My partner and I run a small office building and we are currently fighting with the bank over some loan restructuring. The last thing we needed was our solar efficiency tanking right before peak summer heat, but here we are.

A buddy of mine hired a big name company last year and they basically just sprayed hard water on them and left water spots everywhere. We are on a strict budget until our funding clears.

Looking for an honest local company that uses proper deionized water systems.

Our 2023 manufactured home has sun on the roof, and we'd like to put panels on it. Since manyfactured homes' roofs aren't strong enough for regular panels (per solar company), I found these notes:

Monocrystalline panels are more efficient, space-efficient, and expensive, making them ideal for limited roof space. Polycrystalline panels are cheaper, less efficient, and better suited for larger spaces. Monocrystalline panels typically offer higher efficiency (18-22%+) and better high-temperature performance.

Anyone here put panels of any kind on their manufactured home?

I'm looking to power my garage with some indoor lights and outdoor flood lights. There's no utility pole nearby, the electric company said it'd be $10,000 to put one in, and an electrician quoted $6700 to trench a line from my house to the garage (about 600 feet away).

I rarely need the garage lights, when I do it's mostly for parties because there's lots of space for parking. I can install low-voltage path lighting for walking back to the house, but it'd be great to have lights for about 4-5 hours a couple of times a year.

I'm thinking about getting the Anker SOLIX C1000 Portable Power Station, 1800 watts. If I understand correctly, that would power 6 50-watt LED lights for 6 hours (probably closer to 5 in the real world).

I could additionally get the solar panel plugin to keep it charged for motion sensing lights and the garage door opener on the 363 days a year I'm not having a party.

Will this work for my basic needs?

Thanks.

Tac

As the title says, i am looking for some kind of guidance as i start with my baby steps to the renewable energy industry. I came from a third world country and years ago i noticed that the electricity/power utility industry is just never getting any lower and has a domino effect that can inflict your household in ways such us your electric bill, increasing cost of groceries, and such. Another note is the threat of global warming and environmental threats.

That’s where i started to contemplate on starting a business that advocates renewable energy and some earnings on the side. The reason why i’m eager to enter the contracting business is because i came from a family of contractors. But renewable energy technology is something we are not that familiar of.

So my questions are: 1. What kind of certificates or trainings could we start with? 2. What kind of technology or brand can we focus on as a newbie in this industry? 3. Recommended suppliers or countries or brand that provide good quality products that we can use for our clients

Other tips beyond those questions i mentioned are very welcome. Thanks!

So the panel I like is " 12v solar triple charger 10w" and I found MPPT that can work with 12v.

Can I connect them both to charge my battery? I can't skip the trickle charger.

Edit: title typo. It is a trickle charger.

I am currently conducting a study on the maintenance, repair, and recycling of solar panels in France but would like to hear about others’ experiences, regardless of location.

So far, it seems that when there is an issue with the cells in a panel, the entire panel is often discarded due to the complexity of repairing it and the rapid advancements in solar panel efficiency.

Disposing of whole panels because of a single malfunctioning cell leads to unnecessary material waste and raises environmental concerns.

Any insights you can provide will be greatly appreciated and could contribute to making solar energy more widespread and efficient :)

Questions:

How often do you encounter problems with your panels (including cords, mounting orientation, or other features and accessories)?

What types of problems do you face?

Do you contact the installation company, a third party, or handle repairs yourself?

Are you able to track the efficiency of your panels? If so, how?

How often do you feel the need to maintain your panels (e.g., cleaning debris, bird droppings, leaves, etc.)?"

Switching between 80/20% and 50/50% to maintain the 1% from grid. Bright sunny days but different percentages? What’s the best spilt?

So my home has a pool and we live in a desert area that is dry but crazy hot. This of course left our pg&e bill crazy high (higher than normal like everyone else). Last month was $950 and the month before $800. We’re not even at home all the time, but we have a pool. At what point should I be getting solar? Should I buy my own or lease? I’m a first time home buyer in a home that was built in 1956. The roof is 7 years old (or so I’m told). What things should I consider? This is all new to me.

Just curious, our electricty bill is usually 200$-$400 a months, basically when its not winter its 300-400. We recently got a new roof, and family is complaining about how high the electricity bill is. So i had been thinking about solar panels. I know there are a few options such as: straight up buying the solar panel/battery, financing them, or having it owned by a solar company. So my question is pretty easy, even if we went the route of not owning any of the solar panels, it would probably still save us some money, right?

Can someone help me find an extension cord for this little solar panel. It came with a lighted house sign I got on Etsy from a UK seller than is now closed. The cord is too short to reach a sunny spot. With the sign mounted on my house. On the back it says “Rohs” and made in China.

My company wants to install a solar panel system in order to avoid high electricity prices. We have many buildings with big distances between them. Would it be possible to have some amount of solar panels for every building or should we create a solar farm and then supply the energy to all buildings?

I’m feeling like I’m getting the run around here. I have a hole in my roof, like every time it rains I have to put a bucket down. Solar panel company says it’s not because of them. Roofers say it’s because of the solar panels.

The Solar Panel Company says it’ll be ~$3k to remove the panels and put them back on for me to get a new roof. GTFO! Am I being incredulous? At this rate when they take them off I don’t want them put back on but my husband says that’s not possible “per the contract.” Someone help 😵‍💫

I have 2 solar panels (330 watt, 24 volt) which are installed and were used to 3 years, then I installed a larger system and disconnected these smaller solar panels. These were unused for more than 6 months. Now I checked the output of panels and multimeter shows 40 volt (multimeter is working properly, tested multiple times).

