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kittysmitty
Member
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# Posted: 17 Sep 2022 19:17
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Lot's of deals out there on used solar panels. How long do they last?
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 17 Sep 2022 22:02 - Edited by: gcrank1
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Mine are at least 10yrs old, rigid, nom 12v, 102W. They still put out as rated. And they were pretty pricey when new, now you can get lots more W per dollar and higher voltage which works better with mppt controllers (the only way to go).
I have my '12v' panels in series for '24v' feeding a mppt scc, to 12v bat bank. It all works for the light duty stuff. The big stuff runs off the 2000W inv/gen as needed.
Were I starting new (or over) Id go min 24v straightaway, but our needs are modest. If I was heading more for 'real self-suf off-gridding Id go 48v.
The 'storage' issue is still pricey, Very Pricey.
Before you go too deep into 'shopping' you Gotta Do an energy audit to determine your wants/needs and affordability for that. It is waayyy easy to overestimate what an array can generate and what your storage can provide and underestimate your energy use.
Keep in mind that energy conservation is far cheaper and easier than building an energy producing 'plant'.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 17 Sep 2022 23:35
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25 - 30 years is a commonly accepted time estimate. Output slowly drops . PV panels have dropped in price a phenomenal amount over the past ten years. New panels are more efficient than old ones; more watts output per surface area. IF you could buy a quantity of the same model panel at an extremely cheap price maybe that would be worthwhile.
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CabinBuilder
Admin
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2022 11:29 - Edited by: CabinBuilder
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Flexible solar panels, 12V 100W : 3-5 years, then crack, etc.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2022 20:00
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We, and a lot of our neighbors are using used panels I get from San Tan Solar. The ones I commonly get are 250 watt panels that have come out of solar farms. They are around 5 years old. We test each one before we put them up and I am pleased that they almost always perform at original spec but never more than a volt lower. I bought them for $50.00 apiece... they now sell for $77.00 for unblemished but that is still a great price.
A great deal of the used panels on the market come from these solar farms. For our use if they are down a volt or two.... no issue throw up a couple extra. For a solar farm with perhaps 3,000 - 4,000 panels, one volt drop multiplies to a lot of lost revenue.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2022 20:56 - Edited by: gcrank1
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And changing out panels in a commercial array every 5 years (or even 20% of the field per year = all in 5) is economical?
Roll eyes
All good for us on the used market but looking worse for us grid folk paying the elec company to do this.
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travellerw
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2022 22:31
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We had panels on our boat (Shell Solar), that were over 20 years old. They had the "brown death" spots in numerous areas. However they still produced more watts than their rating (south Caribbean, close to the equator). I'm pretty sure solid panels will produce power longer than a human life (not full power, but power).
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kittysmitty
Member
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# Posted: 2 Oct 2022 08:01
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Hi Folks, thanks for all the reply's. Just to clarify. I current have solar at my camp, 600 watts in total. Just looking at adding more.
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