Second hand solar panels

[Russell griffiths]

Evening. 

A lad near me is selling hundreds of second hand solar panels off a solar farm,the surface of the panels are all scratched and marked, he said they are all working at about 80% capacity. 

Now im not thinking of the house, but can anybody think of uses around the garden, 3-4 of them on the shed 

1 to trickle charge the electric fence

1 to run a pond pump

come on you boffins are they of any use. 

[Guest Alphonsox]

More info please - What nominal power ? what make ? why are they being disposed of ? How much ? and where in Gloucestershire ?

[Russell griffiths]

I will see if I can put a link up, but I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to the computer. 

[Russell griffiths]

[Declan52]

Didn't know ozzy was big in the renewable energy market. 

[Ed Davies]

30 minutes ago, Alphonsox said:

why are they being disposed of ?

 

There seem to be a lot of panels sold from solar farms which are upgrading. Bimble Solar have been around for quite a few years selling them on like this. Not quite as cheap but usually in better condition.

[Guest Alphonsox]

14 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Didn't know ozzy was big in the renewable energy market. 

 

I think the Pigeon/Dove/Bat control business dried up in the late 90's - It's good to see he's managed to diversify into sucking the light out of the world.

[ProDave]

At £20 a panel I will have about 30.

 

Now where can I find a proper advert and contact details?  and what about sticking them on a pallet for delivery?

[Stones]

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

At £20 a panel I will have about 30.

 

Now where can I find a proper advert and contact details?  and what about sticking them on a pallet for delivery?

 

+1

 

@Russell griffiths ?

[Guest Alphonsox]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/272663703390135

Based in Swindon

[ProDave]

Argh no not face ache. I do not want to sign up to that tosh. Is there any way to contact him any other way?

 

Anyone care to ask him for an ordinary email address and PM it to me?

[Russell griffiths]

How about I contact him and ask for a bulk purchase price. 

[Temp]

Think I saw someone on eBay doing the same recently.

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

How about I contact him and ask for a bulk purchase price. 

I was wondering if there was someone close to him that could do that.

 

It's a big ask to go and make a bulk purchase and then put them on pallets for distribution (palletways for instance about £100 to get a pallet up here)

 

But if someone is willing sign me up for 30.

 

I would be nervous just sending money to a stranger then finding they were completely dud, someone would have to have a look and take an educated guess on the condition, perhaps take a multimeter and check open circuit voltage on a few?

[Ed Davies]

Short-circuit current would be more indicative. Meter on the 10 amp range.

[ProDave]

Any progress on this?  It seems we could use a pallet or 2 of these up here if the seller, or someone else is is willing to put them on a pallet and arrange delivery.

[Gav_P]

I’ve just tried to message him on bookface asking for his email address... the photos show stacks of panels already on pallets.

[Gav_P]

@ProDaveI’ve just sent you his number via PM.

 

[Nickfromwales]

Does the seller say a minimum break qty ?

[ProDave]

The conversation I have had is he prefers to sell by the pallet of 27 panels and if you buy 2 pallets he will pay for the delivery.

[ProDave]

Any thoughts on the ones from Bimble with the "degraded backing"

 

This is their picture

 

 

As I understand it, that backing material is supposed to be a continuous sheet.  It appears to be cracking along either the individual panel joints, or the interconnecting tapes.

 

They say the panels are still generating the expected power.

 

Is it a matter of just doing something to seal it up to keep moisture out so prevent the panel degrading?  If so what with?

[Nickfromwales]

£540 for 27 panels is tempting. Got a few for spares in that amount. 

[Jeremy Harris]

14 hours ago, ProDave said:

Any thoughts on the ones from Bimble with the "degraded backing"

 

This is their picture

 

 

As I understand it, that backing material is supposed to be a continuous sheet.  It appears to be cracking along either the individual panel joints, or the interconnecting tapes.

 

They say the panels are still generating the expected power.

 

Is it a matter of just doing something to seal it up to keep moisture out so prevent the panel degrading?  If so what with?

 

Looks easy enough to seal up.  I'd have a look at seeing if the panels can be laid dead flat and then pour a thin layer of the very runny two pack polyurethane or silicone potting compound.  I had a go at encapsulating some home made panels using the water-clear (expensive!) potting compound that Dow Corning make, and it runs freely over a surface and ends up as a nice thin layer, like a conformal coating.

 

A brush-on silicone conformal coating, like the stuff used to protect circuit boards may be just as good, but that normally needs to be heat cured.  You may be able to set up a rig with a radiant heat lamp to cure the stuff, though.  Whenever I've coated circuit boards with the stuff I've cured it in the oven, doesn't take much in terms of temperature, but does take a while.

 

If the price, plus the messing about to seal up the rear surfaces, is right, then I reckon they would be a good buy.  I could do with some now, as I'm typing this during (another) power cut, with the house server, modem, router etc running on my back up battery system.

[ProDave]

Well I ended up with a pallet of 25 of the Bimble solar PV panels. They had listed one on ebay and I won it for a little less than the price they are listed on their website that with transport works out at £50.8 per 250W panel, or 20.32p per watt.

 

I was pleasantly surprised unpacking them.  Most of them seem fine with no problems with the backing. 
One has a split in the backing about 1cm long, and 2 of the panels have the backing peeling at the top edge in one small area like this

 

I think my "fix" will be to cover the affected areas with a bit of sticks like sh*t smoothed down with a finger.

[Jeremy Harris]

Sounds like a real bargain, and great news that they aren't as bad as thought.  If I had room for another 25 panels I'd have taken a punt on some, but the most I could use would be around 10, if that.