Originally Posted By: LCranston
It is not so much that they cannot be used; all the LEGAL ones account for this.
Link for reference only; I do not work/sell blah, blah
https://www.altestore.com/store/inverters/hybrid-inverters-c561/

Prices start at near 2,000.00 for the inverter alone, before batteries.

WE are way off the original topic, new solar kit. The Harbor Freight kit does intrigue me as a quick and dirty.

Roarmeister, you mentioned your brother has a way off grid farm.
I would never suggest that this could replace a ""real"" system.

Could the extra 300 Watt/hr to 800 watt/hr be a useful supplement?
(sun hours Saskatchewan (Estevan High 8.3 hrs, Low 3.2 Hrs, Avg 6.0 Hrs)

Is the kit WORTH it? Will it work for years? No idea, do not have one.
I bought the 45 watt kit years ago; Parts of it were cool,some parts sucked. It sounds like the 100 watt kit fixes a lot of the sucky pieces; there is an Actual controller in the 100 watt kit. I like the LED bulbs, the old kit had Fluorescent, they were ok....
The stands for the panels on the old kit were terrible, the new one looks to be more modular, and the panels appear to have better mounting holes.


Yes, I figured the posts had strayed a bit far from the original intent of the thread.

"Way off grid?" - well sorta. He is 2 miles from the nearest power line. In my province, that's peanuts for distance. smile There are lots of people with well designed off grid solar. Dave wants to put one together to live at the farm; any way you slice it will be cheaper and more effective than a grid-tie in. My other brother operates a fishing camping off the grid north of Yellowknife (Lat 62°) with solar, generator and propane and flies in the fuel to run the equipment but at considerable cost. Panels are aimed almost vertically to capture the sun, but the good things is that during his operating season the sun stays very long in the sky.

FYI, southern Saskatchewan's useful sunhours is closer to 4.2 hours average and a mere 2.7 hours in the winter.

Best of luck/wishes on your expanded solar kit.