I have seen very low prices on Ebay for "made in America SPI". Anybody bought PV on Ebay? Patrick T

Posted By PatrickT on 13 Nov 2012 11:02 AM
I have seen very low prices on Ebay for "made in America SPI". Anybody bought PV on Ebay? Patrick T

Keep in mind that if you want to make use of federal, state, or utility rebates that typically reduce the installed price by 40% to 65%, you must use a certified installer. The certified installers will choose a known brand that they are willing to stand behind. You also cannot connect to the grid, the best financial option if the grid is available, unless everything has all the right certifications. The going rate for an installed, turn-key system is on the order of $5/W DC rated power, depending on location.

If you want to do a DIY system, then you also need to price the inverter, mounts, and wiring into the overall system price. If off-grid, then batteries that need replacing every 5 years or so and a different inverter run the price per delivered watt up substantially, typically estimated to be a factor of 5 to 20 times that for a grid-tied system. For more details, see discussions at http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/forum.php

Lee, Seller states certified. As far as getting it installed by certified installers; I have a friend that works for a PV installer. Has for about 10 years. Not sure if he is certified as well as the company. All good questions though. I'm an engineer in the power industry and might be able to get my system approved by my utility. I wonder if there are third party inspectors just for such a need? Patrick T

I bought solar hot water on eBay and had my plumber install it. I gave up Pa's 25 percent rebate but saved big money ultimately, based on (high) materials/labor quotes from certified installers. Your results will vary. Solar isn't very competitive around here. The system I bought was sourced at a major Chinese supplier. It is not surprising that distress sales/inventory liquidations would wind up eBay. The decision is whether the price compensates for the risk of no warranty/lack of joint liability. (Your installer can say it was the equipment and vice versa.) Almost everything in my house was bought on the internet or at auction: appliances, fixtures, hvac, construction materials. No problems to date.

toddm, Good to hear it worked out well. We had the same experience with radiant heat. We ended up getting our materials from a poster here, NRT Rob, and doing it ourselves. Fraction of the cost. Do you have vacuum tube collectors? When I was in China in early 2012, I went to a factory. They didn't make the tubes but still neat to see all the panels up close. The PV panels I saw on Ebay appear to be approved for certification. Or at least the California requirements. As noted above though, the inverters are quite pricey. Patrick T

toddm-
I think that you have succinctly defined the choice between the DIY and turn-key approaches. In my case, the rebates for my solar PV were quite a bit higher than for my solar hot water, so the loss of those rebates would have been greater for the PV than the hot water with the DIY approach. I was too lazy and ignorant for the DIY route, so that made the choice easy.

Lee, I'm on Duke Power and it looks like their only restriction to Certified parts and installation is only with the inverter. INTERCONNECTION Customer shall comply with all applicable requirements of Standard Contract Rider No. 80 – Interconnection Service. For generator systems 10 kW or smaller eligible for this rider, the Company’s technical requirements consist of: a. IEEE 1547-2003, “IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems” (IEEE 1547). b. Current version of ANSI/NFPA 70, “National Electrical Code” (NEC). c. Any other applicable local building codes. Inverter based systems listed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to UL Standard 1741, published May 7, 1999, as revised January 17, 2001 (UL 1741), are accepted by the Company as meeting the technical requirements of IEEE 1547 tested by UL 1741. Conformance with these requirements does not convey any liability to the Company for damages or injuries arising from the installation or operation of the generator system. Patrick T

You pays your money and you take your chances, with ebay stuff. If it is way cheaper then there is a reason for it, and there are good deals on some dying chinese panel makers but there will be no real warranty and you don't know if the panels are second or 3rd grade power output. I know a couple of companies that have their own brand and also make panels for some chinese tier 2 makers and the quality difference is noticeable. Remember that these panels must last for 25 years+

Mike Solar, The Ebay seller is advertising 25 year warranty and claim they are "A" panels. he has two brands of panels, SPI and ASW. They appear to be real panel manufactures. I would have to ask if the warranty is by the Ebay seller or by the manufacture. If by the seller, I fully understand the trade off. Patrick T

Posted By PatrickT on 15 Nov 2012 09:25 AM
Lee, I'm on Duke Power and it looks like their only restriction to Certified parts and installation is only with the inverter. INTERCONNECTION Customer shall comply with all applicable requirements of Standard Contract Rider No. 80 – Interconnection Service. For generator systems 10 kW or smaller eligible for this rider, the Company’s technical requirements consist of: a. IEEE 1547-2003, “IEEE Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems” (IEEE 1547). b. Current version of ANSI/NFPA 70, “National Electrical Code” (NEC). c. Any other applicable local building codes. Inverter based systems listed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to UL Standard 1741, published May 7, 1999, as revised January 17, 2001 (UL 1741), are accepted by the Company as meeting the technical requirements of IEEE 1547 tested by UL 1741. Conformance with these requirements does not convey any liability to the Company for damages or injuries arising from the installation or operation of the generator system. Patrick T

Patrick- There are two potential issues that you might be trying to address:
1. Requirements to interconnect with grid.
2. Requirements for rebates from federal govt., state govt., and/or utility.

It looks like you will be able to satisfy the requirements for item 1, connecting to the grid. Just meeting those requirements will not qualify you for item 2, since that requires a certified installer.

Looking back at the solar energy experience from the 1970's, I think that they are wise to require certified installers to qualify for the rebates. There were a lot of DIY projects from the 1970's that did not stand the test of time.