As usual I paste the video that plays within my website (turn off website audio by clicking on menu and the sound bar) OR click the link below each video which opens it in another window.
This is for consideration for mobile and home backup and daily power consumption.
The prices have been dropping dramatically and reliability especially for the batteries and electronics has gone way up. The used panels are rediculous cheap and the other video for the all in one controller/batteries tested by Prowse speaks for itself as he’s a trusted solar expert I’ve followed for a long time.
The panels
The electrics and batteries
Check his youtube channel for recent reviews of lithium iron phosphate batteries that are getting pretty close to the price of buying lead acid batteries. Of course the lithium iron phosphates are relatively safe and you can cycle the things down to zero thousands of times which of course lead acid batteries don’t compare to (you know you’re not supposed to cycle them down more than 20 plus percent or the amount of cycles you get is going to be severely reduced, also they are much heavier).
I followed Prowse for a while when he was big on building his own batteries. I guess he still is where you buy the cells and a battery management system and equalize them and connect them up and strap them together etc which used to be a lot cheaper but they’re starting to manufacture batteries, like some of his recent reviews, where you don’t have to hassle with all that. You just buy the damn battery and it has a reliable BMS in it and it blows away, like I said, the typical deep cycle battery they’ll sell you for whether it’s your RV or now they have big ones for backup for your house power of need be or you want to run an air conditioner or fridge and not pay so much for electricity.
Lithium iron phosphate is the way to go now and for me in marine environment I need to get batteries that doesn’t leak or the case doesn’t corrode but for home and some mobile applications don’t have to worry so much about water corrosion. It’s still going to be a little while until solid state batteries come along and since the batteries are so much better and cheaper now and the panel prices keep coming down (or buy used panels) it’s just starting to make too much sense to not go solar now.
My last panel of 100 Watts which is only about 2 ft by 4 ft and controller was less than 150 bucks. The lithium iron phosphate batteries which would replace the eight deep cycle lead acid batteries onboard has dropped from thousands to about a thousand.
For your house you could have your electrician get the permits to put panels across your roof and do the dirt cheap panels and run one or two of those air conditioners or maybe a fridge and one conditioner (also have backup power when the city grid fails) for a fraction of what some solar company would come along and try to get another payment out of you for. Your guy might be able to hook it up to the power grid too and sell it back to the city in the winter.