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I bought my systems ala carte. Found great deal on panels.

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  • I bought my systems ala carte. Found great deal on panels.

    I'm starting phase II of my second house which makes this my 3rd solar installation, or 4th if you consider that the first property was 80 panels spanning 2 houses. I purchased most of the panels and equipment on Ebay, searching for months for great deals. Unirac mounting was purchased from a local distributor. The 10.8 ground mounted cost about $21,900 including $400 I paid to have the ground holes drilled, concrete & buggy rental, $1,000 for 100' feed of 3/0 copper to the array (sized for future expansion to 30+KW), & misc. I have in the garage 36 Isophoton 260W mono panels, Enhpase M250s and Unirac mounting waiting to go on the roof. I'll trench from the house to the ground array and connect to the 200A dedicated solar panel there. The guy that I purchased the panels from is on Ebay as fred480v. I've found him extremely knowledgeable, honest, and trustworthy. His phone number is on his listings and we made a side deal since the panels that I wanted weren't listed, which saved a few more $$$ (he has a much larger stock than what's on Ebay). One listing is here http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-255w-Isof...item419113c452 . The panels were packed extremely well, shipped by a major carrier (R&L) and I paid with PayPal (he only accepts that). I'm just saying that he did me well and I don't have any connection to him other than purchasing panels twice.
    Jeff, BSEE, 22.3KW, 45-240W w/M190, 46-260W w/M250

  • #2
    Well MD is quite a distance from fred480v in IN. I visited him a couple times, have
    40 of his earlier panels in service, bought over many months as prices dropped.
    Deals, some had no mounting or drain holes, but I have a drill. In the end I had to
    weed out several that weren't keeping up, but he made good on them. Bruce Roe

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    • #3
      Bruce, Glad that you had a positive experience with Fred. I've only chatted over the phone with him, and he's always willing to talk as long as it takes to answer all of the questions. People that want to cut you short drive me crazy. I scoped out your Photobucket and panel pictures, neat DIY! Do you get SRECS in IN? Here in MD one needs an approved building permit and final inspection to get the SRECS, but they are worth as much as the electricity. As well as an electrical engineer I'm also a car buff. My hobby became an obsession, then when it sprung into a full time business in 1989 I didn't have time for the hobby. We sold the business back in 2009 and I went back to work as and engineer, now have time for the hobby again, and I don't mind mowing 6.5 acres either. Nice meeting you. Jeff
      Jeff, BSEE, 22.3KW, 45-240W w/M190, 46-260W w/M250

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      • #4
        Originally posted by JFinch57 View Post
        Bruce, Glad that you had a positive experience with Fred. I've only chatted over the phone with him, and he's always willing to talk as long as it takes to answer all of the questions. People that want to cut you short drive me crazy. I scoped out your Photobucket and panel pictures, neat DIY! Do you get SRECS in IN? Here in MD one needs an approved building permit and final inspection to get the SRECS, but they are worth as much as the electricity. As well as an electrical engineer I'm also a car buff. My hobby became an obsession, then when it sprung into a full time business in 1989 I didn't have time for the hobby. We sold the business back in 2009 and I went back to work as and engineer, now have time for the hobby again, and I don't mind mowing 6.5 acres either. Nice meeting you. Jeff
        Jeff,

        I'm actually in the wild west of NW ILL. There has been some talk about SRECS
        here, but I haven't seriously pursued them. More concerned with better ways to
        deal with clouds, snow, and shading here. Several dozen PV array pics on
        the PHOTOBUCKET site.

        Retired EE, have been repairing my own cars since 70. Lately seem to be the
        last survivor repairing the fuel injection ANALOG COMPUTERs for 76-79 Cads
        worldwide. Hilly, got a 4WD mower/snow blower.
        Bruce Roe K9MQG since 1958.

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        • #5
          interesting you guys thought Fred was easy to talk to, maybe on the phone he is good? via email his replies were short and arrogant. I have bought panels from Fred also, they were a good deal. I found MLSolar on ebay to be just as good of deal but nicer to work with. I have bought panels from both. Both have inventories that change quickly, so they don't always have panels I would want. I bought Sharp from both and Q Cell from MLSolar. Buying on Ebay is the way to go if you can install yourself.

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          • #6
            Sulfur, I only spoke with Fred on the phone and found him easy to talk to and extremely informative. He shipped on time (actually once too fast, I wasn't ready!), extremely well packed and each time the product was exactly what he said it was. I did search Ebay under advance search, items for sale by specific seller, "MLSolar", and nothing comes up.
            Jeff, BSEE, 22.3KW, 45-240W w/M190, 46-260W w/M250

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            • #7
              after I posted that, I remembered I had also talked with him on the phone, I was not impressed, glad you had better service. I will say that all the panels I have bought from Fred480 and MLSolar arrived in perfect condition and have been working perfectly for years now. I would buy from either vendor if the price was right. Interesting that the other guy that posted said he had quality problems with panels from Fred. Would be interesting to know what brand. I have 70 Sharps and 28 Q Cells, I would recommend either.
              Last edited by Jason; 03-18-2015, 01:47 PM. Reason: advertising ebay

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