The Secret to Finding Cheap or FREE Solar Panels

Рет қаралды 6,680

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 30

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

For solar panels in stock ranked from least to most expensive click here: signaturesolar.com/shop-all/solar-panels/new/?_bc_fsnf=1&in_stock=1&ref=mobiledwellings&sort=priceasc

@dchubb42 5 ай бұрын

I got the ones we had for our bus from a local solar contractor. Solar contractors will purchase entire pallet loads from manufacturers and will often sell any spares from their order at "cost" which is basically wholesale or less.

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

Good call. Did you find them on Facebook marketplace?

@dchubb42 5 ай бұрын

@@MobileDwellings Yep that's right. They were a little over a two hour drive away from me.

@SuperSushidog 5 ай бұрын

The problem I had with signature solar is that they usually have 10 panel minimum. I could only fit 8, 550w panels on the roof of my 35 ft motorhome so I got mine from Sungold Power (the same place I got my all-in-one 5,000w inverter, 100A charger/charge controller. There you can buy as few as 2 at a time. They are state of the art, multi-bus, PERC panels that are only 44 cents/watt including shipping for 8 and come with a 25yr output warranty.

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

Those panels sound fantastic. Do you remember their dimensions? I would personally pay a bit of a premium to take the same route as you did especially if I was particular about the panels I wanted and willing to pay a premium over the 30 cent per watt panels anyway. I'll have to check them out.

@magnoliathebus 5 ай бұрын

We got our solar panels from Signature Solar! Putting 8 on the roof and saving two for other things. Nice to see Gilligan Phantom again 🙂

@MatthewYBarbo 5 ай бұрын

Very insightful information here on panels. Keep spreading the good word!!

@tammycruz8189 5 ай бұрын

Great Information Thanks Justin 😊

@mikaylatemp 2 күн бұрын

Any issues with the voltage being too high?

@francoismorin8721 Ай бұрын

Thanks foir sharing !

@decastring 5 ай бұрын

Signature Solar is a good option. But, what is your opinion of using used panels from SanTan Solar in Phoenix (Gilbert) AZ?

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

I wouldn't personally buy used panels that I couldn't do my own quality control on. Santan states that they're not responsible for damage in shipping and to order extra panels incase that happens. I'm not going to take that gamble at all when there are plenty of places locally where I can pick through used panels and get them for the same price or cheaper. Personally if the project is important to me I'm going to buy new panels or will take newer good condition panels locally.

@jimhoward6584 5 ай бұрын

A couple of friends and I have bought panels from San Tan and have not had any problems. We were only a couple hours away so we did drive there and get them. We only got small quantities----about 10-12 panels each They actually let us check the panels with our multi meter. You probably have looked at their website. The inventory is constantly changing. We paid about 17 cents per watt. Have had mine 2+ years ----working fine.

@4MAJAIA 5 ай бұрын

Yes! Thank you for this information xoxxoxo

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@Slackware1995 5 ай бұрын

If i can help it, I won't buy from Signature Solar again.

@MobileDwellings 5 ай бұрын

What happened?

