Have you been waiting for PV panels prices to drop?

[roflwaffle]

Where is the CA location?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

Where is the CA location?

I was having a senior moment I guess
Sun Electric - Torrance, CA - South Bay Electrical Service - Home Page

not the same company I don't believe.

Meaning its only Arizona or Florida

[roflwaffle]

Heh, it's no problem, I've had 'em since I was a kid. Besides, the AZ location is only ~1000 miles away from me R/T.

[Silveredwings]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Never mind.. It was too good to be true..
They canceled my order, sent me a phone number to call,
then more than doubled the shipping.
Now, the shipping is more than the panels..

Thanks for checking that out and posting.

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by Silveredwings

Thanks for checking that out and posting.

It just ticks me off that they took 5 days to let me know..

I was eager to post that 'bargain', since I figured it would be short-lived.

And it still isn't such a bad deal with the high shipping.
I was very temped to go ahead and pay the extra charge,
but I've got this crazy idea that PV panels are going to get
cheaper or there will be a PV bail-out for retired home-owners.?.
Well, it could happen!

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Xringer

It just ticks me off that they took 5 days to let me know..

I was eager to post that 'bargain', since I figured it would be short-lived.

And it still isn't such a bad deal with the high shipping.
I was very temped to go ahead and pay the extra charge,
Well, it could happen!

Actually this is a legitimate deal, much like the pricewatch.com snafus of yesteryear.

Apparently (like it or not) they have had a lot of breakage during transit and have chosen the most expensive method of shipping -insured freight but they are willing to have folks pickup the panels at their warehouse and are most receptive to larger orders and provide the lowest cost to those who buy in multiple and pickup directly. There still is apparently a palletizing and ship fee but they appeared to be willing to deal with me on the phone to possibly send via UPS oversize or via grayhound to reduce cost but again likely would respond much more favorably if I were ordering 25 of the buggers and had provided them the exact shipper and info for them to contact in that area.

So in other words, anyone willing and able to makeup a group buy that LIVES near one of their locations? Local pickup will bypass the overpriced freight shipper and get all of us the nice deal. And a word of note the shipping fee for 4 panels is not much different than 8 such is the way of freight

Cheers
Ryan

[Xringer]

My bill for 4 panels:
Subtotal $235.20 USD
Shipping and handling $101.74 USD
Total $336.94 USD

Got changed to $240 for Shipping and handling (higher then the panel cost).
and, the price break was only $27 to pickup at a local Fedex depot at $213.

I was upset about the price-jack, after a 5 day delay and just decided to forget the whole project.

About 10 seconds after their guy got on the phone, he was trying to sell me
other stuff that I didn't want.

Four of those shorty panels would be the right size for my old dish mount.
6 would be too much weight and wind load.
Yeah, I would love to have the mounting space for 8 or 10..

~~

Anyways, 240 watts might have been marginal for my project.
I'm now thinking that a pair of regular sized, 200 to 230 watt panels
(almost twice the power) would fit just fine and give the project
a much greater chance of success.

Maybe I can find out if the Evergreen Solar plant has an outlet store for blems..

Edit:
And, standard sized panels panels might have a higher re-sale value
and might not look too strange, if someday I wanted to add them to a roof array..

[rmay635703]

Oh I believe you and commend you for the heads up, they remind me of the pricewatch folks back around 2000-2004 that would price the then state of the art 256mb PC133 memory modules for $2 then charge $6-20 to ship each one. However when I bought a bunch in volumes of 5 or more the price was still fine even though they were overcharging on the shipping end. I made a lot of cash selling $50 PCs built off those gray market modules back in the day.

Those tactics don't bother me so long as I KNOW they are doing it and the total price is still OK with me. Also I would need recourse just in case.

However...
Ripoff Report: Sun Electronics, Pierre Prophete, John Kimball ripping everybody off! They sell defective and damaged items, and you'd be lucky if they'd ship even that to you! Miami Florida
Where to Buy Solar Panels? - Page 2 - Cruisers & Sailing Forums

Its of note that when dealing with questionable places that probably are selling 2nds like sunelec to be very dilligent and likely make sure you have recourse to get money back if the panels prove to be defective as sunelec does sell an awefull lot of 2nds that have miffed others including your evergreens. Remember their UL listing is questionable but there are more happy customers than angry, but if you happen to get it and aren't local likely no recourse if they send you the wrong stuff. They also have a tendancy of sending larger than ordered panels both in physical size and occasionally wattage/voltage so you never know. For my purposes that would be fine but only if someone if FL is willing to take a trip there as I already have them on the only in person list of places, I wouldn't risk placing an order to ship unless its cash I'm willing to part with.

But as I will state again they ARE willing to allow local pickup and are a real store, bypass the shipping and problem solved?

Yet another reason to only deal local, no games, no unresolvable rip off. Especially when it comes to something as expensive as solar panels

Anyone live in FL that can make a trip, lots of folks have a love hate relationship with Sunelec, I'm still up for 4 of the panels if someone is willing to pick them up

And I am all ears if any LEGITIMATE places have similarly priced panels, I have wanted a set for years to charge my electric cars AKA off grid so UL means nothing to me

Cheers
Ryan

Originally Posted by Xringer

My bill for 4 panels:
Subtotal $235.20 USD
Shipping and handling $101.74 USD
Total $336.94 USD

Got changed to $240 for Shipping and handling (higher then the panel cost).
and, the price break was only $27 to pickup at a local Fedex depot at $213.

I was upset about the price-jack, after a 5 day delay and just decided to forget the whole project.

About 10 seconds after their guy got on the phone, he was trying to sell me
other stuff that I didn't want.

[Xringer]

When I checked the BBB in Florida, sunelec scored a B+, so I wasn't too worried.

My project goal to add some PV heating to my hot water boiler, should be a very simple
DC to load setup, with no interfacing to house AC. So, UL rating isn't a requirement
for me either. (Which should mean that I can get the panels much cheaper).

But, if I do end up with UL rated panels, that would be just fine, since it makes them
more valuable if re-sold or if I decided to go net-metering someday.

I'm just a bit reluctant spend $2.73 cents a watt for a couple of 230 watt
collectors, to perform an experiment that really isn't that important to me.
For that kind of money, I could replace this computer with something faster,
and buy that Hobart Handler MIG Welder, I've been dreaming of..
You know, Fun Stuff!

[Xringer]

Just found this site in NY,
Cosmos Solar Energy

$1.80-per-watt and within driving range.