eBay Solar Panels

Local price pick it up yourself is $169 or about $127 US

http://www.wegosolar.com/products.php?product=HES%252d100%252d36PV-Solar-Panel-100W

I have had panels from China, India, and Taiwan no problems at all.
A panel either works or it doesn't. Not too clear what "quality" would mean. "Buy local" loyalties are not the same thing.

A bit more intense of a bummer is to get stuck with a haunted RV. What? 40K, 50K, 70K?

Orrrrrrrr......

"Cover the 4, 5, 9 and 10 A hundred dollars each"

Next roll...

"Seven out line away"

But squawk like hell over a seventy dollar solar panel.

Interesting...

Solar panels are just a commodity. Get the lowest price per watt in the voltage and dimensions you need.

Gdetrailer wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:

ksg5000 wrote:
Sold on Amazon for a little more - they seem to get good reviews.

One interesting thing about reviews, especially on Amazon is, lots of times the reviews are posted by the seller.

:R

Umm.. No worse than the junk sellers on Ebay "shilling" their OWN products.

Then there IS the shuck and jive "games" played on Ebay (which IS encouraged by the Ebay rules)of sellers misrepresenting product, not shipping product, switching product, baiting buyers or shipping broken or destroyed product..

At least Amazon WILL "make it right" without all of the hoops or games if the product is misrepresented, did not show or shows up damaged.

Sometimes it IS better to pay a little more up front and not have to deal with the clowns on Ebay..

YES, there ARE some shill reviews on Amazon, they ARE easy to spot and IGNORE.

I rarely read the 5 star reviews or the single star reviews on Amazon, instead I focus on the 2-4 star reviews as those ARE the REAL reviews to go by.

X2
Ebay is a kr**pshoot and a Joke
Would never buy anything there.

I checked some product once asked about its condition and the seller asked me to pay for it imediately or he will sue me!!
LOL

When reporting web statistics on $/watt, don't forget the size, people.

For 100-160W panel anything under $1 per watt is a good price. Bigger 200-300W panels could be around 50 cents per watt, yes.

I only buy on Ebay small cheap items that are hard to go wrong with, and only those that are not very important. To my offggrid living solar is important. Though, 100W panel can hardly be important :)

If you are recharging batteries with those panels... look for some panels that put out 17V instead of 18.2V, and to still make 100W claim, the amperage output is higher. Since your voltage needs to be dropped to 14.8V or 14.4V, depending on how you set up your PWM charge controller on these smaller 12V systems, the losses are less.

I much prefer getting the larger 150w 12v POLY solar panels for 12V. You will see honest 8.8 to 9 amps charging rates with them, actual, if the battery is low enough in charge when you start recharging in the morning. 5.5 Amps for a 100w panel is pretty low, IMHO. You want that current, the PWM charge controller needs the higher duty cycle, due to lower solar panel input voltage, without throwing voltage away, wasting it.

BFL13 wrote:
Not too clear what "quality" would mean. "Buy local" loyalties are not the same thing.

They sure are not the same thing as loyalty of Canadians to their wallets, and I fully understand and even support the latter :)...
There is not much "local" about buying some Chinese panel at Home Depot, anyway. The point was that Home Depot (or even Amazon) are more reliable sources than Ebay.