Considering manufactures warranty in terms of their financial viabilty

dale

Hi,
I've been looking at the prices of panels produced by different manufactures. I like what I read about Evergreen panels, but am concerned they might not be around if there are problems in five or ten years. I feel more secure about the economic fate of companies which are part of more diversified corporations like Sharp, Sanyo, or Kyocera.

Given the state of the economy, does anyone have any suggestions on how best to judge the future viability of these companies?

Thanks

niel

Re: Considering manufactures warranty in terms of their financial viabilty

evergreen is a large company and is in germany too. one really can't predict a company's success rate by its size either. i think it's ok to get the evergreens.

dale

Re: Considering manufactures warranty in terms of their financial viabilty

Neil,
It is good to hear that Evergreen is a larger company. This isn't a decision to make lightly, so it's best to research it in advance.

I selected Sanyo's for my current system before discovering this forum. They've been in service for one year and their production is about 4% less than estimated by the state. They seem to work fine and the difference could be due to weather patterns more than panel performance/deficiencies.

I've found the people and information on this site to be very top notch and appreciate your feedback.

Thanks again,
Dale

BB.

Re: Considering manufactures warranty in terms of their financial viabilty

Depending on who the mfg. of your system is, and even random production variations--your output is probably within ~+/- 5% (without using lab grade equipment--many brands of equipment seem to error at near +5% higher than real output--nobody complains if their system produces more than expected :roll: ). If you have a utility meter to measure your kWhr--it may be within 2%.

You can look here for a PDF of of solar irradiance at a site near you. They show on a chart the variation (and average) solar output over a ~20 year period.

If you live, for example, near the coast with an active marine layer--the variation can be pretty large. If you live in the middle of a dry desert--the variations are less.

-Bill