Economical Solar Panels

God!

That was fast! I can see accusations being made of a "set up".

lol


Ian

Steve,

I was very close to purchasing some and I believe you've dropped your prices over the last few weeks, I think. So if purchasing today would look at buying from you.

In the end I brought some BP panels which cost $150 more per panel. My big concern was what happens if I need to claim warranty in many years to come. You may still be around but may not so the warranty could be useless. Please correct me if I'm wrong since I'll be looking for more panels latter on.

Your pricing seems pretty keen for members. I note on ebay the cheapest 80watt panel I've seen is approx $330 including postage out of China. Bit more of a risk than yours. In Australia cheapest seems to be approx $420-450 plus postage. So pretty much similar to yours. I'll pass on your details to friends looking for panels.

Also note that Electus have a 20% discount on Powertech panels for account holders. That's down to approx $500 so still not matching your price. But again the concern would be warranty which I assume Electus will be around for a long time.

Austravel ,

Nothing wrong in that -- BP and Kyocera are very good panels

I was going to say some things here but I probably would get slapped over the wrist again for advertising --

At least you considered the product and that is what counts .

Happy wanderings

Rgds

Steve - ( hopefully not contravening the advertising policy of the forum .)

Heard of Kleenmaid? Yes, your concerns are valid but even long-established and well-known companies can 'disappear' - there's always a warranty risk.

I'm sure you'll agree it's far more important to get a good product because even a good warranty is more hassle than if the thing never broke in the first place!

Hi Tim,

Exactly my reason for going the way I did. Contacted a guy in China and got a quote of just over $200 per panel. Was sort of interested but even at $200 they could turn up and be junk or worse cause a fire etc. I know what you mean about Kleenmaid but if BP solar goes broke we're all in trouble.

Ok, not trying to have a go at you, I just wondered if you might have been putting undue emphasis on the warranty but it's good to hear it wasn't your only deciding factor!

I agree, $200 sounds a bit too good to be true! :)

Fair point Tim,

Anyone remember McEwans? Big chain of Hardware Stores, excellent reputation. They brought out their own brand of spanners in the late 70's with a lifetime warranty.

McEwans went arse up sometime later. Try to claim that warranty LOL.

The "you only get what you pay for" and "stick with reputable brands" doesn't always work. Trak Shak and Boroma spring to mind as well.

Jim.

Jim,

Trak Shak haven't gone under, check their current website.
It was only the old Adelaide division of the company that have closed the doors.

Cheers Kev

No offence taken, maybe it was the way I wrote my reply. Yours was a worthy reply to take on board.

Hi Cruiser,

We are fortunate in that we did not have to go down to the boot. My van manufacturer, Evernew, install the fuses,battery meter, electric fridge and water pump switches etc... inside one of the kitchen cupboards at eye level.
Being a pop top caravan also helps.

Our method was as follows.

Panels mounted on roof and leads brought into weatherproof aluminium box.

Temporarily remove kitchen ceiling light and holesaw access into ceiling space.
Push insulation aside and holesaw through roof, use a through wall spigot to pull previously mentioned aluminium junction box down onto a bed of Sikaflex whilst bringing the feed cables from the panel down into the van.

We then drilled a 3/4 hole through the ceiling right by the wall and a corresponding hole in the top of the cupboard holding the electrical panel, (after the cables were run we covered them with a piece of white split corrugated conduit.

The supply cables from the Solar Regulator were then then fed up out of the cupboard and pulled up into the ceiling space, across and brought out where we removed the ceiling light fitting. Joined cables from Regulator to cables from Solar Panels and pushed them up into the ceiling space with good slack in case we wish to do further work. Refitted ceiling light into original position and so concealed the enlarged ceiling hole.

The original feed from the battery was diverted into the appropriate terminals on the regulator and the same with the "load" from the fuse block.

I believe it to be virtually impossible to run additional cabling through walls. Ceiling yes, if you know how to use a "mouse", but after that you really need to plan a route using cupboards and lockers.
Those who own pop top vans are familiar with the flexible plastic "tube" where the cables go up into the roof for the ceiling lights. What we did was put another in beside the original to bring our supply down from the Solar Panels.

A good bit of thinking, what iffing and planning turned it into a pretty straight forward job well within the scope of any handyman.

Ian

Ian,

Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately my van manufacturer "forgot" to pre wire when my van was built, so now my dilema is, how do I wire it all without seeing the wire.

Cheers,

Cruiser

Do you have any full hight cupboards? If not you might need to give consideration to a neat piece of conduit out of the top of a cupboard and into the ceiling.

Regards Ian