Schott, Sharp, or Sanyo...

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marks Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭
in Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum #1
These panels all seem somewhat similar, and I found an exceptional bargain on the 250w Schott. Does anyone have any positive or remorseful experiences after making their panel choice?
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #2
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    Re: Schott, Sharp, or Sanyo...


    I don't buy panels made by oil companies. They seem to buy solar panel
    companies out just so they can wave the "we're green now and really do
    have a heart banner" then after awhile since the solar business doesn't
    make the bilions oil does they sell it off or drop production to almost
    nothing (BP) I'd look for panels made by companies who have been
    around and down the road you can still get panels from.

    brad



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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #3
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    Re: Schott, Sharp, or Sanyo...

    no remorse but hybrid (sanyo HIT) and/or amorphous may do better for you if you have frequent partial shading and/or overcast. the watt per watt output of my single cell sharps is lower by far in overcast weather than my sanyos.
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  • Windsun
    Windsun Solar Expert Posts: 1,164 ✭✭
    #4
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    Re: Schott, Sharp, or Sanyo...

    We can get Sharp, but we really prefer not to sell them, both because of some quality and spec issues we have had in the past, and the fact that the Sharp warranty exclude RV and marine use (even though one of their brochures shows an RV...).

    Sanyo are good, Kyocera are good, BP we dropped because they suck (the company, not the panels). SolarWorld (ex Shell) are good. Make sure you look close at the specs on any panels, I have seen some that are -10%, +2% (and you KNOW they will be right at -10%...)
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  • Roderick
    Roderick Solar Expert Posts: 253 ✭✭
    #5
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    Re: Schott, Sharp, or Sanyo...

    I think I saw the 250W Schott that you're referring to. At first, I had buyer's remorse for the panels that I already have, because of the great $4/watt price on the Schott. However,

    1) From that vendor, you must by in lots of 20. Might be ok, more than I could fit.
    2) The dimensions aren't shown, but the implication is that there are 216 10x10 cm cells, making the area somewhat more than 2.16 square meters. Might be a challenge to handle.
    3) Operating current is 5A, operating voltage is 48V, open circuit 60V. For a 48V standalone system, this would be good. But for grid-tie, you couldn't put more than 9 of them in series, after accounting for cold days. And if your inverter won't tolerate more than 500V input, you could only put 7 of them in series. To use all 20, you might be forced to 4 strings of 5, and the complexity of a combiner, or else two inverters. Wiring would be simpler if you had panels that were higher current, lower voltage, and you could simply connect them in a single string. I don't know if such panels really exist, though, as economics demand that wafers only be a certain maximum size today.
    4) It's "semicrystalline". I'm not sure what that means. Same as multicrystalline? Amorphous?
    5) It was hard to find the detailed spec sheet for this part. Suggests to me that it may not be that popular, or else the manufacturer doesn't have its act together.
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