funny! but not quite true. these panels are roughly 3.3' x 5.5', so ~18sqft. meaning ~$2.80/sqft. not actually cheaper than siding, even in this absurd market (though engineered siding and metal cladding aren't much more expensive now than they were 1.5yr ago). in my area of southern ca, engineered siding (better than OSB in a lot of ways) is $40/32sqft after tax -- ~$1.30/sqft. corrugated metal is even cheaper, less than $1/sqft. actual junk panels at $10ea could be a truly cheap siding option, and in desert places with no building codes you could roof a small building with these $50ea panels. would need some creative flashing and probably have to remove the frames, but would be neat. i actually might try this.
Will’s daily workout plan for keeping in shape: Move solar panels Rip open batteries Curl battery packs Wipe on wipe off solar panel dust Run cable back and forth
I’m totally impressed! Just happened upon your video. I will look into buying your book. Never considered solar panels, considering the cost. I’m 75 yrs old. Thanks for teaching an old dog a new trick!
Great to see panels being recycled . Use them a lot around the house for garden lighting , ebike charging etc . There are so many 2nd hand panels for sale or give away . Unfortunately in my region they are clamping down on diy solar installations. Anything above 12v and 1000Wh capacity is regulated and above 48v can only be done by electrician . This affects home insurance.
You have to be the most value driven, prolific content creator on RUclips. Thanks Will, for all you do. I bought your book about a month ago... it is jam packed with info. Thanks again Will.
I am an early adopter. I have had my off-grid system for 25+ years. I get optimum results mounted on a white rubber roof, using an adjustable aluminum frame secured witt well-nuts into 5/8th marine grade plywood. I have stainless steel fasteners. I found out there was no need to readjust the tilt, I built in. The solar panels are optimal at 1/2 the laditude, at my location, while facing the solar arc. If I get to build my house on my mountain property, the solar arc facing roof will be 1/2 the laditude at my location.
Got mine at a pallet of 36 @ 50 each. With shipping it came out to 59 each. Not bad considering it was almost a ton of solar panels. And for used panels, they look to be in great shape.
Any idea where these come from? Are these decommissioned utility scale arrays? Or at least, arrays where they’ve replaced these older 250W panels with more modern higher yielding ones?
@@JasperJanssen Decommissioned arrays of some sort. With so many of the same used ones, it has to be a large scale array. I'm also thinking they replaced them with higher wattage panels. Maybe in a few years I can get 400 watt panels at 50 each and expand.
@@TommyGun1979 They have their use, like all things, a time and place. I live in the literal middle of nowhere, a desert, with no access to electricity, or even water. Were it not for this miracle of technology I would not be able to reply to you as I am doing now, or - hell even stay cool in the dead of noon. Every day I'm thankful I can get any amount of energy at all from the environment, and to be able to do so without expending a natural resource that is not available to me? Such a bargain as Will is presenting us here, these are treasures, and I hope they help many as they help me. Peace be with you my friend.
@@TommyGun1979 these are used panels, apparently. Likely from systems that wanted to upgrade to better ones. So the price is lower because of that, not because they were cranked out cheaply in China
In my state, you can't pass building inspection and get the power company to give you net metering unless you have an approved permanent mounting that can survive 125 MPH wind, even though we NEVER get hurricanes or tornados. But I actually did that whole thing myself, from digging the holes, trenching. wiring, and breaker box upgrade. I did pay a concrete pumper to put concrete into my forms, but he had me holding the hose while he operated the pump! Passed inspection with no problem.
I love how I get to go from building my milk create unit to incredible reviews, solar sheds, solar trailers, solar air-conditioning and an honest home system display. Incredible and all done with the fantastic enthusiasm that I share. !:- )
That's rather interesting. Also, thanks for the whole system price breakdown. With that type of setup and at that price point, I can see it being a viable option for some (depending on location). If space wasn't an issue, I would be tempted to try it out.
LMAO He has a ridiculous amount of money to WASTE on solar. Solar is EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT. They just need to release TESLA'S original FREE ENERGY and Stanley Meyer's car that runs on WATER. But that isn't going to happen because there is no way to control the people with those.
This is great out-of-the-box thinking. For less than $1500 you could have 18 250W panels that you could deploy on the ground when needed (really they could stay like that for weeks under good conditions). Very cool!
Will, I've been watching your videos for about three months. Solar systems for dummies is what I would call it. Very informative and broken down into the simplest terms. Currently have solar panels on my home but here in Texas I have to pay utility fees because I feed it back into the grid. I wish I could build an off grid system. Thanks for your information. Keep us posted. Great work man. Your enthusiasm is infectious.
That meter measures AC inrush current, not DC, so no tractor motor start-up measurements, or anything nerdy like that for all the DIY people here. Thank you for all your content Will, love your narration style.
For over a decade I've been wanting to do a solar project. Moved to Oregon from Las Vegas in 2013 and finally dove in as my pandemic project. Lots of RUclips self-education and thank you for being The Guru! As of 2 weeks ago I have my roof mount system online with 3P3S Santan 265W panels (the big bluish ones that were $45), an EPEVER 5420, Moes ATS, and 2x 48v 2.2KW Nissan Leaf battery packs (kit from TechDirectClub) plus a 3KW inverter. The panels fill my batteries way faster than I can use it during the day - up around 2.2KW mid afternoon - so more batteries on the way for phase 2. So far been able to run 2 refrigerators, a freezer, half my office, and random appliances (coffee maker, weed wacker, bouncy house). Over 120Kwh produced so far. Waiting for that next power bill ;) and looking to expand the system.
Yes, but it won't be happy days in the fall and winter when we don't see any direct sun for months at a time in Oregon. You either need to really oversize your system, or buy power from the grid in the fall and winter.
Will, You're an amazing GENIUS! I have watched a few of your videos previously and I am always so impressed with your depth of knowledge, expertise and pure enthusiasm for everything electric. awesome! You should be a professor at the new university for future sustainable electrical solutions to power the world!
And just imagine if your house so well designed as to insulation and passive solar orientation that you could cool the whole thing with a tiny window unit.
It's freaking amazing that you are probably doing more to promote solar power than the United States government is. I have mad respect for you bro. If I didn't live in the middle of the city surrounded by trees I will be building one myself.
Glad I came across your channel! I live in Wisconsin, but, am building my "retirement off grid cabin" in northwest Ontario. This video here will have just saved me thousands! I will be purchasing the panels from here! Thanks much for putting this channel together!
Dude, thanks for the video. I’ve been watching you for a while now and you really have grown the channel and helped us all out. Thanks a bunch. I’m going to snag a few a these real soon!
@@drinkinslim if you buy enough of them in the city you can sell your Surplus at's something like $ 75 measly bucks from your front door and reduce the cost after shipping of the ones you used to less than $50 but alas it seems like he hasn'T edited the boilerplate language for his individual videos for many months because he's still claiming batteryhookup will give us 10% off and I think they slashed that down to 5% for all the discount codes nearly a year ago or something right?
@@TheCarpenterUnion Off grid for now, not sure if we'll get easement from the neighbors. They are all used but, they did say they would do their best to match outputs prior to shipping. Will only have room for 40 on our place and reserve the other 20 for MILs ADU and out buildings. @alpenhausbuild
That’s cheap, back in the day. 2011 the uk was paying £1.80 a watt that’s a whopping £7200 net before tax. And that was the cheapest panels on the market. That’s $10,000 us. Thanks from across the pond for all the help you have given in the process of self energy.
I have these exact panels, 12 of them on my 39ft 5th wheel for 3000w array. Im able to run 1 AC AND charge my batteries at the same time, i usually get 2.4-2.6kw at max sunlight. I love them, highly recommend for people looking for panels as cheap as you can. 24v battery bank is a minimum recommendation. My AC pulls 65amps at around 27v.
Guess they are back in stock just ordered 32 of them to be delivered to my door... with tax, shipping, and delivery Total is $1,923.96 if anyone is interested. Thank you will. Useded you’re link. Hope you get some kind of commission. Thanks again everyone and Will.
@@randmdm - I'm located in Louisiana.. its QUITE wet here.. no problems unless the panels are in direct contact with water.. they are mounted on the ground and sometimes we get so much rainwater.. it submerges one side for a day.. they ground out.. but once the water clears.. they work fine again.
@hits*academic - Each, as he said, later - 4500 watts rated total. but - he got 27 kWh in a Day, I use 10 - 20 kWh per day - with the high in the Summer! So - I could get away with - due to my 5 hour average Sun Radiance, of about 70% as many of these!
Yeah you can ease the strain on the grid if every house was generating power. Maybe someday every house can generate more power than it needs, but the power companies will find a way of stopping that from happening. I think it was JPMorgan that told Tesla he would Finance his radiant energy plan if he developed a way to put a meter on it. Human beings have not evolved much since then.
@hits*academic we use coal for less than 20% of our electricity these days, which is about the same as we get from all renewable sources put together. We use natural gas for most of our power nowadays.
