How to choose a solar panel? How do you know what brand of solar panel to buy in Australia there’s, probably hundreds of brands of solar panels? And you’re, not a solar panel expert. How do you know a good brand from a bad one? Well, I thought long and hard about this and, at the end of the day, the simplest answer to that is for me to simply put up all the brands that I trust brands that I would have on my roof.
So you can decide which ones for you is the chart on the left of the budget panels. Think of these, as kind of the high-end I of solar panel brands on the right for the more premium ones. Think of these as the BMW of solar panel brands.
All the panels on this chart, I would personally be happy to have on my roof the ones on the left for the more budget-conscious buyer, the ones on the right. The people who don’t mind spending extra to get quality and performance.
Now let’s. Talk about this thing called the tier one solar panel Tier one is an industry ranking scheme. It’s used by the banks to decide if they’re, going to use a certain brand of solar panel. In multi-million dollar solar farms, now Tier one does not mean it’s, a high quality panel directly.
It’s based on the financial strength of the company, but it is, in my opinion, a proxy for quality. At the end of the day, if the bank is gonna spend millions tens of millions hundreds of millions on one brand of solar panel for a solar farm, you can be fairly confident that they’re, going to go with a good quality brand.
So a Tier one, solar panel is not the be-all and end-all and there are a couple of brands that are Tier one that I personally wouldn’t have on my roof, but it is a good proxy. It’s, a good starting point for quality.
When you’re looking at solar panels, the warranty is really important. Many solar panels are advertised with 25 or 30 year warranties, but what you may not realize is that there’s, two main warranties with a solar panel and the really long one is probably not the one you should be looking at.
Why is that’s called a performance warranty and in experience a solar panel manufacturers, even the good ones, try to wriggle out of this warranty, the one that’s really hard to wriggle out of is the shorter one, and that’s called the manufacturers warranty or the product warranty on a typical solar panel, the product warranty or manufacturer’s.
Warranty is about ten years, whereas the performance warranty is about twenty five years. Look for the longest manufacturer’s! Warranty! You can that’s. The easiest one to claim good solar panel brands are now going over ten years.
Some are going to twelve. Some are going all the way to twenty five, but when looking at solar panel warranties be aware, there’s two and it’s. The manufacturers or the products warranty that’s. A really important one.
Solar panel specifications, a solar panel – will have dozens of specifications on its data sheets, and people can really get their knickers in a twist. Comparing the specifications I’m here to say don & # 39.
T really worry about it. If I had to choose three specifications to worry about there’d, be, is it mono, crystalline or multi crystalline, that’s? The type of silicon that’s used? Let’s start with that.
One mono crystalline is a little bit more efficient, so a lot of people think oh, I must get him on a crystalline panel, whether you get a mono crystalline panel or a multi crystalline panel on your roof in Australia.
They’re gonna have similar performance, so don & # 39. T worry about it. Just get a good brand that’s. Well warranted don’t worry if it’s multi or mono. Don’t, let the salesman talk you into getting one or the other.
The second specification that you will be looking at is efficiency. Now this is an interesting one, because intuitively you’d. Think a more efficient panel would give you more energy right, but that’s, not the case.
A less efficient panel is simply bigger for the same amount of energy that’s been produced. So if you & # 39, ve got a small roof or if you & # 39, re worried about getting the maximum amount of energy from your roof, which can make sense.
If you’re thinking of getting batteries or electric cars in the future, then by all means go for a higher efficiency solar panel, but generally the higher efficiency ones are more expensive. If you & # 39, re, not worried about fitting all the solar on your roof, you & # 39.
Ve got a big roof. If you can easily fit the system size you want, and you’re, not worried about fitting more in the future. The lower efficiency solar panels are fine, they’re, just a a bit bigger and they are a fair bit cheaper.
So don’t worry too much about efficiency. The third solar panel specification is what we call a temperature coefficient now. This is important because, like I said it’s, bloody hot in Australia, right now, the better the temperature coefficients the less efficiency the panel uses as it gets hot, that’s right.
The hotter a solar panel gets the lower. The efficiency becomes, so you can dig into the this temperature coefficient. If you want – and I’ve got an article that goes into it in depth on my website, but generally the brands on the chart that I’ve just showed you have a good temperature coefficient.
But if you do want to compare one specification in Australia that’s, the one to look out for another good use of that specification is when the salesman goes. Our mate. My solar panel is designed for Australian conditions.
It works better than any other one well asking to show you the temperature coefficients, compare that with the other ones, and you & # 39. Ll, probably see that it’s, not that different. So he’s, probably gilding the lily.
So those are the three specifications that if you do want to worry about them, you should think about multicrystalline versus mono, crystalline panel efficiency and temperature coefficient that’s it at the end of the day.
Don’t worry too much about getting the perfect solar panel. Think about whether you want a budget system or a quality system that you’re happy to pay more for earth towards that end of the chart. Make sure that the solar panel brand is supported in Australia, because the thing that’s going to really wind you up is not getting five percent less energy.
In a year it’s, going to be five six seven ten years down the line. If something goes wrong with the panel getting those panels replaced and getting good service. So don’t worry too much about specs.
