Yingli 270W Solar PV Panels

Order a pallet of 30 panels from our Auckland store and you only pay the same as for 27 panels. This 3 panel saving normally pays the NZ wide freight charge to a Mainfreight Truck depot.

We have been selling solar PV panels for almost 20 years and live off-grid ourselves on a 23kW PV array.

If you are serious about living off-grid then do not waste your time with a small PV array that you will need to upgrade all the time. We did it this way - but that was when PV was $10/W. It is so cheap today you can just do it right from the start.

The minimum size to power an off-grid home is 21 x 270W panels. Wire the PV in 7-strings of 3 so it is ELV. This way you can do all the DC work yourself (if you wish) and use a 100 amp 150V MPPT regulators or connect to a pre-wired system.

You need loads of PV because you need to power your home through winter, a large PV array combined with a wood fire for space and water heating can work very well. We do it this way. In summer surplus power heats your hot water. Also, a large PV array means that your battery bank can be smaller. The battery is often the most costly part of the system and it typically lasts 10 years or less. If you can limit night time loads to LED lights and TV, then a home can use less than 5kWhrs over night. This makes a 5-15kWhr lithium battery a possible solution.

If you go larger still (1-3 pallets of PV), then charging an electric car (during the day only) is also possible – we do it. The trick with a car is to charge it when you can on the sunnier days. This may mean that you have to charge at charging stations some of the time, especially on an overcast winters day, this is exactly what we do.

There are so many PV panels on the market that it can be confusing for newbies who may read too much. Yingli make great panels and they are sold at a good price.