Really appreciate this video. Ordered 2 250w panels to get my feet wet and power my lil greenhouse during the day. Can't understand people who don't know about freight costs. Easy solution just live in AZ and pickup locally. ;) Thanks again!
I got several of these panels for my solar generator project and one tip I have is to buy more than you need for your project and then sell the remaining panels locally on craigslist or fb marketplace for a profit. This helps pay for your project, or at least will offset your shipping charge.
@@mariajjenkins Depends on your perspective. I was willing to pay it, so it wasn't too bad. Also there are several freight options like pickup from depot, truck with lift ramp, etc. Go on to Santansolar and it will tell you all of the shipping options if you put these items into your cart. Once you do that, you can decide. :)
@@mariajjenkins I'm in the UK so things may be different here but I've found shipping costs for solar panels to be a major part of the buying choice. More than once I have chosen a local supplier over a better deal from further away simply because I can go collect them myself and save money.
@@popuptoaster I have seen huge lists of the solar that is Surplus worldwide it's not just a never-used 3-phase inverter that battery hookup has for dinner box pardon me 900 bucks before any discount there are oodles of exotic inverters often never installed all over the world with the sense that they are obsolete for Farms but the price is right for individual use the challenge is getting a dongle that will trick them into thinking the grid is online and also to never backfeed power since you don't have a grid but only to charge or otherwise combined with the right controller work well for the relatively steady State Supply. Have a think Channel has a struggling Motorhead that has put together a 10 kilowatt portable liquid nitrogen generator to extend the range of electric vehicles. He has done some remarkably horrific interviews but I respect very much his contribution to the ecosystem. In the space that R1 horsepower evaporative cooler motor takes you could have a 40 horsepower liquid nitrogen turbine and he shows It Off in his hand with the emphasis being this is a standard industrial product! These components are difficult to source if you have all the heat you could possibly use the boil-water not that easy to find one of these little gadgets that you can put the steam into and generate massive electricity. He has chosen a name for his business that is absolutely not one you can remember how to spell or even say. His prior website had a much more understandable name but apparently he learned the wrong lesson about that. When you have energy you can do things that otherwise would be contraindicated and presently some of the poorest people have some of the most sunlight very much unlike the situation in Ireland ages ago. So that means if the tank is small enough and the energy is cheap enough liquefying the address you're 2 store at atmospheric temperature works for micro Mobility. Just a couple cubic inches of the stuff is all you need for a road bike and in general it takes less volume then the best Lithium-ion batteries would take 2 store the same amount of energy. But I have to emphasize that nobody is doing this because the cost per gallon is high for the tank that is strong enough to store the supercritical material. The pressure is greater than that of the instantaneous force of a bomb but of course you f i l l it slowly. For almost everybody all we get is Dogma however which is that you always have to start liquid air either at atmospheric pressure super chilled where you're going to lose like 1% a day or you have to condense boiling off-gasses back to liquid which makes sense if you have a supertanker like the old-fashioned oil tankers or the current hydrogen tankers that are rolling off the factory lot right now to burn the dirtiest call in the world for Japan offshore. Those tankers have nothing to do with storing energy buy Super pressure nitrogen which is another name for calling it when its atmospheric temperature and supercritical pressure. The higher the pressure of the gas in your tank and remember this is neither gas n o r liquid at such a pressure rather obviously the greater pneumatic torque you can get. Yes that means a supercritical nitrogen turbine motorcycle can absolutely accelerate faster than any combustion or electrical model! Finally it's important to remember however 20 cEnts is significantly more then panels have been selling for recently. What is important about this video is the extremely low balance of system cost and of course that's without a machine 2 Contour Earth saving the cost of bricks Etc. We don't know what Microsoft is buying land for so we're going to find out mr. Gates's idea soon
I have a cluster if 30 of these same panels, and they doing right at 7100 watts from the array. Im thinking of building another cluster of them. Take care Will and love the videos!
@@TommyGun1979 yes panels don't manufacture themselves. Thanks for the enlightenment. Their energy output is still an order of magnitude greater than what it takes to make them. Have a great day driving your lifted dodge ram truck.
@@BullCheatFR Seriously. Tommy is not good at math, apparently. My system is on track to pay itself off in another 2 years... three down already, and still going strong. I love the zero energy bills for an entire summer from May to August, and that's with a hot tub and AC running. I used to get $400 monthly electric bills in winter, now that's like $130 in winter, sub $75 for most of spring or fall, and zero bills in summer.
@@erichtisnado1536 love to hear that! 100% off grid here in AZ. 0 bills. AC running day and night. People don't like math and like to feel good for their (in)actions.
@@TommyGun1979 these panels are not "cheap" they as you would know if you watch the video have survived an entire life and are on their second life now so in fact r meeting their criteria of sustainability which includes REUSE this is actually fAr greener than IF MERELY RECYCLABLE. In other words your comment seems to be the work of a forIEGN Hostile government paying somebody to try to create instability and chaos but is a pretty lousy job at that DUE TO the rather "obvious CLEARLY UNINTENDED facetiousness and well-established malicious purpose of such nonsense being posted."
Purchased 4 250watt panels before Covid. I put them on my garage roof. They keep my batteries charged so I can run my inverter to power my pool pump. They work fantastic! I never have to run my pump off the grid.
Will thanks for this video it's how I found San Tan Solar. BTW Georgia and people surrounding Savannah. The Savannah location has a LOT !! more panels than the website would suggest. I drove there and picked mine up and was surprised they had a warehouse full of panels. From 12 to 45 volts and 100 to 250+ watts. My Panels were Trina and laying on the ground they produced 83% of rated power .. Laying FLAT! I spoke with Kevin Banks at the Savannah location and he was a lot of help. Out of the 8 panels I picked up one one had a connector that I chose to replace. For the price these panels put out 3 times the power per dollar than brand new Harbor freight panels. I bought the 230 watt panels.... just FYI .. Make sure you use Will's link or mention him.
With panels that cheap, you could weld up a simple square tube trailer, mount two of the three strings on leafs that fold out, and have a "solar trailer" to move around as needed for mowing and convenience. It would make a good crypto mining rig power source when combined with a large enough home battery.
@@hellcat1988 A trailer with food/water/fuel/generator/medical is much more important for immediate disaster relief. More long term solutions can be built from tubing for the panels with batteries and other electrical equipment mounted on a trailer.
Thanks for pointing this one out, just allowed me to buy all I needed with a few extras as backup. Price has gone up a bit over the past 2 years but still half the price of new. I will be back if I have any issues to update. Off grid 10 acre site. Even with expensive delivery charge which was 75 percent of the panels cost saving huge.
hey just want to say thanks i to am in the same things as you homeless with my wife and kid and well i wish i know about this place sooner i could have saved a lot of money but anyhow i have learned a lot from you and seeing how you when from being homeless to what you are now gives me a lot of hope
I bought 12 of these panels from Santan last year when they were on sale for $33.00 a piece and ended up only using half of them . My charge controller couldn't handle the power they were putting out .
You can just get another controller. Most controllers will run next to others. Thats what we do if panel sets don't match but you want them all on 1 battery array.
At 06:55 did Will really say $16k for a 4.5kWp system installed on a house? That's crazy! In the UK (where we get a lot less sun than Will's house does) you could get that profesionally installed, connected and registered for around US$6k. What makes it so expensive in the US?
Solar Panels have government subsidies, you can write off a part of the cost on your taxes, around 30% is the average. The companies know the customer is getting part of the cost covered by the government so they up the price to acquire that extra money. Plus the US government is constantly changing its policies on import tariffs for solar panels. His estimate is pretty spot on at 16K. Solar Panel installation in the US currently costs double what the top panels cost after the government incentives. If I wanted to purchase and install 20K worth of panels, it would cost me 40K+ to get them professionally installed, before interest if I take a loan. Also, if you get a big enough system for 100% power, most states require you to have extra insurance on your house, which is expensive all on its own. With the current cost of Solar in the US with a professional installation vs using grid power. It will take 15+ years to recover your purchase and installation costs, and that estimate is based on another estimate of rising power costs.
I picked up 54 235 w Canadian Solar from signature solar 15 minutes down the road. 3 of the 5kw growatt inverters and a transformer. I then purchased a 50 gallon heat pump water heater and a soft start for my air conditioner. The most expensive part was the six 48 V 100 amp hour EG 4 batteries. Only thing holding me back is building a ground Mount tilting rack for this massive array. I'm sitting here looking at your ground array and very tempted to just throw them out there. I have six stix of 2 3/8 drill pipe, 8 22 ft galvanized 1 5/8 post. Cedar posts 12 + inch round. It's going to be a massive rack 43 foot by 22 ft it is going to tilt from 13 degrees to 43 degrees. If I wanted I could change tilt monthly. Considering this is powering my 1200 square foot mobile home I believe I will be in luxury. Thanks for the video and the idea I am excited
Of course Will says you shouldn't have to worry about them being out of stock, and yet I check today, and they are gone. Granted it's 4 months later. I'll keep checking. Thanks for the great content.