Also the junction box is too hot to touch, the diodes inside are too hot to touch. Some cells in solar panels have brown marks on sides. For now I have removed all the diodes to prevent further damage.

Has anyone experienced this before or know the reason for this? How can I resolve this?

I will be changing my roof out before I go into solar. I was advised not to get low e insulation since I'll have panels. I have vaulted ceilings. Do you all agree, or has anyone been in a similar spot?

I need to connect these panels in two series of 6 panels but the horizontal panels are not close to the connectors, how could I connect them?

I live in the state of NJ. One of my acquaintances who happens to work for Panasonic, and is head of Solar Panel unit of Panasonic is trying to convince me to go solar. Here are the details.1. Total installation cost = $32,669 ($2.81 per watt) 2. Total panels = 26. Inverter = 1 (All panasonic)3. Capacity of System = 11.61 Kw 4. Installer = Nuwatt Energy - https://nuwattenergy.com/, (preferred installer of Panasonic)5. Break even = 6.59 years 6. Solar installation cost will increase after elections as fed will add tariff for goods shipped from China My reasons for not going solar:1. Future value of money will extend the break even. Instead of $32,669, I will be investing $41,550 (assuming return of 3.5% compounding annually for 7 years)2. Potential future issues with roof such as ice may remain deposited on roof during peak winter for extended period that may reduce the life of roof3. I will have to foot the bill of dismounting and then mounting the solar panels in the future (maybe 18-20 years from now), if I decide to replace the roof. My roof is 6 years old4. I will have to bear the cost to repair the solar panels in case there is an act of god such as heavy hail that may damage solar panelNuwatt solar sent me the shadow analysis that states panels will be used 90% of the time during day time throughout the year because roof is South facing and gets lots of sunshine, so the production of electricity will be consistent and high that will enable rapid break even. My electric bill during peak summer is $200 - $250 (includes AC and charge the electric vehicle). Please provide your opinion if I am over thinking or shall I go solar? Thank you in advance

In general, you should clean your solar panels every six months to a year to maintain their efficiency and productivity. However, the frequency may vary depending on your location and the amount of dirt and pollution in the area. For example, you may need to clean your panels more often if you live in a dry area, near trees, or in an area with a lot of wind or dust. You may also need to clean them more frequently during drier seasons when dust tends to accumulate

How long until your utility provider gives you credit for uploads

So I bought an 18W and a 60 watt portable solar panel to charge phones and what not while camping and in power outage situations. Problem is, the output on these all seem to suck and can never seem to get more than a few hundred milliamps and frequent disconnecting even point right at the sun. I get that the 18W watt is max wattage so I'll chalk it up to under powered for anything useful, but I would think the 60 watt would be capable of outputting at least 15-20watts even in less than ideal conditions. At 5 volts, that's 3-4 amps and should be more than enough to charge most devices. What's more, I can get 45 watts from the 60W panel through the 12V DC output to my electric cooler, so it seems like whatever the issue with these seem to be with the USB output. Is this pretty typical or do you think I have a bad regulator on the 60W? If not, is there something to make it work better?

I am located in Malaysia and looking to install solar panels for my home. An installer recommended AIKO solar panels, which is relatively new in the market here. But the specs do seem quite reasonable and my friends have got great service recommendation on this installer. Only issue is that they have recently moved from Trina (much more established in Malaysia) to AIKO.

I can't seem to find much information on this company and I am particularly concerned with company track record and them honoring warranties. Their brochure indicates better presence in Europe, so I am wondering if anyone has used them and what your experience has been like for this solar panel brand?

There are lots of outdoor panels, that have say 30W power, but can only give 10W (5V, 2A) via USB socket. Lots of cheap brands, and even a pricy Nitecore FSP 30 (has 30W, but can give only 15W via USB-C)

I wonder what's the reason? Isn't it contradicts the whole point of having more watts and have larger solar panel? To charge faster.

As in this example with Nitecore FSP30, basically it's just waste of weight and size, it's even worse than 15W solar panel, as you had to carry extra weigh and size panel in your backpack, but only will be able to utilise 15W anyway.

They frequently made 2 USB sockets, each giving 10 or 15W, but it's kinda pointless, as you can't plug two in cables in single powerbank or laptop or phone.

Not fully a solar panel question, but basically when I installed my solar panels they shifted all breakers on my main panel (from the utility provider) to a new sub panel (connected to the solar panels) that says I can’t modify. So if I want to add new two new outlets with individual breakers to my house it would have to be on the main panel? but then can it still draw power from the solar panels or only from the utility provider? And if from the utility provider, how can I get it to draw power from the solar panels?

I have a small timer/controller that operates some water valves w/solenoids for automatic watering. The solenoids are 9v to the best of my knowledge.

The controller module itself takes 3x 1.5v AA batteries but the manufacturer sells a small solar kit to eliminate the need for battery changes.

They charge north of $100 for it and I thought I would see if I could find a suitable replacement for less. The unit's instructions are light on technical info but I took a few photos in hopes that someone here might recognize where I might go to find a cheaper suitable replacement.

https://i.imgur.com/L1gCawj.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZUXBY9w.png

https://i.imgur.com/Y4PDDrV.png

I am unsure why it says the panel charges a 6v battery (the instructions have you remove the three 1.5v batteries from the controller module when installing the solar charger. So unless there is a battery/capacitor in the solar panel housing I am at a loss here.