What is the most efficient solar panel (watt per square inch) on the market?

[jimindenver]

If you have ever stuck your hand under a mounted panel, it is quite warm if not hot. You could pull warm air from under them too. There use to be a panel that took advantage of the heat generated by placing a passive water jacket under the PV panel. You got hot water and a cooler panel all at the same time.

 

[kllcbosmetris]

Note it is possible to order custom panels in whatever shape you like, a 60-cell unit can be 15x4 or 12x5 or even 30x2.

I read today that Lensun may allow you to custom (size) order a solar panel. Do you know any other manufacturers that take custom orders?

 

[John61CT]

Alibaba has many, also contacting the eBay sellers that ship direct out of China.

I'll see if I can find notes, it's been a while, one was called brzl something.

 

[tripper]

A 300 watt panel is 39x77

LG Neon 2 panels LG Solar Panel

365 Watts
21.1% Efficiency
40 x 67 inches (60 cell)

I have an older version of these on both my rig and on a solar farm. They work flawlessly and put out the specified output.

On the other side, I replaced a decent 100 watt Renogy auxillary solar panel on my rig with a 160 watt no name, the no name barely puts out more wattage than the Renogy, despite big much larger, stick with the big manufacturers.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Nice concept, but don't think I'd DIY with a roof mounted fan myself

Did I say DIY?

We were talking about custom manufacturing.

 

[John61CT]

Ah, interesting, if it works well might be worth setting up a Kickstarter

 

[John61CT]

One outfit that may do custom semi-flex panels:

bzbrlz_sale on eBay, use this channel so you get the guarantee

​Shenzhen Xun Long Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.

​"Liu Bin"<[email protected]>

 

[Redbearded]

Not sure if this has been covered, but it looks like as soon as the panels are installed in a mobile vehicle the warranty is void. It's even void if  not installed by a "qualified licensed solar or electrical contractor". I'm not sure if they stick to the letter of this, or if there is some flexibility on their part, but legally it looks like they don't have to do anything should something go wrong (not a lawyer...).

 

[John61CT]

Costs you so much to ship them back effectively no warrantee anyway

 

[akrvbob]

I find that hard to believe. What makes you think it is?

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah many panels are sold for motor homes, boats, etc. when I bought mine I was honest with them about how they would be used and they told me that there was no problem with the warranty. highdesertranger

 

[frater secessus]

I find that hard to believe. What makes you think it is?

Added flexion/vibration/jarring from mobile installs is likely harder on them.  I'd guess it's more of an issue with the physically larger (and generally higher voltage) panels.

When I mounted my 72-cell panels on the van I gave them extra support in the middle.  If mounting on the house I would have just mounted from the ends.

 

[jimindenver]

The three 250's on my roof each have warranties and they knew what I was mounting them on.

Realistically you shouldn't imagine issues that have no basis and then make decisions based on that imagination. Think about it. How many solar panels big or small have you heard of failing under normal use? I beat the heck out of my first two grid tied panels, dropped them, lifted them by one corner, had them blown onto their face and survived a massive hail storm. Their output was the same when I gave them away last year as it was when I bought them new in 2012.

 

[akrvbob]

it looks like as soon as the panels are installed in a mobile vehicle the warranty is void. It's even void if  not installed by a "qualified licensed solar or electrical contractor". 

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just wondering what makes it look like that's true? I only ask because it is a totally new idea to me so I'm looking for more information on it.

You are aware there is almost always two warranties on solar panels? 1) the frame and workmanship and it is short, usually a year or two 2) power production which is usually in the range of 15-25 years

You can still buy RV panels that are specifically designed to go on RVs, usually they are 12 volt and often have a junction box, but less as time goes by.

Kyocera is a superior solar panel, it almost always has a center brace and better construction

 

[Redbearded]

I looked up the Kyocera panels, or at least a general warranty for them found at http://www.kyocerasolar.com/pdf/warranty.pdf

I have included the pdf here as well for expediency.

They seem to have 3 things that they break down in their warranty (not a lawyer):

1. Ten year warranty on workmanship (seems pretty clear)

2. 25 year on power output (again seems pretty clear)

3. Exclusions (...Doh!...) 
     section 2) This Limited Warranty shall not cover defects and/or failures of the PV Module(s) from the following causes even though such         defects and/or failures are discovered within the applicable warranty period:
    
     h) defects and/or failures caused by use on a mobile unit including, but not limited to, vehicles, vessels and any other such             mobile unit;

That seems pretty clear to me (again not a lawyer...) that when a panel is installed on a mobile unit (van, trailer, RV, etc) the warranty does not cover defects and/or failures even if within the warranty period. I'm not sure how they would consider a power output decrease as anything but a failure, but I don't know what their process is.

I'm not sure how strict they are with stuff but warranty work could be an issue, and again this is the warranty for the larger panels. I haven't researched the 100W panels. Also this language seems to be fairly common on warranty info for large (~250W+) panels, or at least the few that I have looked into have all had it (could be bad luck on the ones I picked so far).

 

[John61CT]

Key words there

"caused by"

 

[akrvbob]

That does appear to be pretty clear.

But you can always take the panel off and not tell them it was on a vehicle. It very well might require you to lie though, which some won't be willing to do.

The good news here is the Kyocera is a better panel and rarely ever fail

The even better news is that almost all panels rarely ever fail, that's why they give such long warranties.

It's not something I'd give any thought to.

 

[jimindenver]

Something to consider is how many panels out there are orphaned? Solar companies haven't been lasting long, even Kyocera left the North American market according to NAW&S.

 

[John61CT]

Yes. I don't care about warranty myself, but that factor means, if you want matching panels in the future you should find a bulk deal maybe buy a pallet up front.

Other way to go is matching a given number of panels to a right-sized matched controller (my preference 1:1), treat that as one set.

Next time you buy, may need to use different components but each set is optimized, no problems putting multiple SCs on one bank.