Will, could you provide an update on the durability and reliability of these used panels? Clearly a great deal, but not if they don’t hold up or stop working. Asking because some of the comments on some FB pages say these don’t perform or start breaking down too quickly (but those people often don’t know what they are talking about). Your input is much more valuable.
Wow this was pretty good! That is pretty cheap. Thanks for the videos! I have learned quite a bit from them! Its great that you can do pretty much all your own work.
Thank you for this video! I was able to order some inexpensive panels that I was about to pay 4x the price for somewhere else. Even after freight shipping costs, I'm still winning! =)
It sounds like you have edited your comment to reflect against the reality that your friend used your Amazon link instead of going directly to the Santana website and paying significantly less than eBay when it's charged after negotiations as to the price the yield with the eBay being the middleman not being important unless you're talking about auction. The concept of the auction certainly applies in its absence especially because the market for these panels is so inefficient most of them are being buried in landfills as a price support means for the new panels LOL not just old. Actually using is that the farm has to use it more than one way like with agricultural plus solar or it can't compete with distributed generation. The purpose of solar photovoltaic Farms is to take Capital that might reduce the burning of fossil fuels and hit the pocketbook of the evil corporations who need us to burn those materials and by burn as the prior Federal Administration demonstrated as inefficiently as possible so as to create as much demand as possible it was the prop up the price as much as possible. Fuel efficiency standards make fuel far less expensive making it that much harder to prevent the clean alternative from disrupting a "[']good[']" business .✅
Rather than edit my comment and take away some truth for the mere service of clarity I'm going to reply here to the error I have made Double Down On It. Ratepayers for Southwest Gas spent a fortune to get a gas engine that would be methane heat pump available for them. The blue flame is taking the sickening PALOUR FAKE FASHION WISE in recent decades and people want to use it efficiently. Do utility which is for-profit of course and does not even use the methane for their vehicles anymore because of the Republican subsidizing the use of diesel And Gasoline by tax credits on the new gas-guzzling commercial vehicles unavailable for frocked methane refueling purposes the subsidies are so high for oil but even if you get your methane for free you will still patronize third-parties. The way industry works is that they will not have their Bluff called until it matters. So repairs paid for the development of the Natural Gas powered residential heat pump and then when it was ready the project was shut down to ensure that they could never actually reduce the amount of natural gas they buy my installing the system they paid for the design engineering and all but production of. It is the same story that is currently playing out with the global cooling prize after nobody got the million dollars but two incumbents evil air conditioning companies that are exactly the entities Lord Branson donated $3000000 to put out of business said we could reduce the global warming by 80% or more and proved it but will now prove that they won't. That's not what the 3 million was for in fact it was spent because we already knew that. Before there was a $5 Awad opportunity or a 50 in this space we knew that a cheap alternative to platinum not for generating electricity but for turning methane to heat would be available and now the headlines reflect the same but nobody even notices. Being able to convert methane to heat for domestic and commercial purpose alone makes electricity for such purpose obsolete. It does not release carbon into the atmosphere and uses less of the methane. That's called a win-win but the electric power industry has already made sure that most of the homes built in recent decades have no ability to have tap access. This is a war and we have lost it without the utilities being now in our streets forcing us to consume the dirtiest fuel possible because of the hemorrhaging of capital involved in electrification. Among the things not 2 hemorrhage is capital if you hemorrhaged capital then you will spend even more, EVEN MORE, blood for the oil. Good thing we are all okay with that.
@@Irene-rp5cd hello. I hope whatever stimulant you're on is treating you well. I have no Amazon affiliate links. Him and I both bought our panels on eBay from Santan. My comment was posted, then forgotten about. Not edited after the fact. Thank you for your concern.
So what your saying is two of these on top of my 6x10 with the MPP 12v 1kW, and a couple of batteries and I'm good to go for12V fridge, microwave(700W), a few lights charging my netbook, phone....
I’m doing the same thing. With cheap grid tie inverters ($100 for 1000watt) very easy and affordable. Glad to see someone else who knows how easy it can be.
Great information man, I love your videos!! Just can't afford alot of the items you buy, wish I could, but at least I get to watch you. Love and God bless
Hey Will, are you going to do another test with the no battery solar system, the all in one system, now that you have a larger array? Looking forward to it. Thanks for the videos......Jim
The panel supplier was smart enough to read the delivery name on the order and made sure to verify they were shipping quality stuff rather than suffer the consequences of a bad review.
Wait are you kidding me? They just sent me a pallet of junk panels. Even when they know I'm making a video with their product, they send me junk. You must be new here 😂😂😂
@@WillProwse Yes, new to your site but not new to sales gimmicks. As you affirm, those panels were likely pre-screened and quality affirmed by their top engineers.
@@65csx83 yeah I always thought they would too. But check out my other videos. They send me low quality products all the time. The majority of the time. It's ridiculous
Santan Solar has the best deals on good panels. And great prices on new as well. I will be going through the Phoenix are soon and plan on buying as many as I can put in my van to give to people at the next van build.
Will, thanks for the in depth analysis of these panels. I live in Mesa, AZ, 12 miles from their facility. Went over today, August 5th and purchased 10 ea. for my additional array. They are in great shape as you indicated. However, they did increase the price a wopping $5.00 and are now selling for $55.00 ea. I will be hooking them up in the next several weeks and will update my post.
What you can do without permits varies depending on where you live. As a general rule, "temporary" structures, like the solar array laid out in the driveway (like the video) don't require a permit; however, local ordinances usually restrict the use of temporary structures to 1-3 months per year. Again, you need to check with your town/city/county regulations.
Solar is inherently DC. Single-phase, split phase, and 3-phase are AC applications. 90% of household appliances (tv, wifi, refrigerator, blender, coffee maker, computers, window air conditioners, clothes washer, gas furnace, electric water heater) are single-phase 110-120v AC consumers, and can be run by a basic inverter, or supplemented with a cheap grid-tie inverter. Kitchen stove/oven, central air conditioner, and electric clothes dryer are 220-240vAC applications, and would need a dedicated 240vAC inverter, OR two phases from a split-phase inverter. What is the difference between a single-phase inverter for 120v loads and a split-phase inverter? A single-phase 120v inverter outputs a single pure sine-wave, or approximate sine-wave voltage that has 120v between the peak and valley of the output, centered around 0v, which means it goes from -60v to +60v, alternating 60 times/sec(hz). A split-phase inverter does almost exactly the same thing, except that it works at +120v/-120v which means that if you connect a load to both phases then it gets 240v, or, if you only connect it to one phase and ground, it gets 120vAC. If you wanted to convert an existing grid-based installation to solar, without installing new wiring/breaker panels, you would want a split-phase grid-tie inverter that connects in parallel with the power coming from the meter. 3-phase power is used for grid-scale interconnection and heavy industrial equipment. If you need 3-phase power, you need more guidance than is available here, and should already know the fundamental differences between single and split-phase power.
If you want to learn more about 3-phase grid synchronization, look up BTCInstrumentation, they have a great series about how generators are synchronized for grid-scale use.
@@Kineth1 Good post but you have made a serious factual error on the range of voltage of 120 volts. When we say 120 volts, we are being sloppy. What we should say is 120V AC RMS. RMS = Root Mean Square The value of 120 volts is an average value for the sinusoidal waveform. There is a particular definition as to how it is derived, which I am not going to cover here. I will leave it to the reader to research it themselve The peak of the waveform is higher than 120 volts, it is actually 120/ (1/Square root of 2) which is 120/0.707 which is 170 volts. So the actual AC voltage, goes as high as +170 volts peak, and down to -170 volts peak.
Stringing on the ground is a horrible idea for people. Dirt blows all over them, people and animals step on them, the wind blows them away, need I go on? If you live on a itty bitty concrete pad enclosure it may seem like a good idea but for everyone else it is a disaster waiting to happen. Otherwise you are spot on and make great video's! Keep up the great work and do not let my tornadoes, high plains winds, horses, sheep, ducks, chickens, dogs or neighbors camel and cows step on those panels... Of course, you have to move them every time you park your Tesla in the garage too? Make a carport?
Yeah, won't work for you. Works great for me. They're holding up great and we just had a storm. I never wash them and they still produce a ton of power. Charging my Tesla with it right now
Wow - did not think about low install / no permit - super relocatable options. This is really cheap. Save for a windy day for this exact method. Who cares about performance - add a few more panels with this method.
@@WillProwse "yeah sure" knowing the ratio of the Tesla roof has been seen a change in recent months with the price going up but a higher percentage of fake solar shingles to actual LOL. Apparently Tesla got wind of the SunPower flexible frameless 21% 60% more power car roof solution and is trying to quietly exit the room before the Humble Pie and that is pies not slice arrives. It's Memorial Day and that's happening in July if only in Europe. They got a Whoopi Goldberg sort of VoiceOver going on with their marketing and they should have just asked her right maybe they have her herself for the geriatric RUclips advertisement Watchers but I am a young thing and I got a young Whoopi Goldberg but still the signature is there and you know what it is probably her herself LOL LOL! Electric is calling it a game changer after making a bad joke about the glue. It's not like wall-to-wall carpeting it's more of an area throw rug the kind that the auctioneers drone on for days about spending only a few seconds on each rug and getting thousands of dollars square yard. The soft costs SunPower understands to be hardened in America approach our Shores. Anybody in the installation industry especially if your job is in marketing currently bitching about unemployment insurance should shut your mouth or know that you are shooting your future foot right off the ankle.
