Solar PV panels: manufacturer?

[At the risk of stirring ... ]

We (like many others) are thinking of installing PV. Are there any opinions on the quality of panels available?

Ones quoted by potential installers so far are:

Sanyo Romag REC Bisol

Cheers John

Reply to
Another John
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Whatever panels you go for remember your contract is with the installers. Folk local to us have panels on their roof (sorry I don't know the make) that failed after 11 months but the installers have folded so they have no comeback. So much for the 10 year warranty.

Mike

Reply to
MuddyMike

Nearly all use the same Chinese manufactured arrays. As with double glazing (many of the solar PV suppliers come from a failed double glazing company background) the trick is to create an illusion of reliability by quoting well known manufacturers names. It matters not a jot who the manufacturer is - the contract (as has been pointed out) is between the purchaser and supplier. If the supplier does a phoenix and "Watford Solar Panels 2010 Ltd" turns into "Watford Solar Panels (2011) Ltd" you don't have any warranty any more.

In reality as all you are generating is subsidies the effectiveness of the panel is fairly unimportant as it produces little electricity. What is more important for subsidy generation is the inverter - and they are proving to be depressingly unreliable.

If you can, pay at least the deposit by credit card - this may give you some future protection for when it fails.

Reply to
Peter Parry

chin up harry....

Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

As with all these things with long "warranties" you need one that is insurance backed and thus doesn't rely on the orginal company still being in business.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

And the payback period is?

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

And the payback period is?

In my case the projection is 11% return on money expended.. Who can say what payback will be with interest rates and inflation the way it is? But it's better than leaving money in the bank to rot these days I think.

So far, I am on track to get my 11% but it depends on weather of course. I was well above track but with the last couple of weeks weather, I am just about on track.

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Reply to
harryagain

So how much further do we have to go before the best financial plan with a PV array is to keep it indoors and out of the weather, in case it gets damaged? Actually generating power seems totally divorced from the financial issues of panel installation.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Since the energy companies have put prices up by a double-figures percentage, even during the course of these long discussions, arguments and (hard-to-comprehend) snipings, I'd have thought that the pay-back period is self-evidently declining week on week.

John

Reply to
Another John

I didn't understand this comment: arrays produce enough electricity to run an occupied house while it's sunny. That's quite a number of units that an owner is _not_ paying the energy company, and every unit saved is money in your pocket. Add to that the [crazy looking] subsidy, and an owner is "quids in", no?

*Even* those who install panels for the energy companies (on the leasing agreements) would seem to be to be out and out winners, since they'd be getting free electricity while the sun shines.

I don't understand the sceptical views of solar PVs. Now if you were to talk about wind turbines ... (let's *not*: separate thread for god's sake!)

John

Reply to
Another John

The economics of solar panels depend entirely on taxpayer subsidies - they are not actually economically worth while.

There are doubts over whether they will last as long as they need to to pay back the capital costs.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

If you do that and connect a battery charger up to the array output you can do really well as you get paid more than the cost of the electricity you use, something which has not passed unnoticed by certain users.

Reply to
Peter Parry

True at the moment but this will change. Obvious to all but the most stupid.

The purpose of the subsidy is to kick start the technology which we will all depend on in a few years

There are forty yaers old panels still working. So they last longer than a conventional power station.

Reply to
harryagain

You really are stupid and lying aren't you? Battery charger? The arrays run at over 600 volts.

Reply to
harryagain

I use

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a source for detail performance prediction, and if you want to factor in the actual sunshine, you can get the monthly data here:
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A nice looking setup. What is the inverter? How are the strings of panels connected?

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

For you it is, but the panels themselves are not financially worthwhile, only the subsidy that allows you to raid everyone else's pockets.

Reply to
Andy Burns

We have just had a system installed, using Solar World panels (235 W, polycrystalline, made in Germany). These were recommended to us on the grounds that the manufacturer has a good track record. The installer showed us articles in a professional journal called "Photon International" which has had 39 different brands of panels under test for varying numbers of years. Those of Solar World had been installed since 2006 and still showed only the yield in kWh/kWp as only 4% below the best score, averaged over the whole period (the best score came from REC, but these had only been under test since 2010). Since the profitability of a domestic system depends on the performance over a decade or more, it seemed a good plan to use something that has been reasonably well tried and tested.

Other brands which came out quite well in the Photon International table were REC Solar and Bisol. Another firm from which we got quotes suggested Aleo but these seemed new to the market. Others quoted Sharp (apparently made in Wales now as well as Japan) but the figures gave them a relatively poor showing.

The other choice you have to make is between mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline: the former have higher efficiency i.e. output per unit area, but cost more, and haven't been on sale for as many years. We had a large enough roof area that we could use poly-crystalline panels and did so. The supplier told me that these had a larger acceptance angle than mono panels: I have no independent evidence that this is true, but over the last couple of weeks our system has started generating a useful amount of power around 6 am and carries on until after 8pm, and the variation with sun angle isn't as steep as I would have thought, so this may well be true.

As others have commented, installation at present prices isn't economically viable without the rather generous feed-in-tariff, but my guess is that panels (and inverters) are likely to get much cheaper over the next few years, so that eventually they might be justifiable without the subsidy. If electricity prices keep rising by 20% per annum that might not be all that far away.

Reply to
Clive Page

Yes to all that. My 3.88Kwp array has been generating 500Kwh/month for May June July. Down a bit this month with the overcast weather. I have a virtually perfect site in the West Midlands. (830)

I don't believe anyone can say which make is best. Only time will tell.

Reply to
harryagain

No, I leave that to you - you seem to be more practiced in it.

Each panel outputs (usually) about 24V. Connecting 21in series makes for a cheap installation but lowers reliability and increases the losses caused by shadowing, one good drop from a large bird can reduce the power output by 30% .

However, in the same way the panels can be connected in series so can common battery chargers (sometimes with a very simple modification). As the subsidy is so great taking electricity from the mains, putting it through a power supply and pushing back through the inverter makes for a very tidy profit. PV panels sub assemblies are made in hideously polluting factories and are subsidy harvesters, not practical ways of generating electricity.

Reply to
Peter Parry

So how does that work then? From what you describe, I envisage something like the following:

supply---->house meter----->batt.charger ^ | | | | | inverter

Reply to
Chris Hogg

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