Today I drove down to Greentech to pick up 2 440W bifacial solar panels. I used my trailer and they fork lifted them on with a pallet that I was later able to cut up for firewood to heat my workshop.
This winter was unusually cold and I almost ran out of firewood so this is a nice freebie!
The panels cost me a total of $417.78 (.45/Watt before taxes), then I stopped by my local metal supplier and spent about $80 on aluminum angle for the mounts. I will be staking down the bottoms of the mounts with big tent pegs. Last fall we had a wind storm that blew them all down - face down. No panels were damaged - other than some minor dents in the frames, but I don't want that to happen again! New panels on far left
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new panels on far right The 4 440W panels are wired in series/parallel to yield 60V at about 26Amps which works best with the 2kW inverter I used for these 4 panels. I used about 20ft of 6 gauge wire from the array to the inverter in the basement. The bifacial panels are 22.53% efficient which is really good and the back side can contribute up to 15% from reflected snow.  My goal is to move toward zero electric bills in the winter. With 2 heat pumps working hard in the Maine winters, and my Chevy Bolt EV also using more power in the winter, my bills are running over $250/month in January and February! |
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