Solar panels- Hope you ordered by now!

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I ordered French made solar panels, the Photowatt brand, from a reputable firm, Jade Mountain, back in March.The original shipping date was at the end of May, now I have learned that the next expected ship date- the fourth one so far- is September 10th. The company rep has been quite apologetic, and I haven't given him any grief because I knew this would happen. I pre- paid in order to get in the front of the line.

I can't say from actual knowledge whether this delay applies to other brands of panels. My purchase was substantial, I am putting my entire house off- grid, Y2K or not. However I strongly suspect it is the case, Jade Mountain has been swamped with orders.

This is a good example of the kind of frustration and delay that I expect will become commonplace next year. Suppose instead of solar panels it was your local utility trying to buy transformers from Taiwan because a bad chip fried theirs? How long, O Lord?

Any of you going solar, good luck.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), August 25, 1999

Answers

Got mine last fall. They arrived within 6 working days. ZZZZZZaaaap power out of new york somewhere. Getting late in the game,,,,, good luck!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), August 25, 1999.

Daughter and son in law put half their conventional house on solar...from Sunelco...lots of good technical support. They are not only covered in case of problems, but they can sell the extra back to PG&E, and the State of California is paying for about half of it! They ordered their stuff in April I think, and it arrived in May. Sunelco. I don't work for them. We put our solar stuff in about 10 years ago...works great! If you live in an area that gets a lot of sun, it bears consideration. I have heard that it is possible even in states much further north.

-- Mary (CAgdma.@home.com), August 26, 1999.

I have spent 12 months searching out a solar distributer that LIVES the products they sell. Many phone calls and miles later, I have purchased MY solar from energyoutfitters.com These guys have LIVED without the GRID. There Prices COMPARED, with there Working Knowledge,and SUPPORT Stands on it's own!

-- X-Tech (boyer@cot.net), August 26, 1999.

I wish I had the money for a solar setup. I won't have that money until Sept. when I get my back pay. They'll probably be gone by then!

Damn it!

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), August 26, 1999.


As a Y2K wacko, I am spending big bucks to have mine installed by October probably. They had the panels, but they had to put in a huge order with Trace to get the inverters (not just mine, but other customers as well).

They LIVE solar (and wind too) and are even more wacked out than I am. That makes two of us in the area at least FLAME AWAY. My zoning hearing is coming up. Wish me luck.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), August 26, 1999.



Just try to put off the zoning meeting till January 3rd. :^)

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), August 26, 1999.

I have spoken to numerous dealers in the industry about equipment shortages over the past several months and as of a month ago the only thing there were shortages of were windplants and a few models of Trace inverters. PV panels seem to be widely available...dealers brought and sold mountains of them at the SolWest Energy Fair last month. I'll be headed to an energy fair in AZ (Flagstaff Sept. 18-19) and report on that when I return.

Have heard several folks bemoan poor service/lost orders from Jade Mountain. Get the impression they are very disorganized. True or not that's what I hear. Bob Maynard at Energy Outfitters does well by his customers and is a straight shooter, Ditto Bob-O at Electron Connection, Steve and Elizabeth at Backwoods Solar, the Crew At Alternative Energy Engineering and Warren at Northern AZ Wind and Sun. Other folks I just don't know....

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), August 26, 1999.


The Men in Brown brought me two panels early this week that I had ordered from Northern Arizona WindSun on Aug 13. Unisolar 64, $300 each plus shipping.

Why Unisolar 64 ? Hail and hunters. The panels are on a hillside mostly inhabited by deer and pheasants who have designs on my orchard, so I wanted something that was literally bulletproof -- 'specially for those city boys who think anything marked National Forest on a state road map ain't private property -- shame to muck up a panel if a warning shot goes wide, or them city boys stumble into the camo beehives up there, too. . . .

-- urth (urth@whosear.com), August 27, 1999.


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