5 Tips for Picking The Best Solar Energy Equipment
updated at : Saturday, January 14th, 2017
You have decided to install solar panels for your home to reduce your electricity bill and do your part to save the planet by reducing your carbon footprint. Although, you are not sure what steps you need to take in order to choose the best solar energy equipment. Which in turn will generate optimal renewable energy, resulting in reduced electricity bills. Don’t worry, in the next few minutes, you will learn all there is to know about picking the best solar energy equipment. The following is a good checklist for picking the best solar panel companies which will ensure that your solar energy system investment is profitable for 25 years or more.
There are many components to a solar energy system but there are two important ones. They are the solar panels and solar power inverter. Most of the solar panels look and feel the same but they are not. You need to be very careful when choosing solar panels. There are five different criteria you will need to apply when choosing the best performing solar panels and solar power inverter. The criteria are as follows:
Manufacturer Warranty
Two of the most important components are the solar panels and the solar power inverter. Unfortunately, industry accepted certifications are not available for these components. In the absence of the industry accepted certification, my suggestion would be to concentrate on the reputation of the solar panel companies and the number of years that the company will provide the warranty for. Most of the solar panel companies will provide 25 years of warranty and the solar power inverter manufacturers provide about 10 years of warranty. You should go with a solar power inverter which is warranted for 10 years or more. If your solar panel installer uses the two major components from manufacturers who have been in business for more than 10 years and have a strong track record in quality, reliability, and durability – you should feel confident.
Solar Panel Efficiency
Let’s talk about solar panel efficiency. Not all solar panels are created equal. Most of the solar panels will look and feel very similar but they are not. The solar panel efficiency will depend on the quality of the material known as silicon, which is used in producing the solar cells. The better the quality of the silicons, the more efficient the solar panels will be – which translates into more solar energy production. The most important factor to consider is how much solar energy your system will produce in a year. Your solar panel installer will be able to provide that information based on the solar panel specification and their own experience working with them.
Solar Panel Performance Guarantee
Let’s talk about solar panel performance guarantee. What does it mean? While the solar panel is warranted for 25 years, it will not perform at peak efficiency for the full-time period. The performance will degrade but at what rate? If your solar panel performance degrades by half a percent every year, you are in good shape. By the end of 25 years, your solar panels will degrade by 12.5 percent. Your system will be performing at about 90% of the peak performance.
Solar Panel Warranty Honor Guarantee
Let’s talk about the solar panel warranty honor program. What do I mean by warranty honor program? Most solar panel companies are warranting their solar panels for 25 years. However, what happens to your warranty when the company goes out of business. Your investments need to be taken care of in case your business goes down.
Panel Efficiency and Panel Wattage
This is the last one but very important! What does it mean for a solar panel to be highly efficient and high watts? The higher the solar panel efficiency, the better it is capable of converting sunlight into electricity. Highly efficient solar panels are very expensive and aren’t worth the cost. Choose solar panels which are rated for high efficiency but do not break your bank. What is solar panel wattage? The solar panel is rated by watts and they come in different ranges. Solar panels come in ranges from 1 watt to upwards of mid thousands for now and will go higher in the future.
Bigger Is Better
Consider a 345 W solar panel that is 5.08 ft in height and 3.41 ft in width that occupies about 17.3 sq. ft of rooftop space. A 345 W solar panel will produce 345 watts of electricity under normal sunlight conditions in one hour. When choosing a solar panel watt, go with the highest solar panel watts possible as it will occupy less space and produce more electricity. In our example, a 345 W solar panel requiring 17.3 sq. ft of rooftop space generate 20 watts of electricity per sq. ft. This value is obtained by the following: 345 W/17.3 sq. ft = 20W/sq.ft. You divide the watts produced by the panel by the rooftop space occupied by the panel.
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