Anyone looking for a small quantity of large solar panels? Group buy.

[nj_m715]

thanks for putting the deal together.
my truck batteries are getting weak, I'll have to make a trip to that battery place near you soon. If you find a deal on deep cycle seconds in the mean time, keep us posted. I already have an inverter I'll just need a charge controller

[Lilburner]

I haven't been tracking any deals. I'll normally just call Voltex when I need something.

For solar, though, I ultimately plan to use "golf cart batteries". Everywhere I turn to says this is the way to go.

I'm going to start with grid tie, though, and work my way up to batteries - give my wallet time to recover.

I've got an awesome inverter I'd like to be using in the meantime, but it's 12V as far as I can remember - but 3KW - a deal I picked up at Harbor Freight. I THINK I'm going to put an entirely separate array on top of my container just to power it - lights and a few tools, and utilize cheaper batteries.

I'm learning as I go and going so slow so I don't burn it all up. To give you an idea where I'm at, this is the book I'm using.

[nj_m715]

I called these guys today
http://seprepnet.com/forum/index.php/topic,1415.msg8166.html#msg8166
it sounds like they have 6 or 8 75amp hr group 24 batteries for 80$ including core

for you guys with only a couple panels they have a steal on an 600$ 8d gel battery.  I think the price was 130$ for the 8d, i didn't write it down because they only had one. I need much MOAR so I'll probably just grab a bunch of golf cart batteries from sams. they also have a 4d gel battery

[florida44]

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate all the 1001 things Lilburner does for us here on the forum! He came to my office this week to bring our panels to us. Thanks for that and for putting this together! Your the best!

[Lilburner]

Aww shucks.

Actually it was just greed. I made very nearly $7

[ChristianJ]

Aww shucks.

Actually it was just greed. I made very nearly $7

Trust me, seeing how big and heavy those panels were, it was not worth the $7 for you! LOL. You are a good man.

[Nemo]

On the battery idea, I could use recommendations on the battery for my tag along camper.  It has had the fridge replaced with one from a regular appliance store and only runs on 110. Full operation it pulls about 7 amps and 12 on start up. As best figured and measured.  From someone who does that and knows that stuff

I was planning on an inverter in the 1500/2000 watt going from 12 to 110.  Directly pulling from ??Battery/ies??? charged from truck generator while moving and panel or such while still.  That can also be tied into onboard lights.  And gas furnace if possible. 

Not needed for a/c.  Got windows for that, as well as outside.

Thoughts on batteries and general setup and/or all related comments please.  Note, I do have that light 800/1100 genny.

Nemo

[nj_m715]

if you have room golf cart batteries are probably the best amp hr per dollar you can find. you'll be hard pressed to have anything outlast them.
if room is tight stuff in the largest marine battery you can find.
sealed batteries are nice, but they're almost twice the price. that's why I went with good old, flooded batteries.

[wiseguy]

And since you are talking about a camper, you need to keep an eye on the weight. The more batteries you add the more weight you have to carry. 
Lets work through a little math too. 
Each 6 volt golf cart battery is 60 pounds.  You will need two to get to 12 volts.  120 pounds
The golf cart battery I looked up was 215 amp hours. You don't want to use more than 80% of the battery life so you can use that batter for 172 amp hours. 
If your refrigerator only pulls 7 to 12 amps per hour (going to use 10 average), you can run your refrigerator for 17.2 hours on those two batteries. 
If you wanted to run for a period of 3 days, you would need 4.19 of these set sets of batteries.
Lets just say 4 sets....  Each battery, 60 pounds x 8 batteries for 480 pounds of batteries.
Cost is about $85.00 per battery (your mileage will vary...just a quick search)  So you are looking at $680.00 worth of batteries
https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/sligc110?gclid=CNH8-Lquz9ICFctZhgod_osJ9A 

If you have solar panels to recharge the batteries in use, you can extend the life of the batteries. 
Now you are going to lose a bunch of efficiency in the conversion between DC and AC.  You might be better off trying to find a DC powered refrigerator. 
Just some quick numbers. 
Its based on things like this, that I kind of gave up on solar for refrigerators.  Its great for lights and small electronics, but refrigerators eat a lot of power and the inverters are not that efficient. 

[gh113251]

I am new to the site, a friend Wess from TruPrep gave me the info to this site. I am wondering if you still have panels to sell? If it is easier you can call me 678-878-1620 . I am new to solar so any help is humbly accepted.


                   Thanks,
                   George

[Lilburner]

Hi there and welcome! If you get a chance, please drop a note in our "Introduce yourself" board and let us know a little bit about you.

That was a one time thing - me being greedy - wanting wholesale pricing without wanting to buy wholesale quantity, so I enlisted some other interested people to take up the slack between what I needed and the minimum order.

There are other people interested - a few who missed out on the first one, some who saw it too late, and at least one who wanted to duplicate the buy, but the minimum quantities had changed.

Another group buy would be doable - just need to find the right panel deal and someone to coordinate it.

Not just solar panels, either - if you hear about anything that's a great deal, but too much for one person to bite off on. We did a thing around Christmas where we split up a pallet of food and had it shipped in from Idaho to get a great shipping rate.

[9mmMike]

I'll put in a request for 10. Do they come with mounts? I would want to mount them on my shed, it has a metal roof.

[Lilburner]

That buy is done, and there's been another one wrapped up since then.

Keep an eye out for more, or if you find a deal you can't meet the minimums on, feel free to arrange one!

[nj_m715]

does anyone have 2 of these panels they are not using
I'm still working it out, but I think I need 2 more to optimize my install

[tlwagg]

Hubby finally got the panels up and the old one downs. We don't seem to be getting as many watts as we thought we would. Any thoughts?