Donald Trump allowed the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile with the new company refusing to activate devices on the formerly Sprint customers now literally and outer space for all practical purposes when it comes to connectivity so I apologize to an entire paragraph being dropped by my keyboard and missing in the comment I reply to now. I was saying that SunPower is doing Europe because they can make the money that has been given two racks in the pricing of their solar panels having an industry that charges always with Tesla currently charges. Because the industry in Europe Wiley speaking is willing to get the return the Tesla gets for their systems for residences mainly about a dollar or what before subsidies they are willing to charge that on the levelized cost nearly four they're all panel cost no budget in other words for marketing that is like 2/3 or 3/4 as it is in the Marca America. I intentionally left the typo regarding the car panel because the corruption of the solar photovoltaic industry has this burning oil and even methane combustion wise for Transit and personal vehicles Etc while we install solar on buildings. Although buildings are the lowest hanging fruit that's for Europe only and before they approached buildings in America they will of course give the Japanese a run for their money at the 40% efficiency level. People think that the gas tax is Equitable when are Harley pays as much for the use of the road as a school bus. People think that those who live in school buses and park for free are a potentially viral solution more than half a dozen Lanes in each Direction because they are actually parking lots with the car dealers the GateKeeper charging about $10,000 for you to move a car from their lock to the public l o t and it is the electric unicycle ironically which has only our cranium available for shading support purposes. It's a good thing that we have multiple solar companies still surviving capable of putting shade on our heads generating enough energy to keep us going faster than the cars actually but on a more practical level a safer more enjoyable commute for sure quicker. It's not the amount of shade you cast it's how you cast it everybody knows this it's the most important thing they ever remember learning but then they immediately forget it ✅
Walmart is dumping the Samsung a21 for double-digit not triple-digit price and that's a pretty good deal on a solid plasma grade picture quality regarding Energy Efficiency for the delimitation of the black which is of course not taking any money from the battery. I have to yet again reply because Dish Network and Google are now dropping written content not merely spoken in the name of progress right? Let the record reflect I am using the beta version of the RUclips app and it deliberately prevents me from seeing what I'm replying to it is not possible to scroll up to that nor is it possible to selectively edit by copying selectively and removing or by selectively pasting into. The most important thing about RUclips is the comments so of course children are not allowed to speak in the comments that includes for those who don't know it persons of the year during the years that they are the person to be red read. Look at those two words it makes you wonder given Karl Marx being red if the problem was that he was already ad I did say and I would expect resistance on this plane the powers-that-be sent our military in to kill one man for his ideas instead of put them on trial where he might be heard so the question historically is did we fight a war in Vietnam to prevent people from Reading having taught them are we preventing people from writing accordingly now. Is RUclips Today's Vietnam War?
Love the channel, I've been watching you for years - you and I have similar thought processes which is why I love the channel. I've also been buying panels from Santan for years and I am nearby so if you ever want me to go get a single panel to test for you, I can help!
Great video and information, the only down side was the shipping. Cost for one panel from Ga to FL would be $204, but 10 panels only increased shipping to $212.26.
Hi Will, great video. I was waiting for you to review these panels. Could you make a video about the automatic transfer switch you mentioned. I don’t see any information about them on your website.
Yeah, I wonder how durable they are also compared to the others. Being half the weight makes me wonder if they would hold up under hail and other harsh weather. Even if they don't they would probably still be good for setting them up like he did. You could always bring them in whenever a storm is coming through.
I watched a guy install solar panels and when he was running the wires into the hole in the roof he got lit up and rolled off the roof. He survived, but broke several bones. There is a lot of power in solar panels sitting in the sun light. The panels he had, came with their own inverters. It was some pretty cool stuff.
Cheaper than plywood, i'm going to use these for siding!
😂😂😂 wait that is actually true. Holy cow
Crazy. Would be awesome to make an awning out of this and some scrap metal
omg this is actually true. I mean people put them on their roof why not on the walls as well? It would maximize your use of space.
That’s funny dude.. I had the same thought! Build a tiny house or camper with these panels!
✌️PT
funny! but not quite true. these panels are roughly 3.3' x 5.5', so ~18sqft. meaning ~$2.80/sqft. not actually cheaper than siding, even in this absurd market (though engineered siding and metal cladding aren't much more expensive now than they were 1.5yr ago). in my area of southern ca, engineered siding (better than OSB in a lot of ways) is $40/32sqft after tax -- ~$1.30/sqft. corrugated metal is even cheaper, less than $1/sqft.
actual junk panels at $10ea could be a truly cheap siding option, and in desert places with no building codes you could roof a small building with these $50ea panels. would need some creative flashing and probably have to remove the frames, but would be neat. i actually might try this.
Will’s daily workout plan for keeping in shape:
Move solar panels
Rip open batteries
Curl battery packs
Wipe on wipe off solar panel dust
Run cable back and forth
😂😂😂
ahah whats yours?
Dude. I love your channel. As a retired electrician i have to say that everything youve ever said on any video you were spot on.
I’m totally impressed! Just happened upon your video. I will look into buying your book. Never considered solar panels, considering the cost. I’m 75 yrs old. Thanks for teaching an old dog a new trick!
John, go get ur panels -you have 120 - 75 = 45 years more to live
i have bought the book, was worth every penny i spent
@@mitubogoogle a bit generous don’t ya think 😂
Great to see panels being recycled . Use them a lot around the house for garden lighting , ebike charging etc . There are so many 2nd hand panels for sale or give away . Unfortunately in my region they are clamping down on diy solar installations. Anything above 12v and 1000Wh capacity is regulated and above 48v can only be done by electrician . This affects home insurance.
You have to be the most value driven, prolific content creator on RUclips. Thanks Will, for all you do. I bought your book about a month ago... it is jam packed with info. Thanks again Will.
Thanks!!!
Think I will do the same I appreciate all the work you do..
Ok just bought from your link.look forward to reading it
You are so right he is very helpful tbh making life as efficient and cheaper too
I am an early adopter. I have had my off-grid system for 25+ years.
I get optimum results mounted on a white rubber roof, using an adjustable aluminum frame secured witt well-nuts into 5/8th marine grade plywood. I have stainless steel fasteners.
I found out there was no need to readjust the tilt, I built in.
The solar panels are optimal at 1/2 the laditude, at my location, while facing the solar arc.
If I get to build my house on my mountain property, the solar arc facing roof will be 1/2 the laditude at my location.
Half the latitude tip was very helpful. Thank you.
Got mine at a pallet of 36 @ 50 each. With shipping it came out to 59 each. Not bad considering it was almost a ton of solar panels. And for used panels, they look to be in great shape.
Any idea where these come from? Are these decommissioned utility scale arrays? Or at least, arrays where they’ve replaced these older 250W panels with more modern higher yielding ones?
@@JasperJanssen Decommissioned arrays of some sort. With so many of the same used ones, it has to be a large scale array. I'm also thinking they replaced them with higher wattage panels. Maybe in a few years I can get 400 watt panels at 50 each and expand.
@@TommyGun1979 They have their use, like all things, a time and place. I live in the literal middle of nowhere, a desert, with no access to electricity, or even water. Were it not for this miracle of technology I would not be able to reply to you as I am doing now, or - hell even stay cool in the dead of noon. Every day I'm thankful I can get any amount of energy at all from the environment, and to be able to do so without expending a natural resource that is not available to me? Such a bargain as Will is presenting us here, these are treasures, and I hope they help many as they help me. Peace be with you my friend.
@@TommyGun1979 XD you have no idea what you're talking about XD you clearly have no knowledge on the subject XD so I suggest you stop talking XD
@@TommyGun1979 these are used panels, apparently. Likely from systems that wanted to upgrade to better ones. So the price is lower because of that, not because they were cranked out cheaply in China
In my state, you can't pass building inspection and get the power company to give you net metering unless you have an approved permanent mounting that can survive 125 MPH wind, even though we NEVER get hurricanes or tornados. But I actually did that whole thing myself, from digging the holes, trenching. wiring, and breaker box upgrade. I did pay a concrete pumper to put concrete into my forms, but he had me holding the hose while he operated the pump! Passed inspection with no problem.
Do you mind saying which state this is ?
the company found out who you are. and made sure you got good ones.
your name has power in the solar and battery worlds.
Friggin awesome Will, this is the type of video that helps me to undefinable extent. I appreciate it.
where did you get panels from. have 4500sq foot of roof so can build. larger system
Hey Will, finishing my set up, your 400 for beginners. Your my hero thank you so much for all your help!
