hf kit and be getting 3 more by mid october. I haven't bought anything yet for grid tie inverters (microinverter) as I want a cheapest you can get that has ability to turn off grid feed back to electric company completely. They dont have any good incentives here so i would rather limit it completely and not even bother with any agreements, rate hikes , shortchanges, codes(i care though)or any other punishments they do to us here for self generation. I just want to self generate and use my home ac box. I dont find any cases on the news where someone got shut off for unauthorized grid feed if my loads got to low to be consumed by excess production, but im sure they would love to make me the first as an example, so i dont want to chance it and go ahead and wait and spend the 1000 bucks on the ability to limit my grid tie inverter in that manner as to just use AC to supplement what my solar cant.

[@michaelmendez8516]

What did you land up doing to final hook up?

[@DIYJeff]

Michael Mendez, I did finish final hookup, but I've been slammed and haven't had time to film and produce a video. It's on my list to do though.

[@thomasdipaolo2349]

New sub. Really appreciate your videos. I also just bought the HFT solar kits. Please provide link for the micro inverter would be great. Thanks

[@DIYJeff]

thomas dipaolo, thanks for subscribing. If you're able to run into 240v then here's the best price on the internet on ebay: www.ebay.com/itm/NEP-Solar-Microinverter-260w-AC-Panel-240vac-Micro-Inverter/161307738494?hash=item258eb0c17e:g:MyIAAOxyItRTdTiI:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!32128!US!-1:rk:1:pf:0 But if you need to run into 120 volts then you'll need their low voltage model and they are near impossible to find. Currently unavailable on Amazon but here's the link so you can see it: www.amazon.com/NEP-Grid-tie-Inverter-compliant-MicroInverter/dp/B07B4L3F42/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

[@MrSummitville]

This makes no sense. You have a 600 Watt Grid-Tie system and at 10 Cents per kilo-watt ... your system generates only 0.6 Cents per hour in FULL sunlight. Let's say that you get 5 hours of FULL sunlight every day ... $10.95 worth of electricity per YEAR = 0.6 cents/hour x 5 hours/day x 365 days/year. To get a 10 YEAR pay-back you cannot spend more than $100 TOTAL !

[@DIYJeff]

Mr. Summitville, you are correct. It's certainly not a highly efficient system. Correctly running a meter on it to find some daily, monthly, and weekly kwh averages.

[@chrisb3976]

If a plane leaves Boston at 12 noon and a car leaves NYC at 12 noon which method of transportation will get to Philadelphia first?

[@MrSummitville]

@@chrisb3976 Stop being a clown .,.,.