Someone at my work is looking at replacing the solar PV panels on their roof. (They are going yellow)
Would the space be interested in his old ones?
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I take it this is just an offer for the panels, not the inverter? I’d like to say yes but without that it becomes a bit of a hassle to get things all wired and up and will likely end as a project sitting around with little progress.
I will have to check about the inverter…
Even if no-one else whats them, I’ll take them, so the answer is “yes, we are interested”.
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I can confirm one of the inverters is being replaced and is looking for a new home. (only a small one though)
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Yup, we are interested!
To summarise.
30ish panels
1 inverter
I think I will need help transporting these to the space.
The day we need to pick them up is the 22nd.
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my ute probably availble
Spoke to the guy today, he has to check the installers are happy for us to keep the panels. As @catprog mentioned we have to have this sorted to pick up on the 22nd, otherwise they’ll disappear for us to never see again. Will confirm times.
35x 185/190W panels (6.5kW array)
1x 1.5kW inverter
This poses an interesting problem with actually getting them connected at the space (inverter not large enough for the array), however with some manner of battery storage we may be able to mitigate that. Suppose we’ll cross that hurdle when we get there! Grid feed in is possible, however at 6c/kWh it may not be worth the hassle, and onsite storage may be more economical.
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Update:
The installers are coming Thursday at 7:30am. and that is when we need to have someone their to take the panels.
I’m relying on @andrew1973 to sort this out or perhaps @rut4ger as I am out of town due to work. You guys good?
Not available at 730am, but i could be after lunch.
All good, looks like Andrewm has it sorted. Cheers!
Apparently the inverter was not removed from the wall.
The inverter has now been removed from the wall and is able to be picked up.
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Apparently the inverter has not been picked up. If it is not picked up it will be thrown away.
Not sure what the deal is with this type of request so please feel free to point me at a policy doc or something if I am off the mark here.
I am interested in tracking down one or two large PV panels for a camping project. I’m not a financial member of HSBNE due to my financial situation but I have been along to one or two open nights and have been loitering on the forums/mailing list for a year or two.
Would it be possible for me to purchase one or two of these panels, assuming that there might be more of them than the space will have a medium-term use for?
If not, does anyone have good suggestions for finding used panels on the cheap? I’ve noticed some on gumtree with prices varying a fair amount - for my wallet, from wildly expensive down to almost affordable.
Does the efficiency of these panels matter to you? I’ve had a look through the pile and there are a few yellowed panels, that would presumably still work pretty well however aren’t as great in an array on a roof. I’m sure we could sort something out if that’s okay.
Not something I’ve ever tried before, but could something be done to restore these panels? I’m not sure if the yellowing is mainly surface effect that could be buffed off, or if its possible to replace the clear front materiel, but presumably the majority of the cost is in the photocells , framing and regulator (if applicable), none of which are the source of the degradation.
I may be wrong but from what I read the yellowing is due to a glue or something used on the cells (known as EVA). Can’t quite recall but I think looking at the panels it was over the top of the cells. It’s probably too much effort to try and fix it.
I haven’t actually checked the output of all the panels to check if it has any impact but that was just my assumption. If it does, having those few in an array would affect the output of the whole series string they are in.
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