Awesome!
I love how I get to go from building my milk create unit to incredible reviews, solar sheds, solar trailers, solar air-conditioning and an honest home system display. Incredible and all done with the fantastic enthusiasm that I share. !:- )
Man Youngblood I can sit here and listen to you talk about this stuff all day you are so smart and you’re teaching me so much thank you🙌🏾
Yeah youngblood!
That's rather interesting. Also, thanks for the whole system price breakdown. With that type of setup and at that price point, I can see it being a viable option for some (depending on location). If space wasn't an issue, I would be tempted to try it out.
I feel like you're some kind of a National Treasure. Thank you for all that you do
I feel he is! Thank you!
LMAO He has a ridiculous amount of money to WASTE on solar. Solar is EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT. They just need to release TESLA'S original FREE ENERGY and Stanley Meyer's car that runs on WATER. But that isn't going to happen because there is no way to control the people with those.
he gets sponsored and promoted even more because he is white. im a fan of him too. and im brown
@@aedgvv6095 i m bleu
Talk about a super easy carport roof. All that's needed is a frame and some anchoring.
That's not a bad idea. Interesting
Fork yes!!!
what about snow...
what about city ordinances ? You are not allowed to place them on the ground without proper authorization where I live, with fines up to 25.000 bux
@@sssaaa9043 put it in your back yard
This is great out-of-the-box thinking. For less than $1500 you could have 18 250W panels that you could deploy on the ground when needed (really they could stay like that for weeks under good conditions). Very cool!
Will, I've been watching your videos for about three months. Solar systems for dummies is what I would call it. Very informative and broken down into the simplest terms. Currently have solar panels on my home but here in Texas I have to pay utility fees because I feed it back into the grid. I wish I could build an off grid system. Thanks for your information. Keep us posted. Great work man. Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Bummer! Moving back home to Texas, Hill Country. I was counting on building an off grid system ☹️
That meter measures AC inrush current, not DC, so no tractor motor start-up measurements, or anything nerdy like that for all the DIY people here. Thank you for all your content Will, love your narration style.
For over a decade I've been wanting to do a solar project. Moved to Oregon from Las Vegas in 2013 and finally dove in as my pandemic project. Lots of RUclips self-education and thank you for being The Guru! As of 2 weeks ago I have my roof mount system online with 3P3S Santan 265W panels (the big bluish ones that were $45), an EPEVER 5420, Moes ATS, and 2x 48v 2.2KW Nissan Leaf battery packs (kit from TechDirectClub) plus a 3KW inverter. The panels fill my batteries way faster than I can use it during the day - up around 2.2KW mid afternoon - so more batteries on the way for phase 2. So far been able to run 2 refrigerators, a freezer, half my office, and random appliances (coffee maker, weed wacker, bouncy house). Over 120Kwh produced so far. Waiting for that next power bill ;) and looking to expand the system.
Yes, but it won't be happy days in the fall and winter when we don't see any direct sun for months at a time in Oregon. You either need to really oversize your system, or buy power from the grid in the fall and winter.
Will, You're an amazing GENIUS! I have watched a few of your videos previously and I am always so impressed with your depth of knowledge, expertise and pure enthusiasm for everything electric. awesome! You should be a professor at the new university for future sustainable electrical solutions to power the world!
University’s want you in debt.
@@williamsprout925 BOTTY BITTERNESS BEYOND BELIEVABILITY BILLED BADLY BAFFOON!
@@ereenatc6042 You okay?
Damn!
When you HAVE TO run an A/C 24-7 JUST so your batteries don’t stay topped off all the time!
IKR
And just imagine if your house so well designed as to insulation and passive solar orientation that you could cool the whole thing with a tiny window unit.
It's freaking amazing that you are probably doing more to promote solar power than the United States government is. I have mad respect for you bro. If I didn't live in the middle of the city surrounded by trees I will be building one myself.
Glad I came across your channel! I live in Wisconsin, but, am building my "retirement off grid cabin" in northwest Ontario. This video here will have just saved me thousands! I will be purchasing the panels from here! Thanks much for putting this channel together!
Not enough punishment from WI winters and you're going further north?? You're made of heartier stuff than me.
Dude, thanks for the video. I’ve been watching you for a while now and you really have grown the channel and helped us all out. Thanks a bunch. I’m going to snag a few a these real soon!
36 of these bad boys coming my way! I'm so Excited and grateful for this video!
36?!
@@DivergentDroid Nah, just sounds like a LOT of panels. As my wife and I say, "You can never have too many solar panels."
@@drinkinslim if you buy enough of them in the city you can sell your Surplus at's something like $ 75 measly bucks from your front door and reduce the cost after shipping of the ones you used to less than $50 but alas it seems like he hasn'T edited the boilerplate language for his individual videos for many months because he's still claiming batteryhookup will give us 10% off and I think they slashed that down to 5% for all the discount codes nearly a year ago or something right?
I like your attitude.
36?...you live in georgia? can i plug in a long extension cord!!!😀
You have high-quality videos and high-quality builds, thank you very much I’ve learned a lot from you!
Santan solar has 240 watt for 45 bucks before shipping I bought 24 of them and am happy with them good job I am impressed with performance with used.
Update? Still working?
I've been off grid 17 years and this is great. Guess where my stimulus check is going! Thank you
Stimulus that keeps on giving back. A genuine investment - smart move.
Hey, Will. I purchased 60 of the 270 watt SanTan panels. Thanks for all the terrific info.
On or off grid? Did they match outputs?
@@TheCarpenterUnion Off grid for now, not sure if we'll get easement from the neighbors. They are all used but, they did say they would do their best to match outputs prior to shipping. Will only have room for 40 on our place and reserve the other 20 for MILs ADU and out buildings.
@alpenhausbuild
That’s cheap, back in the day. 2011 the uk was paying £1.80 a watt that’s a whopping £7200 net before tax. And that was the cheapest panels on the market. That’s $10,000 us. Thanks from across the pond for all the help you have given in the process of self energy.
From a professional solar, electrical and now battery installers, keep up the good work. 😀.
Such a shame though that solar gain is so limited for the UK, even in most of the south.
I have these exact panels, 12 of them on my 39ft 5th wheel for 3000w array. Im able to run 1 AC AND charge my batteries at the same time, i usually get 2.4-2.6kw at max sunlight. I love them, highly recommend for people looking for panels as cheap as you can. 24v battery bank is a minimum recommendation. My AC pulls 65amps at around 27v.
Can I get them in the uk is there a link please
I really appreciate the info and knowledge you share and bestow on us. But whats really great is your enthusiasm. Its addictive.
Guess they are back in stock just ordered 32 of them to be delivered to my door... with tax, shipping, and delivery Total is $1,923.96 if anyone is interested. Thank you will. Useded you’re link. Hope you get some kind of commission. Thanks again everyone and Will.
You should scan them with an IR camera. The faulty cells on each panel will show up hotter than working cells. It's a easy quality check.
Dang it I was going to do that. Just got my ir camera and main reason was to find hot spots on used panels.
@@WillProwse do a video please
I got the 270W solar panels last year from the same company... still working great.... I also got the "cracked vinyl" ones too... no problems.
Did you have to do anything with the vinyl to make it more stable?
Where are you located? Dry location or wet?
@@arthurhammeke8296 - not at all.. I simply ignored the lack of vinyl backing, hooked them up, and let them generate power
@@randmdm - I'm located in Louisiana.. its QUITE wet here.. no problems unless the panels are in direct contact with water.. they are mounted on the ground and sometimes we get so much rainwater.. it submerges one side for a day.. they ground out.. but once the water clears.. they work fine again.
Can we get Will to just rebuild our nation's energy grid? 😂
Really, every house should have panels and battery storage. And rainwater collection. Off-grid but grid connected.
@hits*academic - Each, as he said, later - 4500 watts rated total. but - he got 27 kWh in a Day, I use 10 - 20 kWh per day - with the high in the Summer! So - I could get away with - due to my 5 hour average Sun Radiance, of about 70% as many of these!
Yeah you can ease the strain on the grid if every house was generating power.
Maybe someday every house can generate more power than it needs, but the power companies will find a way of stopping that from happening.
I think it was JPMorgan that told Tesla he would Finance his radiant energy plan if he developed a way to put a meter on it.
Human beings have not evolved much since then.
@hits*academic we use coal for less than 20% of our electricity these days, which is about the same as we get from all renewable sources put together. We use natural gas for most of our power nowadays.
Seriously , he should..!
Really appreciate this video. Ordered 2 250w panels to get my feet wet and power my lil greenhouse during the day.
Can't understand people who don't know about freight costs. Easy solution just live in AZ and pickup locally. ;)
Thanks again!
“Not as good as the bifacials…”
At this price, I can tape them back to back to make my own bifacials and still be cheaper!
At this price, i could cover the entirety of the factory i'm at rn with my monthly paycheck
I got several of these panels for my solar generator project and one tip I have is to buy more than you need for your project and then sell the remaining panels locally on craigslist or fb marketplace for a profit. This helps pay for your project, or at least will offset your shipping charge.
