FYI Basic Solar Kit from Costco

Hi,

There are not many details on the charge controller. I'd probably forgo the inverter and use a different controller.

I like the panels.

http://www.costco.com/.product.100054656.html?cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-itempageVerticalRight-_-CategorySiloedViewCP&cm_vc=itempageVerticalRight|CategorySiloedViewCP

The inverter looks just like my 1000W Xantrex prowatt. The charge controller won't handle three modules in series but reading between the lines in the manual, it may be MPPT flavor.

I don't know much about Solar but, the Costco unit seems like a decent price (and hopefully better quality) than the Harbor Freight Solar Panel.

Looks like a good price. The only unknown is the solar charge controller.

From the pictures, the charge controller looks like a Xantrex C35 35A, 12/24V PWM Charge Controller.

IMHO Looks like a pretty good deal.

Costco usually vets their products pretty thoroughly before they buy. I've talked to HQ and the staff are not dummies. They impressed the heck out of me.

I'd be waiting for another Black Friday sale at Solar Blvd come Thanksgiving and piecing the system together myself for the savings. 100 watt panels were $95 each Black Friday 2013 after Thanksgiving.

Price is good - assuming that mystery pales are good, anything made in China by fly-by-night shop is good, we all know that...

Seriously though, Don is right, this kit might not be what you need. You can get 4*100W panels and a much better controller for less than $1,000 total. If (IF) you will later decide that need that particular inverter, the total bill will come up to $1,300. Not that C35 is bad, but it's pretty much at the limit of this array, and (probably) without any options like temp sensor and display (can be added to C35, yes) and it is PWM. Who is using PWM with 400W :) ?

NinerBikes wrote:
I'd be waiting for another Black Friday sale at Solar Blvd come Thanksgiving and piecing the system together myself for the savings. 100 watt panels were $95 each Black Friday 2013 after Thanksgiving.

They have 140W for $154 right now. 3 of these make 420W, Rogue 30 MPPT for controller with all the bells and whistles, total $840 plus shipping. Never liked Costco...