Consumer grade solar panels

[Snagglefoot]

The local Canadian tire store almost always has some model of solar panel on sale. After taking a solar course a few years the instructor said you should be able to obtain roof top panels for less than $1 CDN ($ 0.75 US) per watt.

I've been keeping an eye on the portable panels for RV's etc and I never found those kind of prices, however, I just saw a 150 Watt panel for $250, or $1.67 CDN ($1.25 US per watt).

What kind of prices are you guys finding?

 

[Rmay635703]

$0.37 a watt on up

The trouble is the legally mandated overpriced installation and inspection.

Get rid of that and panels are actually affordable DIY

 

[Nick1994]

Can Canadians see American Amazon prices?

If not, here's some Amazon options for solar panels that would work for RVs.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Thanks.Yes, these are the types of panels I'm referring to and it confirms most are over a dollar US per watt. ( shipping costs from Amazon.com into Canada are terrible). We have to use Amazon.ca in most cases. Prices are around $1.40 US per watt. I'm disappointed. The main stream press keeps telling about some revolutionary decrease in the price of panels.

 

[Nick1994]

The HQST panel is rated really good, looks like I missed that in my screenshot. It's a top seller too. I recently bought one for my dad's RV but we haven't installed it yet. Just under $1 a watt.

 

[thastinger]

The battery panels (18V) will always be much more expensive than house panels (34-38V) simply because of economy of scale in manufacturing.

House panels and a good MPPT CC (like a midnite) are the way to go in an off grid system, which is what an RV system is.

 

[Danno]

I had solar cells powering 12V systems for lighting in portable warehouses in the 90s.
Tip of the spear so to say to save the environment.
Just turned out to be more of a maintenance headache than it was worth.
Snow blocking the panels, storage batteries failing, system electronics issues, poor local knowledge on repairs, needing to send techs to remote locations...etc.
Ended up hard wiring them all to local power grid.

 

[Brons2]

I had to Google MPPT CC. Found this: https://www.solar-electric.com/lear...rging/mppt-solar-charge-controllers.html

Learn something new every day!

 

[expat]

Originally Posted by thastinger
The battery panels (18V) will always be much more expensive than house panels (34-38V) simply because of economy of scale in manufacturing.

House panels and a good MPPT CC (like a midnite) are the way to go in an off grid system, which is what an RV system is.



ThisðŸ”

 

[wrcsixeight]

The smaller 12v nominal panels can ship free via ups and others. Residential high voltage panels are not usually sold individually and shipping as freight will eat up much savings over smaller panels.