Are These Ebay Panels Any Good?

[drosne01]

Does anyone know anything about these panels? Are they any good? The price is pretty reasonable and the seller seems to have good feedback.

Item number: 300078913735

http://cgi.ebay.com/Portable-50Watt-Monocrystal-Silicon-Solar-Panel-Charger_W0QQitemZ300078913735QQi



hZ020QQcategoryZ41981QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Your comments are appreciated. Thanks!

[asheets]

That's $5.20 per watt.  Not the best price ever...

[Volvo farmer]

I got $4.38/watt.. Generally I don't include shipping in comparing price/watt. A lot of the big panels (170-200W) are really expensive to ship because they have to go UPS and get an oversize surcharge.

I think panel prices might be steadying out some, perhaps even dropping soon. I read the forum at Northern Arizona Wind and Sun recently and the owner said that the chronic shortage of panels they had seen for so long seemed to be gone now. He had a lot of stuff in stock.

I just paid less than $800 ea for a couple BP SX170s. Still around $4.70/watt but a little more of a sure thing than Chinese panels in terms of quality and warranty.

 

[wayne]

If you count the cells how do you get 20volts on there specs, I only see 16 cells and some cut in half. Makes me wonder. I would keep away

wayne

[whatsnext]

That looks like 36 cells to me.

[craig110]

I do factor in the shipping cost when looking at panels.  To me, dollars spend on shipping or on the price of the panels are one in the same since they are both dollars out of my wallet.  Which is cheaper, a free panel that is shipped for $200 or a panel that costs $200 and is shipped for free?  Neither, since either way it takes $200 to get it into your hands.

[Volvo farmer]

Alrighty then.. Find me some monocrystaline panels that I can get delivered to my door for less than $5 a watt.  My zip is 81301. I'm in the market for about $1000USD worth, must be 12V nominal, none of this new high-voltage grid-tied stuff, neither 24V nominal, just so we're comparing apples to apples here.

[Volvo farmer]

OOooh I HATE scoop.

POLYcrystaline is what I meant, And I would have loved to edit my post to correct such mistake.. Cough Cough.. PHP... clears thoat.

[Tom in NH]

Hey Volvo,

If you're serious, I might be able to put you onto some polys for about $5/watt including shipping. email me. tom@altenergyweb.com

[ghurd]

That price/W could get Name-Brand UL PVs, with a little looking.

I'm not too sure about that J-box.

G-

[craig110]

Ok, how about two Evergreen Solar EC115 panels delivered to your house for $1,130.40?  That comes out to $4.91/watt delivered.  To find that, I looked on altenergystore.com which conveniently shows the price/watt for all the panels and picked one that was under $5/watt and around $500 each.  I did a google search on "evergreen solar ec115" to find a company that calculates shipping without having to first log in (altenergystore requires you to log in and since I already have an account there, my zipcode wouldn't do you much good) and found the IDT Energy Store.  Plugging your zipcode in gave me the numbers above.

It took me longer to write this reply than it took to find the panels.

[craig110]

p.s.  I should add that I have no financial connection with either company other than having been a happy customer of altenergystore.