What to do with my new Sunny Boy 7700TL?

softdown

I spend time/money looking for bargains, in used equipment, due to lots of time and little income. Imagine the surprise when I came across an unused Sunny Boy 7700TL-US-22 and disconnect box....still in their respective boxes.

I'm a part time solar guy. Have not gone full time because I feel like I need more time with my own 48 and 24 volt systems. Using my little 12 volt system for years taught me very, very little.

So I jumped on this new Sunny Boy that was made in Oct. 2014.

Does it carry a manufacturers warranty? For how long...if applicable?

If I installed in on my 1977 Denver area home...with a bunch of panels....would this likely raise the home value a lot? Would I be eligible for rebates from Excel...the energy company? Tax write-offs? I plan to sell or rent out this home in the near future. The panels would face east and west. Not perfect but not bad. I already own 44 used BP monocrystalline panels...they put out ~38 volts at ~150 watts. There were reportedly used for 6 years. A local solar pro tested them and said they are very good.

I live in a sparsely populated valley. It is very hard to sell to the locals because there are so few of them. A Denver Craigslist ad reaches ~2 million. A local Craigslist ad reaches ~20 thousand within 70 miles or so. I am in Denver 2 days/mt so my current electric bill is not the issue.

Currently off the grid with a great 48 volt and small 24 volt system. Do not foresee a grid tie here. It was very expensive before. Then they decided that new lines be buried. So the prices went from exorbitant to unworldly.

BB.

The Warranty is probably for 10 years, and you can buy another 5 or 10 years for hardware (does not include service calls).

I am not sure if you need to register or not/have original paperwork.

Even in California, I have not really seen anything that says having a GT Solar system really increases the value of the home... Certainly would be hard to justify more than the initial installation cost for an increase in the value of the home. In some cases, potential buyers are actually put off by the additional panels+cables on the roof/side of the home and it can reduce value for those potential customers.

How your utility works with GT Solar power--You would have to contact them. Some are very easy to get paperwork/aprovals, and let you buy/sell power at retail prices. Others may only pay you wholesale price and/or high monthly minimum charges. And some smaller utilities/co-op power companies will not let you connect at all.

Regarding Federal taxes--The credit is good on initial purchase for new installation. If the original buyer did not take the credits, I guess you can (based on your receipts in hand). If you have old/used panels, it would not a great idea to try and take credit for those.

I have BP-175 Watt panels on my home--About 6 years in, they were all replaced due to a manufacturing defect (panels were failing due to junction box overheating/failures). BP, so far, is honoring their warranty (at least to orginal buyers).

The GT inverter you have has a 1.5kWatt 120 VAC circuit that provides backup power when the sun is up (no batteries). Not sure that it would be worth the troubles to have power from 9am-3pm or so...

-Bill

softdown

Based on this very helpful information, looks like the best bet is selling it.  It is very heavy. Surely it can handle a lot more than 1.5 Kw, I am missing something here. It is a 220 volt inverter of course.

My panels are the 150 watt units. The 170/175 watt units were prone to the failure that you experienced. We discussed the BP 170/175 watt panel catastrophe previously.