Grape Solar GS-300-KIT 300-Watt Off-Grid Solar Panel Kit

I ordered this solar panel kit to take my garage off grid in order to save money on my utility bill. It was a special from Amazon's warehouse deals which saved me additional money on the cost. I also bought an additional Grape solar panel (for a total of 4 panels) to use with this kit. The included charge controller can handle up to 5 of their 100 watt solar panels. This allows me to use approximately 80% of the charge controller's capacity. I found that it's best not to exceed the capacity of your equipment. The solar panels are working extremely well and have good output even on cloudy or overcast days.The cables included with the kit makes hooking up the system a breeze. Unfortunately, I needed to run my PV wires a little less than 50 feet and the 25 foot PV wires in the kit were a little short for my purposes. My panels were installed on pole mounts instead of the roof. I find that a pole mount makes it easier to clean and service the panels. For most installations, the included PV wires (25 foot) should work just fine.The MC4 connectors made it easy to connect all the panels.The Xantrex inverter that came with the kit was non-functioning but a quick call to the service department at Grape Solar had a replacement unit on its way very quickly. The customer service reps at Grape Solar were very courteous and handled my problem with the broken inverter in a very professional manner. Looking forward to expanding my system using a larger kit to provide emergency power for my home.With great prices from Amazon and superior service from the folks at Grape Solar, you can be confident that you will get a great product.If you are looking for an all-in-one kit that includes everything you need (except a battery bank), then this is the kit for you!

This worked well except for my needing a bigger power inverter. I’m using this to power a boat lift (hydrohoist) at my dock, so I need a lot of power to get the vacuum started (1800 watts peak) and I was able to obtain the peak power with a single 180 amp deep cycle and a 5000 watt inverter. The smaller inverter is nice but like any rated inverter it won’t put out 1800 watts except in ideal conditions.Other thoughts... I needed the extension cable to make it reach and they are sold individually, yep, you have to order 2.