Is the shopping charge reasonable or outrageous? Thanks.
Shipping
@@mariajjenkins Depends on your perspective. I was willing to pay it, so it wasn't too bad. Also there are several freight options like pickup from depot, truck with lift ramp, etc. Go on to Santansolar and it will tell you all of the shipping options if you put these items into your cart. Once you do that, you can decide. :)
@@mariajjenkins I'm in the UK so things may be different here but I've found shipping costs for solar panels to be a major part of the buying choice. More than once I have chosen a local supplier over a better deal from further away simply because I can go collect them myself and save money.
@@popuptoaster I have seen huge lists of the solar that is Surplus worldwide it's not just a never-used 3-phase inverter that battery hookup has for dinner box pardon me 900 bucks before any discount there are oodles of exotic inverters often never installed all over the world with the sense that they are obsolete for Farms but the price is right for individual use the challenge is getting a dongle that will trick them into thinking the grid is online and also to never backfeed power since you don't have a grid but only to charge or otherwise combined with the right controller work well for the relatively steady State Supply. Have a think Channel has a struggling Motorhead that has put together a 10 kilowatt portable liquid nitrogen generator to extend the range of electric vehicles. He has done some remarkably horrific interviews but I respect very much his contribution to the ecosystem. In the space that R1 horsepower evaporative cooler motor takes you could have a 40 horsepower liquid nitrogen turbine and he shows It Off in his hand with the emphasis being this is a standard industrial product! These components are difficult to source if you have all the heat you could possibly use the boil-water not that easy to find one of these little gadgets that you can put the steam into and generate massive electricity. He has chosen a name for his business that is absolutely not one you can remember how to spell or even say. His prior website had a much more understandable name but apparently he learned the wrong lesson about that. When you have energy you can do things that otherwise would be contraindicated and presently some of the poorest people have some of the most sunlight very much unlike the situation in Ireland ages ago. So that means if the tank is small enough and the energy is cheap enough liquefying the address you're 2 store at atmospheric temperature works for micro Mobility. Just a couple cubic inches of the stuff is all you need for a road bike and in general it takes less volume then the best Lithium-ion batteries would take 2 store the same amount of energy. But I have to emphasize that nobody is doing this because the cost per gallon is high for the tank that is strong enough to store the supercritical material. The pressure is greater than that of the instantaneous force of a bomb but of course you f i l l it slowly. For almost everybody all we get is Dogma however which is that you always have to start liquid air either at atmospheric pressure super chilled where you're going to lose like 1% a day or you have to condense boiling off-gasses back to liquid which makes sense if you have a supertanker like the old-fashioned oil tankers or the current hydrogen tankers that are rolling off the factory lot right now to burn the dirtiest call in the world for Japan offshore. Those tankers have nothing to do with storing energy buy Super pressure nitrogen which is another name for calling it when its atmospheric temperature and supercritical pressure. The higher the pressure of the gas in your tank and remember this is neither gas n o r liquid at such a pressure rather obviously the greater pneumatic torque you can get. Yes that means a supercritical nitrogen turbine motorcycle can absolutely accelerate faster than any combustion or electrical model! Finally it's important to remember however 20 cEnts is significantly more then panels have been selling for recently. What is important about this video is the extremely low balance of system cost and of course that's without a machine 2 Contour Earth saving the cost of bricks Etc. We don't know what Microsoft is buying land for so we're going to find out mr. Gates's idea soon
I have a cluster if 30 of these same panels, and they doing right at 7100 watts from the array. Im thinking of building another cluster of them. Take care Will and love the videos!
@@TommyGun1979 yes panels don't manufacture themselves. Thanks for the enlightenment. Their energy output is still an order of magnitude greater than what it takes to make them. Have a great day driving your lifted dodge ram truck.
@@BullCheatFR Seriously. Tommy is not good at math, apparently. My system is on track to pay itself off in another 2 years... three down already, and still going strong. I love the zero energy bills for an entire summer from May to August, and that's with a hot tub and AC running. I used to get $400 monthly electric bills in winter, now that's like $130 in winter, sub $75 for most of spring or fall, and zero bills in summer.
@@erichtisnado1536 love to hear that! 100% off grid here in AZ. 0 bills. AC running day and night.
People don't like math and like to feel good for their (in)actions.
@@TommyGun1979 these panels are not "cheap" they as you would know if you watch the video have survived an entire life and are on their second life now so in fact r meeting their criteria of sustainability which includes REUSE this is actually fAr greener than IF MERELY RECYCLABLE.
In other words your comment seems to be the work of a forIEGN Hostile government paying somebody to try to create instability and chaos but is a pretty lousy job at that DUE TO the rather "obvious CLEARLY UNINTENDED facetiousness and well-established malicious purpose of such nonsense being posted."
@@BullCheatFR May I message you about your setup? I'd appreciate any insight you might have if you have the time.
thats what i've been doing lately..
the arent new panels, but you actually can buy 3 for the price of 1..
If you have sufficient space I think that’s the best way to go. If your space is limited you just buy new ones with best efficiency.
Purchased 4 250watt panels before Covid.
I put them on my garage roof.
They keep my batteries charged so I can run my inverter to power my pool pump.
They work fantastic!
I never have to run my pump off the grid.
Will thanks for this video it's how I found San Tan Solar. BTW Georgia and people surrounding Savannah. The Savannah location has a LOT !! more panels than the website would suggest. I drove there and picked mine up and was surprised they had a warehouse full of panels. From 12 to 45 volts and 100 to 250+ watts. My Panels were Trina and laying on the ground they produced 83% of rated power .. Laying FLAT! I spoke with Kevin Banks at the Savannah location and he was a lot of help. Out of the 8 panels I picked up one one had a connector that I chose to replace. For the price these panels put out 3 times the power per dollar than brand new Harbor freight panels. I bought the 230 watt panels.... just FYI .. Make sure you use Will's link or mention him.
With panels that cheap, you could weld up a simple square tube trailer, mount two of the three strings on leafs that fold out, and have a "solar trailer" to move around as needed for mowing and convenience. It would make a good crypto mining rig power source when combined with a large enough home battery.
That's freaking brilliant! Good thing I have two boys that weld!
@@carlacowling1789 I'm still floored that they aren't a common sight on disaster relief supply vehicle lists.
@@hellcat1988 A trailer with food/water/fuel/generator/medical is much more important for immediate disaster relief. More long term solutions can be built from tubing for the panels with batteries and other electrical equipment mounted on a trailer.
Nice, I just bought 5kilowatt worth of 250w panels for $50 each here in Tucson... glad to see I am on the right track
Who'd you buy from? I'm closer to San tan but would like other options
Noooo, that's our AZ secret! Now i have to run and get some for my bus now before everyone else buys them up. Thanks Will ;).
Thanks for pointing this one out, just allowed me to buy all I needed with a few extras as backup. Price has gone up a bit over the past 2 years but still half the price of new. I will be back if I have any issues to update. Off grid 10 acre site. Even with expensive delivery charge which was 75 percent of the panels cost saving huge.
hey just want to say thanks i to am in the same things as you homeless with my wife and kid and well i wish i know about this place sooner i could have saved a lot of money but anyhow i have learned a lot from you and seeing how you when from being homeless to what you are now gives me a lot of hope
I bought 12 of these panels from Santan last year when they were on sale for $33.00 a piece and ended up only using half of them . My charge controller couldn't handle the power they were putting out .
Looking to sell the other half!?
@@Chrissy_Onye No , sorry
Don't buy from Satan 😈🤣🤣
@@Randomadventuresebike please elaborate.
You can just get another controller. Most controllers will run next to others. Thats what we do if panel sets don't match but you want them all on 1 battery array.
At 06:55 did Will really say $16k for a 4.5kWp system installed on a house? That's crazy! In the UK (where we get a lot less sun than Will's house does) you could get that profesionally installed, connected and registered for around US$6k. What makes it so expensive in the US?
Because they can! Lock down construction behind an opaque bureaucracy & then charge whatever you want. America runs on greed over providing service.
Solar Panels have government subsidies, you can write off a part of the cost on your taxes, around 30% is the average. The companies know the customer is getting part of the cost covered by the government so they up the price to acquire that extra money. Plus the US government is constantly changing its policies on import tariffs for solar panels.
His estimate is pretty spot on at 16K.
Solar Panel installation in the US currently costs double what the top panels cost after the government incentives. If I wanted to purchase and install 20K worth of panels, it would cost me 40K+ to get them professionally installed, before interest if I take a loan. Also, if you get a big enough system for 100% power, most states require you to have extra insurance on your house, which is expensive all on its own.
With the current cost of Solar in the US with a professional installation vs using grid power. It will take 15+ years to recover your purchase and installation costs, and that estimate is based on another estimate of rising power costs.
This is insane indeed. I had a system installed last year of 3.9kWp for about 4,5K. 16K USD for 4.5kWp is absolutely insanity.
