How To Find The Best Solar Panel At Affordable Price

By Author: Nitin Gupta
Total Articles: 4
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How to find the best solar panel at affordable price

With numerous factors like equipment options, financing options, and choices of solar companies, finding a household solar energy system can be tricky and confusing for homeowners. Choosing a suitable solar panel is necessary to ensure both energy and cost-efficiency. After reading this article, you can surely check “finding a suitable solar panel” off the list.

While choosing a solar panel, you must have three important scales in mind:

1. Cost Efficiency vs Production Efficiency
Your choice of solar panel must revolve around your requirements and objectives of choosing the solar energy system.

If you are someone who doesn’t care much about their pockets being cold as far as the efficiency is best-of-breed, then the best fit for you is a monocrystalline solar panel. It has the highest silicon purity and hence is the most expensive variant (300-700 USD).

If you are someone whose sole purpose of having a solar energy system is to make the environment suffer less, even if it comes at a price of lower efficiency, then your choice ...
... should be a polycrystalline solar panel. These are cheaper (200-500 USD) and greener than monocrystalline panels but are less efficient. Polycrystalline panels are observed to be unfit for areas with temperatures above 30°C.

If the cost-efficiency matters to you the most, your fit is the thin-film solar panels. These are the most budget-friendly solar panels (175-300 USD) out there but are half as efficient as other solar panels. They need a large amount of space as compared to their energy output which makes them impractical to use at smaller homes. They also degrade faster than other panels, so you might need to call the assistance for repairs now and then, over the years.

Then come the amorphous solar panels, which are nearly as efficient as the crystalline solar panels but are slightly cheaper (200-400 USD), and take half the space as other thin-film panels. Go with these amorphous solar panels to strike the perfect balance between cost-efficiency, production efficiency, and space efficiency.

Investing in a good product for a marginally higher cost can actually save you a lot of money. If you have experience in the software industry, say buying or subscribing for a order booking app - you would understand these tips.

2. Durability
Although in normal climate conditions, any variant of solar panels is highly durable. But, if you live in a region known to have heavy snowfall or high wind they will become less efficient in lesser time. If you live in an area with such conditions, look for a solar panel with quality and reliability standards for such conditions. Solar panels that meet IEC 61215 i.e. an International Electrotechnical Commission declared reliability standard for panels that pass various accelerated outdoor stress tests, might be suitable for you.

3. Quality
Quality assessment of solar panels can be done by getting a hold of assurances and warranties offered by the manufacturer. Manufacturers offer guarantees against the degradation of their panels. For instance, a panel manufacturer might replace your panel if it’s efficiency degrades more than a threshold over a period of time. Obviously, the manufacturer with more assurances to offer has a reliable product.

Once you compare a solar panel over all three of these scales, the solar panel that best fits the objectives and requirements is the right choice for you.