Ha, point taken, thank you. Luckily, we can sell any of the components separately. The example I used was for a whole system being completely installed--if someone just wants to buy a factory made panel we sell those for around a buck a watt anyway, plus freight.
I think you are absolutely correct about starting with component sales (panels, batteries, inverters, etc.). I may have been overly optimistic to think someone would be willing to purchase a whole solar system with BTC right away
. Plus I have a small post count and am a complete unknown to everyone on here. Earning positive feedback from members by completing hassle-free transactions will help build my credibility with everyone. As I said in my initial post, escrow would be welcomed.As far as putting together a solar panel from b-grade cells, I've looked into doing that in the past as a weekend project, but the pricing of cells, plus getting a soldering iron and solder, plus the wood or aluminum to build a frame, plus the plexiglass (or whatever) cover to protect the cells, plus the wire and special outdoor waterproof connectors--it was easier and less expensive to just buy a whole panel.
I've done some of that myself - the biggest cost really is the frame (since a diy guy isn't manufacturing 2000 of them) and just knowing how exactly to do it correctly.
That being said - put together a couple packages along the following lines:
grid tied inverter + panel + wiring kit + mounting hardware
or
battery packs + wiring + (maybe some options on electronics grade inverters?)
Make sure you have a kit that starts small (100w?) and can grow to (500w?) just by adding panels. offer packages like that in bitcoin and you'll get buyers all day. Advantage of you doing it this way, is you can get exact numbers on shipping costs and packaging worked into the price for each kit.
Also if you're actually selling panels close to a buck a watt... point me at the company, I'll buy with fiat in the future and save myself the labor of assembly. The same should hold true for btc - if you're company is an actual existing business... then there should be no problem following the normal sales procedure and just accepting payment via bitpay or bitcoins directly. Those of us with bitcoin incomes won't bat an eyelash if you're company is a traditional business transitioning into accepting bitcoin... no escrow needed.