Greed
Impressive! Thanks for all the research and updating you've been providing us with.
I picked up 54 235 w Canadian Solar from signature solar 15 minutes down the road. 3 of the 5kw growatt inverters and a transformer. I then purchased a 50 gallon heat pump water heater and a soft start for my air conditioner.
The most expensive part was the six 48 V 100 amp hour EG 4 batteries. Only thing holding me back is building a ground Mount tilting rack for this massive array. I'm sitting here looking at your ground array and very tempted to just throw them out there. I have six stix of 2 3/8 drill pipe, 8 22 ft galvanized 1 5/8 post. Cedar posts 12 + inch round. It's going to be a massive rack 43 foot by 22 ft it is going to tilt from 13 degrees to 43 degrees. If I wanted I could change tilt monthly. Considering this is powering my 1200 square foot mobile home I believe I will be in luxury. Thanks for the video and the idea I am excited
Of course Will says you shouldn't have to worry about them being out of stock, and yet I check today, and they are gone. Granted it's 4 months later. I'll keep checking. Thanks for the great content.
I just bought new 375W panels from Signature Solar for $145.00. A little more expensive per watt but they have a warranty.
This 50$ are used ??
Sounds really good, Will. I think I will be putting something like this together this summer.
Will, could you provide an update on the durability and reliability of these used panels? Clearly a great deal, but not if they don’t hold up or stop working. Asking because some of the comments on some FB pages say these don’t perform or start breaking down too quickly (but those people often don’t know what they are talking about). Your input is much more valuable.
Wow this was pretty good! That is pretty cheap. Thanks for the videos! I have learned quite a bit from them! Its great that you can do pretty much all your own work.
We also need Will in South Africa. Load shedding is ruining everything. but dude is a genius. Love the video 👍
Thank you for this video! I was able to order some inexpensive panels that I was about to pay 4x the price for somewhere else. Even after freight shipping costs, I'm still winning! =)
Santan is great. I bought my panels, and my friend bought his from them as well through their ebay page.
It sounds like you have edited your comment to reflect against the reality that your friend used your Amazon link instead of going directly to the Santana website and paying significantly less than eBay when it's charged after negotiations as to the price the yield with the eBay being the middleman not being important unless you're talking about auction. The concept of the auction certainly applies in its absence especially because the market for these panels is so inefficient most of them are being buried in landfills as a price support means for the new panels LOL not just old. Actually using is that the farm has to use it more than one way like with agricultural plus solar or it can't compete with distributed generation. The purpose of solar photovoltaic Farms is to take Capital that might reduce the burning of fossil fuels and hit the pocketbook of the evil corporations who need us to burn those materials and by burn as the prior Federal Administration demonstrated as inefficiently as possible so as to create as much demand as possible it was the prop up the price as much as possible. Fuel efficiency standards make fuel far less expensive making it that much harder to prevent the clean alternative from disrupting a "[']good[']" business .✅
Rather than edit my comment and take away some truth for the mere service of clarity I'm going to reply here to the error I have made Double Down On It. Ratepayers for Southwest Gas spent a fortune to get a gas engine that would be methane heat pump available for them. The blue flame is taking the sickening PALOUR FAKE FASHION WISE in recent decades and people want to use it efficiently. Do utility which is for-profit of course and does not even use the methane for their vehicles anymore because of the Republican subsidizing the use of diesel And Gasoline by tax credits on the new gas-guzzling commercial vehicles unavailable for frocked methane refueling purposes the subsidies are so high for oil but even if you get your methane for free you will still patronize third-parties. The way industry works is that they will not have their Bluff called until it matters. So repairs paid for the development of the Natural Gas powered residential heat pump and then when it was ready the project was shut down to ensure that they could never actually reduce the amount of natural gas they buy my installing the system they paid for the design engineering and all but production of. It is the same story that is currently playing out with the global cooling prize after nobody got the million dollars but two incumbents evil air conditioning companies that are exactly the entities Lord Branson donated $3000000 to put out of business said we could reduce the global warming by 80% or more and proved it but will now prove that they won't. That's not what the 3 million was for in fact it was spent because we already knew that. Before there was a $5 Awad opportunity or a 50 in this space we knew that a cheap alternative to platinum not for generating electricity but for turning methane to heat would be available and now the headlines reflect the same but nobody even notices. Being able to convert methane to heat for domestic and commercial purpose alone makes electricity for such purpose obsolete. It does not release carbon into the atmosphere and uses less of the methane. That's called a win-win but the electric power industry has already made sure that most of the homes built in recent decades have no ability to have tap access. This is a war and we have lost it without the utilities being now in our streets forcing us to consume the dirtiest fuel possible because of the hemorrhaging of capital involved in electrification. Among the things not 2 hemorrhage is capital if you hemorrhaged capital then you will spend even more, EVEN MORE, blood for the oil.
Good thing we are all okay with that.
@@Irene-rp5cd hello. I hope whatever stimulant you're on is treating you well. I have no Amazon affiliate links. Him and I both bought our panels on eBay from Santan.
My comment was posted, then forgotten about. Not edited after the fact. Thank you for your concern.
@@Irene-rp5cd in addition. We didn't do auction, we did buy it now.
@@denton3737 why would you have your friends pay eBay Commission?
So what your saying is two of these on top of my 6x10 with the MPP 12v 1kW, and a couple of batteries and I'm good to go for12V fridge, microwave(700W), a few lights charging my netbook, phone....
@random user Thank you for the reply !!
I’m doing the same thing. With cheap grid tie inverters ($100 for 1000watt) very easy and affordable. Glad to see someone else who knows how easy it can be.
Where u can I buy and what the name brand, thanks
Just bought a set of used polycrystal 250w panels @ $70 each out of Florida. With a full pallet of 30 panels, the shipping was included.
Awesome I live real close to the company, going to pick my panels up. No shipping expense for me... woo hoo!
Lol can u pick mine up too!!! Where are they
I just ordered mine, and I'm picking them up from the Savannah warehouse since it is just over an hour away.
They are in chandler arizona which is just outside of phoenix. I'm in mesa which is between phoenix and chandler.
@@DerrickBaxter They have a warehouse in Savannah, GA. ?
@@johntalbert8227 yes, it was at the bottom of the shipping options.
You've bought that much solar panels lately, you'll be able to supply the neighbour hood with PROWSE POWER ;)
To save even more money have San tan ship to the closest courier not to your home.. I had 10 panels ship when they were on sale total cost $480.00
Great information man, I love your videos!! Just can't afford alot of the items you buy, wish I could, but at least I get to watch you. Love and God bless
Ordered my first pallet of 25, thanks for the great research and guidance Will!
did you ever get them Jonathan Cole
In Australia, used 250w panels + inverters are already being dumped for a steal.
Gumtree is flooded with used panels of many different sizes
Hey Will, are you going to do another test with the no battery solar system, the all in one system, now that you have a larger array? Looking forward to it. Thanks for the videos......Jim
Good question! Hashtag upvote. Ha
The panel supplier was smart enough to read the delivery name on the order and made sure to verify they were shipping quality stuff rather than suffer the consequences of a bad review.
They knew it was going to Will - it says its a paid promotion at the beginning of the video
Wait are you kidding me? They just sent me a pallet of junk panels. Even when they know I'm making a video with their product, they send me junk. You must be new here 😂😂😂
@@chuckger1625 and I'm not sponsored or on contract with anyone. I make my money from affiliate sales. That way I can drop any company at any time
@@WillProwse Yes, new to your site but not new to sales gimmicks. As you affirm, those panels were likely pre-screened and quality affirmed by their top engineers.
@@65csx83 yeah I always thought they would too. But check out my other videos. They send me low quality products all the time. The majority of the time. It's ridiculous
Santan Solar has the best deals on good panels. And great prices on new as well. I will be going through the Phoenix are soon and plan on buying as many as I can put in my van to give to people at the next van build.
I am glad you have continued to do solar power DIY stuff. Thank you.
"don't worry about them going ouy of stock"...... out of stock same day this was posted haha
They are back in stock and now they have ones for $39.00 each.
Will, thanks for the in depth analysis of these panels. I live in Mesa, AZ, 12 miles from their facility. Went over today, August 5th and purchased 10 ea. for my additional array. They are in great shape as you indicated. However, they did increase the price a wopping $5.00 and are now selling for $55.00 ea. I will be hooking them up in the next several weeks and will update my post.
What is the name of the facility?
They are $70 now and sold out.
They are back in stock. $64 ea plus shipping
good one will not a bad idea put panels on ground what can we do with out permits as a DIY ?
What you can do without permits varies depending on where you live. As a general rule, "temporary" structures, like the solar array laid out in the driveway (like the video) don't require a permit; however, local ordinances usually restrict the use of temporary structures to 1-3 months per year. Again, you need to check with your town/city/county regulations.
Bought a few of these panels for my Titan, thanks Will!
Mount the bifacial vertically above your wall since you have a north south fence
If had a place that wasn't shaded, I would buy some of those panels.
