Solar Modules & Inverter Arrive

Parts start to arrive!  First in was a palette of panels:

24 Sanyo HIT Power N 210N/HIP-210NKHA5 Solar Modules

Next up, the inverter:

Fronius IG Plus 5.0

And some miscellaneous hardware:

Miscellaneous Hardware

The miscellaneous hardware includes the AC disconnect, fuses, grounding straps, mounting clips, etc.  [The rails had actually arrived after the panels, inverter and miscellaneous hardware, but they were discussed in the previous post.]

All of these components, including the rails, were ordered from Wholesale Solar.  The folks at Wholesale Solar were very helpful and their prices are mostly excellent, but you must know what you want — n00bs are likely to end up with the wrong equipment.

Be careful!  Two examples:

• When asking for my first quote I informed Wholesale Solar that I would have 3 strings of 8 Sanyo modules and "appropriate rails" and explained the arrangement of the modules.  The rails they proposed would work well for an arrangement of 3 rows of 8 modules, but it would not work well for the arrangement I described for them: 1 row of 9 modules, 1 row of 8, and 1 of 7.  
• Their price on the solar modules, inverter and rails were very competitive, but their prices for other components such as fuses, disconnects, and cables were actually higher than MSRP.  Even though I pointed out such discrepancies to them and they promised to check into it there was no adjustment made and I eliminated some of those components in favor of purchasing them locally.

So always check things over carefully, regardless of from whom you may purchase the various pieces parts.