Yep I was wondering the same thing. Tough to stop those guys from going through your stuff, and snapping a picture of the code to rob you when they get home.

And there should be a silver and platinum option as well.

It's a good video but It's a bit apples and oranges. It only applies to a purely DC to DC off grid environment, and he clarifies that in his video as well.

As for the field in Germany, I seriously doubt it was a power storage issue that caused the bankruptcy, they have some of the best net metering rules on the planet. 

If the panels are working to specification, it sounds like an amazing deal. Why did the solar fields go bankrupt? At that price offering I'm amazed no one stepped in to buy the facility and keep it running. There must be a reason.

Might be able to get broken/defective/shattered panels without any warranty or guarantees for that price. But my local salvage company pays more for broken solar panels than that, so I doubt anyone in the US would ship panels to you at that price.
You might be able to obtain individual solar cells and put them together yourself, for close to that price? Might be a fun project, lot of work though, stringing the cells and encasing them properly. I stopped doing that when the price dropped below $4/watt. The large scale manufacturers just make the finished product so much better than a hobbyist can achieve. There is a lot of details that go into a finished solar panel, even the glass is manufactured with special anti reflective glazing.

Just let me know how many watts you want and where you want them sent.

Sometimes it doesn't reset on the first attempt. With the power on, hold the reset button for 5 or 10 seconds then release, then turn the power off for 5 seconds then turn it back on. If that doesn't work, then with the power cord unplugged hold the reset button and plug it in while holding the reset button, then release the button, wait a minute then unplug it and plug it back in.

It works well compared to other commercially available miners, but it's still a crappy design that most people aren't able to run at it's rated output because it gets to hot. The vast majority of people are underclocking their miners because of poor heat dissipation, energy consumption and noise.  The previous poster just explained in simple terms why that is and how to fix it.

os2sam apparently drank the Koolaid (jim jones brand, not to be confused with the stuff john lennon was drinking when he wrote imagine) and is just regurgitating the propaganda that he was told.
US just dropped 50billion on 2 nuclear plants that will probably never produce any energy(too dangerous to run, every nuclear plant should have been shut down years ago), for the same money we could put up twice as much solar power and have it all running in less than a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUPPWIzuOR0

Spring festival ends soon. Maybe they come back from the festival with some good news for us.

Yep you and the other thousand orders that bitmain is not interested in. Maybe they'll release an upgrade kit to the S7.

What are you thinking about getting a tesla and camping out at one of their free for life rapid charge stations? I wonder what their terms of service agreement has to say about something like that? 40kwh constant at 10cents/kwh would be worth about ~$35k a year. With tesla's 1.7% finance plan, they would be paying you about ~$25k/yr to sit at their charging station 24/7. (this analysis assumes that you're able to mine 10cents/kwh x 40kwh 24/7 of btc + the cost of equipment + any efficiency losses).   

Really looking forward to all of the nuclear and coal plants being shut down. Just think... it was only a decade or 2 ago that coal represented nearly 60% of the US energy supply.  Clean safe energy technologies are definitely on the rise. Shame the US just wasted over $50billion on 2 nuclear plants that will never pay for themselves.

Thank you for the kind words. I'm just enjoying the snow from the comfort of my miner heated solar powered home. I liked the poll you ran philipma1957, sorry it got cut short.
Yes I designed and installed the first privately owned wind and solar powered electric generators that were allowed to be tied into the public utility grid in my state, which last time I checked was the 2nd largest solar market in the US. I've also done a bunch of other energy utilization projects over the years. 
If anyone is really interested in setting up an off grid or on grid mining system utilizing the most cost effective energy processes currently available, I'd be happy to consult. But what I'd really love to coordinate is an energy deployment maximization plan for one of these larger scale deployment facilities, they are dropping the ball on duel purposing their facilities. Bitfury, Friedcat, Bitmaintech, Spondoolies, KnC... they've made great products, but they are showing their lack of depth on their larger scale mining deployments. It's only a matter of time before an entity steps into the fray with a more comprehensive methodology. All of these entities which are deploying miner facilities that live and die based on the cost of energy and the price of bitcoin at any given moment just haven't figured it out yet. I'd love to help them unhinge from the temporal whims of the bitcoin market space in a way that enables them to enhance the services they are providing to the general community and increases their competitive edge. If large scale deployments truly want to maximize the value of their participation in the bitcoin mining market space.... they will need a more comprehensive philosophy.

There are a lot of variables in the question you're asking. The answer is going to vary by a substantial amount from state to state and country to country.  For instance in my area, if you connect to the public grid, you get the electricity from the solar worth ~$0.17kwh + an additional incentive for clean energy of ~$0.10 to ~$0.2kwh + federal tax credits and depreciation which pay for ~50% of the total system price. So people in my state will typically get between 12% and 30% ROI annually depending on the exact components used and the buyers ability to use the federal incentives. My state also has some of the strictest energy standards on the planet, as well as a number of additional bureaucracies to deal with, So the up front cost of a solar system in my state is substantially higher than in other places.

You make some great points. But there are other benefits to consider too. There's a 30% federal tax credit in the US for solar panels as well as a super accelerated depreciation table, if he's able to use these incentives it will improve his ROI substantially. Also the panels and the electricity they produce can always be used for other purposes besides mining.  

edit: I also forgot to mention, that once your solar panels have paid for themselves, your energy costs drop to 0, at which point cost per kilowatt hour becomes irrelevant, and your only remaining consideration is the earnings per kilowatt hour produced.

Because at that price everybody and their mother would want to mine and difficulty would go through the roof before any chance to ROI.

If you'd like I can get you very inexpensive solar panels delivered to your house in Georgia that are fully compliant with all US rules and regulations for grid interconnection complete with a 20 year manufacturers warranty for under $1 a watt. I also accept bitcoin for solar panels. One of the oldest solar pv companies on the east coast http://www.ecologicalsystems.biz/ would be the ones providing the solar panels. Their credentials are impeccable so you don't need to worry about any scams with them.

Yes I'm also planning on using the liquid cooled miners to heat the water in my hot water tank. One of these 8 board S5's running at 2400watts should be more than enough for the average family. I even installed a heat sink for dumping the excess heat when the hot water tank hits the right temperature. Once I dig in the pool, I'll be able to use them to heat the pool as well. Right now it's 9 degrees fahrenheit outside and my whole house is being heated to a very comfortable 72 degrees fahrenheit by air cooled miners in the basement radiating heat through the floors. By using the heat from the miners we get to radically extend their usable life cycle. Once I've completed my solar pv system my site will be 100% self sufficient, the only reason for me to swap out miners is due to hardware failure or to increase mining density per unit of energy consumed. This is why mega farm commercial operations have trouble competing with small home mining operations. However I do have quite a few wonderful dual purposing solutions for them that would substantially increase their profitability.       

Just trying to help. Hopefully, this guy doesn't trick anyone into giving him coins. He's obviously well practiced at conning people out of their money, the story he gave seemed very plausible. If I wasn't so paranoid (and have a strict set protocols that I use before sending anyone any money), I would have fallen for his con.

You make a great point. I agree, it depends on how far into the future you are talking about and a bunch of other variables too. If bitcoin is ~ $200 next week and you offered me the 8 board complete kit for $1200 at that time, I would definitely buy the kit. But if bitcoin is $600 in 4 weeks and you offered me the kit for $1200 at that time, I wouldn't want it.