Sharon, MA: 24V Off-Grid Solar System (2.43kW panels, 10kWh LiFePO4) — $1,400, Worth $3,500 New — Moving Out of State

Interesting kit but this listing's a bit of a head-scratcher for anyone on this side of the pond — Sharon, MA is Massachusetts, so obviously not much use for most of us here unless you've got a mate stateside who can ship bits over. That said, worth breaking down what you're actually looking at:

2.43kW of panels + 10kWh LiFePO4 at 24V for $1,400 is genuinely decent value if the cells are healthy. The $3,500 new claim is plausible depending on the BMS quality and who made the battery — that's the bit I'd want to know more about before getting excited.

Few questions I'd be asking the seller:

• Which BMS? A decent Daly or JK is very different from some no-name unit
• Cycle count on the LiFePO4?
• Panel brand and any degradation testing done?

Running a 24V system myself in the van and the battery health really is everything — panels are relatively easy to replace but a dodgy BMS or tired cells and you've bought someone else's problem.

For UK folks, you'd be better off checking Fogstar or keeping an eye on the Facebook Marketplace groups for comparable used setups. Occasionally cracking deals appear, especially from motorhome conversions that never got finished.

Anyone else spotted similar used systems locally? Curious what people are paying for second-hand LiFePO4 packs right now — prices seem to have dropped quite a bit compared to even 18 months ago.

@PanelNige ha, yeah spotted that too — wrong forum and wrong continent entirely! Shame really because on paper it's a decent enough system, LiFePO4 at that capacity is solid kit. The dollar pricing's a giveaway but I imagine whoever posted it just copy-pasted the listing across multiple forums without thinking. Mods might want to shift this one or lock it down before people start asking questions about UK delivery costs on a Massachusetts collection-only job. If anyone's genuinely got connections stateside it might be worth a look, but for the rest of us it's a bit academic. 👍

@PanelNige @CopperGaffer my shepherd's hut battery setup cost more than that just in Fogstar cells alone, so this listing is basically just here to personally hurt me. 😅

@BatteryPaula that shepherd's hut build thread still haunts me — made me question every penny I'd spent on my static caravan setup 😅

Anyway, 10kWh LiFePO4 at that price would be tempting if we weren't, you know, an ocean away. My Victron kit alone cost roughly that and doesn't include the battery bank. The 24V spec is interesting though — I went 48V on the van and wouldn't go back, wonder if that influenced the price downward.

Not that any of us can do anything about a Massachusetts listing, but it's useful as a rough benchmark for what second-hand systems should cost over here. Seems like UK sellers are still pricing used gear at nearly new prices which is... frustrating when you're trying to expand on a budget.

@RetiredEngineer72 that's the danger of reading other people's well-documented builds — suddenly your own setup looks wildly overpriced 😅

On the actual listing though, 24V architecture at that scale is worth noting. For motorhome use I've found 24V hits a reasonable sweet spot before you start needing to uprate all your cabling to handle the current at 12V, but you're still not getting the efficiency gains of a proper 48V system for EV charging integration. 2.43kW of panels feeding 10kWh LiFePO4 is a sensible ratio — roughly 4:1 which mirrors what Victron generally recommends for year-round usability.

The $1,400 asking price converted is around £1,100 at current rates. You'd struggle to touch equivalent Fogstar or Pylontech capacity for that here, import duties notwithstanding. Academic for most of us, but it's a useful benchmark when arguing quotes with UK suppliers.

@Smudge that rabbit hole has a name and it's called "Victron envy" — I've rewired my motorhome twice because of build threads on here, both times convinced I was "just optimising."

On the actual listing — 24V system with 10kWh LiFePO4 at that price point is genuinely decent if the BMS isn't some no-name nightmare that'll thermal runaway the moment it sees a British summer (all three days of it). The panels-to-battery ratio looks reasonable on paper but I'd want to know the inverter spec before getting excited — that's always where these bundles quietly fall apart.

Useless to 99% of us geographically, but worth bookmarking as a price benchmark when haggling on equivalent UK kit — sellers on eBay hate it when you wave American secondhand prices at them.