Solar Panel theft

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Obviously stolen by the same guys who install them on houses. Who sell them to the next customer that never knows they were used panels. Great way to improve the profit margin of a struggling solar installing buisness.

It sure is a bunch of money laying around, at $800 a panel retail.

That is just dispicable! Sad...

I would like to know how they can rationalize stealing solar panels like that. Sure, theft of all kinds happens, but it's not by industry 'professionals' who would presumably have a higher level of ethical behavior than the schmoe who breaks into a home to steal an LCD tv.

Unless it's the same type of criminal, who is selling the panels used, and not actually running a solar installation business.

just like stealing razor blades. should be common and cheap, but isnt !!!! Because of Malicious market control on thin film solar!!

Ethical standards kinda like our financial institutions? It is just so sad but theft occurs at all levels. However, I'm not saying that solar installers rank as highly paid pro's but the company that they work for surely makes a buck. :wink:

It would seem to me if you can afford to install so many panels, you could (and should have) afford a simple surveilance system - cctv or wireless network setup, cheap < 200 usd with a dvr type back end and 2 cameras.

Honestly - unless physical access is limited or controlled -> impossible, putting security on panels just seems common sense - I'd add a loop of some kind if possible to detect removal of any panels electrically at night to trigger an alarm.

Just my .02

-Mike

The solar industry could try to start now on some kind of universally agreed upon serial # system like with bikes/cars/guns to help deter theft for resale.. Surely not a 100% fool proof solution but it would help. Like you said, they are a big investment. Worthy of some sort of serialization IMO.

I worked for quite a few construction contractors over the years that were getting divorced, trying to work 150 hrs a week by keeping that upper lip white, etc. They'd steal the panties off their grandma.

Or it could just be those underpaid installers. At any rate, I bet some contractor is more that willing to buy those things. Could easily be wise guys that are behind it. They could fence anything, serial numbers or not.

I'm a pessimist because I've lived long enough to have known a lot of thieves. ALL the more sucessfull contractors have a dope money laundering history in this county. You can tell immediately who the honest guys are, still driving the same truck 20 years later.

Any hot item that's worth a lot of $$$ will be stolen.. remember copper wiring and catalytic convertors being stolen? yikes.

I wish we had better job opportunities here in the USA. Then people wouldn't think twice about resorting to shit like this. It's sad..... even worse when we're talking about green energy.

remember copper wiring...being stolen?

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Recently in new construction tracts, unemployed people who sleep all day and prowl all night, will break into a half-completed house, and then tear out the walls to chop out copper plumbing pipe. looked like it had been done with bolt-cutters.

I'm guessing they fold and smash it up, then take it to the next city over to their recycling center to get a few bucks. $10,000 worth of damage (or more) to get $100 in copper recycling money. Most often, I'm told its meth...

The latest trend in plumbing is plastic flex tubing (comes in long rolls). The only joints are outside the walls, so no leaks inside the walls. Any 90-degree turns, the flexible plastic tubing is slid through a smooth radius metal pipe section as a guide to prevent kinking.

I'll guess that soon, the solar panel manufacturers will be adding bar-coded serial numbers etched into the aluminum frames...

That is just too screwed up. That's like breaking into someone's house, ignoring the jewelry, computer and theater system...and making off with the damn water heater. Expensive, uncommonly stolen, and essential! Damn thieves...

spinningmagnets said:

remember copper wiring...being stolen?

Click to expand...

Recently in new construction tracts, unemployed people who sleep all day and prowl all night, will break into a half-completed house, and then tear out the walls to chop out copper plumbing pipe. looked like it had been done with bolt-cutters.

I'm guessing they fold and smash it up, then take it to the next city over to their recycling center to get a few bucks. $10,000 worth of damage (or more) to get $100 in copper recycling money. Most often, I'm told its meth...

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Banning/making pseudoephedrine perscription only does wonders.
Oregon's meth lab busts went down for 200-300 a year to a handful a year.
They all moved to California/Washington.... enjoy your readily available decongestants, guys

I didn't know that houses were being torn apart. That's terrible.

Again, it comes down to less opportunities. I wouldn't have got mixed up with drugs when i was younger ( been clean for 8 years ) if i saw a positive future ahead of me where i lived.

For a while, between two and six years ago, there were a LOT of thefts of A/C units from houses, schools, etc. Two houses in my neighborhood were severely damaged when someone did exactly what was described above--ripped the walls apart to get the piping out. ANd yeah, they ignored all the easily-fenced electronics/etc., and ONLY stole things with potentially lots of copper and whatnot in them, including all the motors in the house (fans, vacuums, even the motors in the stove vents, by ripping the cieling out), transformers like FL ballasts, phone wiring, network cable, etc. Even cutting cords off of appliances that were resellable even at a yard sale for a hell of a lot more than the copper in the cords!

THe most dangerous of the thefts was when someone figured out that the valves for gas lines are brass, and therefore have copper as a component. They started ripping them out of the ground with chains on trucks. One guy tried this in broad daylight not far from here, at the corner of a major intersection next to a school. He tied the chain to his rear axle, and the other end to the main gas line cutoff valves that come out of the ground there, and are probably 8 or 10 inches in diameter. You can guess what happneed. :lol: He tried to run since he couldn't drive the truck away anymore, but the cops that were there at the school watching for other kinds of morons easily caught him.

The water cutoff valves up at Arrowhead mall got ripped out the same way, shortly before I started working at that CompUSA, and when I got there had been replaced and had cages welded over them all with big big locks on them, making it a lot harder to quickly rip them out.

They STILL steal the brass flush valves assembly (the size of your forearm and fist) off mens' urinals in restrooms around the city; they did it about a year and a half ago, maybe two, where I work. I see an "out of order" urinal every few weeks caused by this theft, in my travels around thsi part of the valley.

A year ago, they stole (and destroyed trying to steal) the fans for the A/C units on top of the bulding where I work, destroying over half of the A/C capacity for the building's businesses. The building owners still have not replaced them all (some of the rest of the A/C units themselves were damaged beyond repair in the process, and I guess that's an awful lot of money to replace ones that size).

Yeah the copper thieves are pretty bad here too. They attack houses under construction and nab the wire out of em when it's easy to get at. Once in a while, you hear about a guy going after those fat cables under the ground that supply the whole neighborhood. Oops! those ones were hot. Another meth addict crispy critter. :lol:

I don't know if it's still happening, but I heard of iron thieves too, going after manhole covers like mad in the midwest.

dogman said:

Another meth addict crispy critter. :lol:

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Thats funny on a serious subject, at least it's just punishment

I've noticed that locally the manhole covers are secured down with a bolt. I was wondering why they did that. I did hear about the street light wiring being stolen around here though..

I better make my solar panels ugly then. It's worked for my ebikes, and petty theft is ridiculous here, since there is no punishment for anything under about $1k of value. It makes everything here cost quite a bit more too, since for example, the grocery stores have almost one employee per isle just to deter the shoplifters.

dogman said:

I don't know if it's still happening, but I heard of iron thieves too, going after manhole covers like mad in the midwest.

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A mere pittance... somebody in New Jersey (I think) stole something like 20+ miles of aluminum guardrails off a highway. They dressed up like workmen, had state logos on the trucks, and went to it in broad daylight. Yep, if you look the part and act like you know what you are doing, you can get away with just about anything.

Aluminum guardrails? Man, I'm suprised they stayed bolted on for a weekend. Either AL or copper is just valuable to leave in the open.