@Slackware1995 5 ай бұрын

@@MobileDwellings I called and was assigned a sales Rep (that I later found was a lead sales Rep). I explained that I wanted 2 EG4 6000xp's, Ethernet modules for the 6000xp's, EG4 rackmount batteries, and EG4 chargevertor. I explained that I was installing in a 50 amp 5th wheel RV. The EG4 batteries would NOT be stacked. I requested a quote on those items and everything I needed to get the system running except solar panels. I told her I would place the order within 3 days as I was in a time crunch. She said that I needed bus bars and that was it. She said the Ethernet module and all cables that I needed were included. She sent me a quote that only had: (2) 6000xp (4) EG4 batteries (1) set of 2 bus bars I called her to verify that I didn't need communications cables or anything else and to find out details on shipping. She was at "lunch" at about 10am her time. I left a message requesting a call-back. I called again about 4pm her time. She verified that her quote included everything I needed. She informed me that the 6000xp's were on back order. I asked how long and she said that they should be in by Friday. I told her I needed to know for sure as I couldn't wait until next week. She said she'd talk to her supervisor and call me in the morning. She also sent a new quote (that I didn't notice at the time removed the bus bars because they were out of stock). The next day I called at about 1pm and she was at "lunch". I left a message requesting a call back. While waiting I contacted Current Connected. They had the 6000xp's but no batteries. I called her again around 5pm because she again didn't call me. She said that the 6000xp's would be in stock Friday, but that they would be going to customers that ordered the by the previous day. She said they would have more in a couple of weeks. I asked what happened to the bus bars and she had no idea. When she looked up my quote she said they were sold out with no ETA. While I was on hold while she figured out what was going on I found another bus bar on their website. She had no idea about it and claimed I'd have to get the Victron bus bar system (I would need 2). I had to read the description several times, give the item number and finally explain exactly where the other bus bars were on their website, this took over 1/2 hour (remember she is a lead sales Rep). I asked for a new quote for 3 batteries, the 2 bus bars, and the chargevertor. I verified that this was everything I needed except the 6000xp's. I asked about shipping and was told it should be 2 days to my location. I told her to send the new quote and I'd verify that the other company had the 6000xp's and place the order in the morning. At this point she informed me that Signature Solar is the primary distributor for EG4, if they didn't have the 6000xp no one would and implied that the other company would scam me. I called Current Connected back and verified that they had (2) 6000xp's in stock. He said they had 18 in stock. I asked about shipping and was told 2 days. I placed the order without asking further questions as I assumed Signature Solar had answered everything. That order was paid for Thursday evening and arrived Saturday around noon. The next morning I called Signature Solar again as I never got the updated quote. She was at "lunch" at about 9:30am her time. I requested a call back. At 1pm I called again and explained that I wanted to place my order and was in a time crunch. I was told that if my Rep didn't call me by 3 pm to call the lady that answered on her direct cell phone, something my sales Rep never offered. At about 3:15pm I called back and was sent to my sales Rep. She said she was in a meeting. I told her I was still waiting on an updated quote and I needed to order ASAP as Monday was a holiday. She said she'd send the quote. About an hour later I got the quote with the new bus bars but it still had 4 batteries. I called back and she had left for the day. I emailed her explaining I needed the quote updated so I could place my order in the morning. The next morning about 8am I called as no updated quote and was told she wasn't in yet. I was told she'd call me when she got in. About 11am she called me and hadn't read my email. She said, "You didn't need a new quote, just log into your account and change the number of batteries." She acted annoyed so I told her that I would have done that if I knew that I could. She had never mentioned it and I assumed we were doing the order via the quote. I paid for the order while she was on the phone and verified it would ship "today" and I'd get it in 2 days. She said "absolutely". I said "great, I'll get it in time to install before I leave next Friday morning to boondock camp. (I was planning on charging the batteries with a generator/chargevertor and use the 6000xp invertors to power the 5th wheel. The next day the 6000xp's arrived from Current Connected. When I installed them I found that they come with wifi modules, not Ethernet. Sunday I found out that I needed a combiner box for the AC outputs from the 6000xp. Tuesday morning I got an email from the shipping company to reserve a delivery date and time. I selected Thursday at 11am as that was the earliest available. Signature didn't ship my order on Friday and Monday was a holiday, so it didn't ship until Tuesday. On Thursday, of course, the driver was running late and didn't deliver until after 1pm. This means I had that afternoon to install the batteries, cabling and chargevertor as we were leaving for camping the next morning. The batteries come with communication and power cables that are about 12 inches or less as it's designed for the minimum length need with the batteries rack mounted with a server rack with built-in bus bars. I was installing the batteries side-by-side with the bus bars mounted below. Luckily I was able to make short (about 2 foot) 4 AWG cables to my bus bars, because the very short 5 AWG cables that were included wouldn't have worked. I had already purchased a long communications cable to go from the master battery to the master 6000xp. Luckily I had a couple of 6 foot cables to connect the 2 other batteries communications to the master battery. I had gone to Lowes and bought a small breaker box to use as my combiner box and had installed and pre-wired as much as possible before Thursday. I finally finished the install around midnight. The next morning I had to get up early to clean up and get ready to hit the road. If I hadn't found out about the combiner box on my own, if I didn't have 4 awg cable, terminals, and a crimper, if I didn't have spare communications cable I would have been screwed for my trip. I also had to find the new bus bars because I wasn't informed that the original ones were out of stock and removed from the quote and I was planning on using Ethernet to connect the 6000xp's to my 5th wheel's network instead of wifi. This all would have been bad enough, but 3 times I requested a manager to call me to discuss this and never gotten a response. A LEAD sales Rep that: 1. Doesn't know what the 6000xp includes (wifi module versus Ethernet module; cable lengths) 2. Doesn't know that the battery power and communications cables are very short 3. Doesn't know the batteries can't communicate with both the 6000xp and EG4 chargevertor at the same time. You have to pick one or the other. 4. Doesn't know that multiple 6000xp's require an AC combiner box on the AC output and generator input and "recommended" for AC input. 5. Doesn't know what products they sell 6. Doesn't update customer quotes 7. Doesn't reply to email or return customer calls. 8. Doesn't clearly communicate sale conditions to customer. I was told that my order qualified for a sale discount, a veteran discount and free shipping. I wasn't told that the sale discount required the purchase of a battery and inverter. Because they didn't have stock on the inverter I no longer qualified. I didn't find this out until I questioned it while placing my order. This discount was large enough that I added a Victron inverter for less than $40 including tax. 9. Doesn't even try to ensure the customer gets the product in a timely manner. If they shipped my order on Friday it would have arrived Tuesday because Monday was a holiday (the shipping company confirmed this). Instead they shipped on Tuesday. I was told that as long as I ordered by 3pm it would ship the same day. I paid prior to noon on Friday. Seriously Signature Solar claims to be the priority distributor for EG4 so you'd expect a lead sales to know the product. Unlike Signature Solar, Current Connected quickly responded to emails and phone calls. They called on Tuesday to verify I was happy with my 6000xp's and the shipping. If I need to order more (and I'm planning on more) I'll go with Current Connected. Plus Current Connected has a larger selection.

@Slackware1995 5 ай бұрын

@@MobileDwellings I made a detailed post but KZbin auto-deleted it.

@Slackware1995 5 ай бұрын

@@MobileDwellings My "lead sales rep" was unknowledgable, lied, mis-represented, tried to get me to not order product that was on back order from another company (by lying and implying it was a scam). She didn't respond to emails or call back. She was at "lunch" at all hours of the day. I was told of a sales discount, but didn't find out I didn't qualify because they didn't have stock until I was going to pay.

@Slackware1995 5 ай бұрын

@@MobileDwellings I was told product included things it didn't. I wasn't informed of required items even though I specified I wanted everything I needed. I was promised that my items would ship on a Friday if placed prior to 3pm. I placed prior to noon. The items didn't ship until Tuesday because Monday was a holiday.