Great video, now I just need to find an all in one controller that is affordable to make my system work properly.
Have you made any videos showing the difference of single phase, split phase and three phase uses in solar applications?
I would like to know this, tell me more. Hope he makes a video on it!
Solar is inherently DC. Single-phase, split phase, and 3-phase are AC applications. 90% of household appliances (tv, wifi, refrigerator, blender, coffee maker, computers, window air conditioners, clothes washer, gas furnace, electric water heater) are single-phase 110-120v AC consumers, and can be run by a basic inverter, or supplemented with a cheap grid-tie inverter. Kitchen stove/oven, central air conditioner, and electric clothes dryer are 220-240vAC applications, and would need a dedicated 240vAC inverter, OR two phases from a split-phase inverter.
What is the difference between a single-phase inverter for 120v loads and a split-phase inverter? A single-phase 120v inverter outputs a single pure sine-wave, or approximate sine-wave voltage that has 120v between the peak and valley of the output, centered around 0v, which means it goes from -60v to +60v, alternating 60 times/sec(hz). A split-phase inverter does almost exactly the same thing, except that it works at +120v/-120v which means that if you connect a load to both phases then it gets 240v, or, if you only connect it to one phase and ground, it gets 120vAC.
If you wanted to convert an existing grid-based installation to solar, without installing new wiring/breaker panels, you would want a split-phase grid-tie inverter that connects in parallel with the power coming from the meter.
3-phase power is used for grid-scale interconnection and heavy industrial equipment. If you need 3-phase power, you need more guidance than is available here, and should already know the fundamental differences between single and split-phase power.
If you want to learn more about 3-phase grid synchronization, look up BTCInstrumentation, they have a great series about how generators are synchronized for grid-scale use.
@@Kineth1 Good post but you have made a serious factual error on the range of voltage of 120 volts.
When we say 120 volts, we are being sloppy. What we should say is 120V AC RMS.
RMS = Root Mean Square
The value of 120 volts is an average value for the sinusoidal waveform. There is a particular definition as to how it is derived, which I am not going to cover here. I will leave it to the reader to research it themselve
The peak of the waveform is higher than 120 volts, it is actually 120/ (1/Square root of 2) which is 120/0.707 which is 170 volts.
So the actual AC voltage, goes as high as +170 volts peak, and down to -170 volts peak.
YOU DO A GREAT JOB OF EXPLAINING THINGS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Stringing on the ground is a horrible idea for people. Dirt blows all over them, people and animals step on them, the wind blows them away, need I go on? If you live on a itty bitty concrete pad enclosure it may seem like a good idea but for everyone else it is a disaster waiting to happen. Otherwise you are spot on and make great video's! Keep up the great work and do not let my tornadoes, high plains winds, horses, sheep, ducks, chickens, dogs or neighbors camel and cows step on those panels... Of course, you have to move them every time you park your Tesla in the garage too? Make a carport?
Yeah, won't work for you. Works great for me. They're holding up great and we just had a storm. I never wash them and they still produce a ton of power. Charging my Tesla with it right now
Wow - did not think about low install / no permit - super relocatable options. This is really cheap. Save for a windy day for this exact method. Who cares about performance - add a few more panels with this method.
Exactly!!!
@@typxxilps yeah sure. Really depends on what's best for you.
@@WillProwse "yeah sure" knowing the ratio of the Tesla roof has been seen a change in recent months with the price going up but a higher percentage of fake solar shingles to actual LOL. Apparently Tesla got wind of the SunPower flexible frameless 21% 60% more power car roof solution and is trying to quietly exit the room before the Humble Pie and that is pies not slice arrives. It's Memorial Day and that's happening in July if only in Europe. They got a Whoopi Goldberg sort of VoiceOver going on with their marketing and they should have just asked her right maybe they have her herself for the geriatric RUclips advertisement Watchers but I am a young thing and I got a young Whoopi Goldberg but still the signature is there and you know what it is probably her herself LOL LOL! Electric is calling it a game changer after making a bad joke about the glue. It's not like wall-to-wall carpeting it's more of an area throw rug the kind that the auctioneers drone on for days about spending only a few seconds on each rug and getting thousands of dollars square yard. The soft costs SunPower understands to be hardened in America approach our Shores. Anybody in the installation industry especially if your job is in marketing currently bitching about unemployment insurance should shut your mouth or know that you are shooting your future foot right off the ankle.
Donald Trump allowed the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile with the new company refusing to activate devices on the formerly Sprint customers now literally and outer space for all practical purposes when it comes to connectivity so I apologize to an entire paragraph being dropped by my keyboard and missing in the comment I reply to now. I was saying that SunPower is doing Europe because they can make the money that has been given two racks in the pricing of their solar panels having an industry that charges always with Tesla currently charges. Because the industry in Europe Wiley speaking is willing to get the return the Tesla gets for their systems for residences mainly about a dollar or what before subsidies they are willing to charge that on the levelized cost nearly four they're all panel cost no budget in other words for marketing that is like 2/3 or 3/4 as it is in the Marca America. I intentionally left the typo regarding the car panel because the corruption of the solar photovoltaic industry has this burning oil and even methane combustion wise for Transit and personal vehicles Etc while we install solar on buildings. Although buildings are the lowest hanging fruit that's for Europe only and before they approached buildings in America they will of course give the Japanese a run for their money at the 40% efficiency level. People think that the gas tax is Equitable when are Harley pays as much for the use of the road as a school bus. People think that those who live in school buses and park for free are a potentially viral solution more than half a dozen Lanes in each Direction because they are actually parking lots with the car dealers the GateKeeper charging about $10,000 for you to move a car from their lock to the public l o t and it is the electric unicycle ironically which has only our cranium available for shading support purposes. It's a good thing that we have multiple solar companies still surviving capable of putting shade on our heads generating enough energy to keep us going faster than the cars actually but on a more practical level a safer more enjoyable commute for sure quicker. It's not the amount of shade you cast it's how you cast it everybody knows this it's the most important thing they ever remember learning but then they immediately forget it ✅
Walmart is dumping the Samsung a21 for double-digit not triple-digit price and that's a pretty good deal on a solid plasma grade picture quality regarding Energy Efficiency for the delimitation of the black which is of course not taking any money from the battery. I have to yet again reply because Dish Network and Google are now dropping written content not merely spoken in the name of progress right? Let the record reflect I am using the beta version of the RUclips app and it deliberately prevents me from seeing what I'm replying to it is not possible to scroll up to that nor is it possible to selectively edit by copying selectively and removing or by selectively pasting into. The most important thing about RUclips is the comments so of course children are not allowed to speak in the comments that includes for those who don't know it persons of the year during the years that they are the person to be red read. Look at those two words it makes you wonder given Karl Marx being red if the problem was that he was already ad I did say and I would expect resistance on this plane the powers-that-be sent our military in to kill one man for his ideas instead of put them on trial where he might be heard so the question historically is did we fight a war in Vietnam to prevent people from Reading having taught them are we preventing people from writing accordingly now. Is RUclips Today's Vietnam War?
Love the channel, I've been watching you for years - you and I have similar thought processes which is why I love the channel. I've also been buying panels from Santan for years and I am nearby so if you ever want me to go get a single panel to test for you, I can help!
That's the ones I bought. Love them.
So I got 2 of these for my van. Been watching your videos very informative. Hope I didn't mess up
6:30 "You don't have to worry about them going out of stock..." ...I just checked....They are out of stock. LMAO
they're in stock now.
Great video and information, the only down side was the shipping. Cost for one panel from Ga to FL would be $204, but 10 panels only increased shipping to $212.26.
Hi Will, great video. I was waiting for you to review these panels. Could you make a video about the automatic transfer switch you mentioned. I don’t see any information about them on your website.
I might get them just to provide shade for my car ?
Good idea man.
Seems like a good use.
Thinking the same. They're not all that different in price than covering a carport with R-Panel.
Wow! This place is literally right down the street from me! 12 min drive. Btw, bought your book, love it!
You popped up on my fyp and i’m more than glad.
Buying a home this year and definitely want to look into solar energy if possible
Please check how they degrade over time and how they compare to the others you got degrade-wise. And make a video about it of course :)
Yeah, I wonder how durable they are also compared to the others. Being half the weight makes me wonder if they would hold up under hail and other harsh weather. Even if they don't they would probably still be good for setting them up like he did. You could always bring them in whenever a storm is coming through.
Thank you for this video. Just found a supplier of used panels here in Germany close to my town. And they only want 21 euros for them each
Amazing
I watched a guy install solar panels and when he was running the wires into the hole in the roof he got lit up and rolled off the roof. He survived, but broke several bones. There is a lot of power in solar panels sitting in the sun light. The panels he had, came with their own inverters. It was some pretty cool stuff.
So he got electrocuted?
I was wondering how that could happen until you mentioned the integrated inverters.
I just went in person to the new Georgia SanTan office and picked up 26 x 230W panels. Snail trails so they were $45/ea and I saved shipping costs :)
i just love how smart you are.