Solar Panels

dutchy101

With the ever increasing cost of energy prices, I’m starting to give some consideration to getting some solar panels installed. I have a south-facing garden which gets sun all day so think they should do well. I’ve seen an Indegogo campaign for Legion Solar 6, which looks very interesting. I particularly like the way they seem easy to install yourself ideally I’d prefer to have them installed on my extension roof as opposed to the roof of my house, so if I do decide to move I can take them with me. Does anyone have Legion panels - would you recommend them?

tompoland

Am I reading their campaign right in that you get one 300w panel? If so it doesn’t seem a lot. Our last house had 6kw of panels, current house 4.5kw. And I don’t think those numbers are unusually high, the average house solar system here in OZ is around the 5.5kw mark.

Not sure how they would bypass local permit requirements 🤔 and some of their claims in the comparison table are just plain wrong e.g. with other systems you need a new roof it it’s past “half life”, whatever that is. And apparently other systems are not scalable (BS). Cost of entry for other systems is $20,000 (more BS). I could go on.

Too many wildly inaccurate claims for my liking.

Doram

tompoland Am I reading their campaign right in that you get one 300w panel? If so it doesn’t seem a lot.

I also asked myself this question. Looking at the campaign I didn’t understand how many panels and how much total power you are getting with each package, which is essential for comparison with ‘standard’ PV system installation. I also noticed the roof ‘half-life’ and the $20,000 entry cost claims and thought they sounded iffy.

Having said that, I have never heard of this option and found it interesting. The videos looked like this might be a serious thing, and if it is - it might be good (at times it even sounded too good to be true, but what do I know?). The idea that one could just order panels, stick them somewhere, connect a few cables and plug it into a socket to make some DIY electricity is very appealing. I have a strong feeling that Solar PV is going to dramatically improve in the not-so-far future (better efficiency, smaller, cheaper, easier to install, revolution in storage…). Maybe this sort of system is part of it? I really don’t know.

I am currently at the beginning of a process to get a standard PV system for the house. This is an obvious time to do it of course, when electricity prices are going crazy, which means it is also very hard to get, and who knows how long wait times will be. Even getting a quote proved to be a challenge these days. Some companies didn’t even reply. For others I had to wait six weeks to book a return phone call… One company actually was very efficient in sending two people (surveyor + electrician) to do a site survey. They made a really good impression and got me excited. When I didn’t get the quote I started chasing them - it was more than two months ago and they still didn’t get back to me.

I ended up enlisting for a system via a Solar Together (a group-buy scheme with backing from the local council). They promise to complete the installation by October this year, but to be honest - I am not holding my breath. If they will do it by October 2023 I will be quite pleased.

Compared to that, Legion Solar say they can deliver a system this month, and that it can be DIY installed immediately. This might be total BS, but if it isn’t - then WOW.