Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

System · April 2007

Hello, I'm about to have a ~2kW system installed at my house and the contractor is recommending Sanyo HIT 195 panels because I have very little south and west roof space. Since the modules need to be put on both the south & west roof, I understand they should be on 2 strings instead of 1 and it seems the Sanyos are the only ones with enough voltage for the inverters. I was hoping to use the Sharp 142/72 black modules, but I'm OK with the Sanyos except I noticed the warranty is only 20 years whereas everyone else's is 25 years. Does anyone have any thoughts about why that is or whether the Sanyos are a good choice? Or am I really OK having all the modules on one string since the south & west roof are pretty close to each other?
Thanks.
T

niel · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

those pvs are a hybrid between thin film and crystaline technologies and the thin film has a much shorter lifespan and warranty. it may even be worse than a 20 year warranty. see this link. http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php?topic=2134.15 if you can find any other way to use a different pv i think you'd be better off, but if you're stuck i can understand that too. know that there are a few other sanyo models with higher ratings than the 195.

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Yikes. Thanks for the pointer. I don't know what to do since really nothing else can fit on my roof :-( I'll ask my installer to double-check with Sanyo.

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

i put 4 sanyo 190s on my roof at my dealers recommendation (and after reading great things about them from other installers in VT) 2+ years ago and they do Far FAR better that regular single cell modules (I have 3 sharp 175s on a separate system as a comparison, and these do way better as to power output) , and they will perform MUCH better in overcast weather in new england here. after 2 years running these i am this summer expanding my system with more of the sanyo HIT 190s for a total of 1.9kw. i suspect sanyo is playing it (overly, annoyingly) safe with their warranties, as they've merged two existing technologies to one panel, the result is a panel that certainly has far greater output in heat and overcast weather, in the beginning at least , than traditional panels. i consider it only a slight risk by using these over traditional panels. they dont seem too popular in some circles but all i know is more power, 2 years in and they perform better than similarly rated panels, still. if they perform at the rated capacity over the 20 year warranty lifespan i am still getting my moneys worth.

modified:the next sunny day i can tell you exactly what the output characteristics are comparing my sharps and my sanyos. both are a few yrs old. i didf it last summer and posted here but i forget, i am curious myself.

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Thanks mattl for the info. Good to hear that you like them. If you get a sunny day soon, I would be very interested in knowing the output difference. I'm also trying to decide if I need 12 195W Sanyo panels or 14 panels. They are rather expensive.

Solar Guppy · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Sanyo's problems from reading would point to temperature issues ( HOT ), serious enough to to change the warranty.

From your post it would seem your in Vermont ... a place where any PV will do well with temperatures 50-70 degrees BELOW STC of 77 degrees. I lived most my life in NewEngland and know the weather well. I do not doubt your 4 panels may be working well in a climate that only see 4 weeks a year of weather above STC of 77f, Sanyo is concerned enough to change the warranty that excludes 3/4 of the US ( Temperature/Humidity). The Hybrid panel is NOT time proven, changing the warranty puts the risk on the buyer instead of the seller, I can't see the good in this?

As an engineer, I would be interested in your comparisons of the 3 sharps to 4 Sanyos, what type of equipment do you have, is this charging battery banks with separate controllers? it would be a difficult task to do, even with lab equipment. Raw test data on the panels would indicate a minimal difference between the technologies but I'm always interested in real world data!

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Hello solar-guppy,

I'm in California, where we often have humidity <45% and some summer days do go to 104 deg. Are you saying I really should NOT go with the Sanyo's? My other option is to use Sharp 208s but I would have to put them on one string with 6 facing south and 7 facing west - how bad is that? I don't have enough room on my south roof to put 7 on the south in order to run 2 strings even with the Fronius (I tried Xantrex, and Sunnyboy as well and found the Fronius to require the number of panels).

Thanks.
T

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

when did this happen solar guppy?

Solar Guppy wrote:

Sanyo is concerned enough to change the warranty that excludes 3/4 of the US ( Temperature/Humidity).

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

tsshfs2005 wrote:

Since the modules need to be put on both the south & west roof, I understand they should be on 2 strings instead of 1 and it seems the Sanyos are the only ones with enough voltage for the inverters.

Hello T,

can you tell us a bit more of the system? how many panels and which inverter are you using?

mike95490 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Solar Guppy wrote:

Sanyo is concerned enough to change the warranty that excludes 3/4 of the US ( Temperature/Humidity).

This is for NEW sales right, not existing installed panels ? They can't change the warranty AFTER you bought.

Solar Guppy · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

mattl wrote:

when did this happen solar guppy?

Solar Guppy wrote:

Sanyo is concerned enough to change the warranty that excludes 3/4 of the US ( Temperature/Humidity).

I have no special knowledge ... based on this orignally and then a bunch of posts on the RE-Wrenchs list on topica
http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php?topic=2134.0

Regardless of what the "final" chanegs are, they ARE making changes and it is to reduce the warranty coverage... No Silicon only panel manufactures are doing this, that speaks loud in my view of what Sanyo is thinking ...

BB. · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Matt,

I believe that Solar Guppy is referring to the announcement by Sanyo that was posted by Wind-Sun in this thread (you have already been here when it was first posted back on March 30th).

http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php?topic=2134.0 and posted earlier in this thread (and again as I was typing)...

In any case, I cannot see how the Sanyo HIT panels would perform better than any other standard mono/poly-crystalline type panels (in terms of power production under overcast conditions/etc.). The basic physics pretty much defines how much power you efficiency per sq.ft. and the actual power output is a function of temperature (reduces by a physical constant as temperature increases) and by actual watts per sq.ft...

From years ago, the old amorphous solar panels were quickly degraded (20% in six months--by spec.) because of damage by sunshine. The newer amorphous may be a bit better (20% degradation in one year?)--but that is still much worse than the 20% guarantee over 20-25 years that one sees in m/p-crystalline panels.

Sounds like Sanyo is getting returns from customers (or possibly extended life testing at the lab indicating future problems) that either point to their hybrid solar cells not holding up--or their packaging does not survive long term solar/thermal/humidity cycling (and/or a combination of both).

Normally, most companies offer increased warranties as they gain experience with a product (better life than predicted combined with improved manufacturing)--when you see a company backing down on a product's warranty specifications (if nothing else, a marketing nightmare)--you can bet that there is something going on that customers are not seeing.

T,

You could also install twice as many 100 watt panels (smaller, lower voltage, same roof space) to get the voltages higher--more costs to install and may be better to get away from Sanyo's current issues.

And, you should probably have two inverters (or an inverter with separately converted power input) rather than put the two east/south strings in parallel. Solar Guppy can give you a better answer--but you will probably get more power (from your panels) with separate conversions for each string.

Regarding details of tsshfs2005's installation--he (she?) is posting some more details over here:

http://www.solar-guppy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=540&highlight=

-Bill

Solar Guppy · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

mike90045 wrote:

Solar Guppy wrote:

Sanyo is concerned enough to change the warranty that excludes 3/4 of the US ( Temperature/Humidity).

This is for NEW sales right, not existing installed panels ? They can't change the warranty AFTER you bought.

Thats for laywers to figure out, BUT in general, the warranty is only as good as the company thats behind it or until they figure out putting the division into BK is better that having to replace bad panels ... if you bought AstroPower panels that had 25 year warrentys, now they have NONE, GE bought them lock-stock and barrel at BK in 2003

What I have issues with is the Sanyo is an un-proven over time product. Other Companys that made Asi and what ever warranty there might have been are long gone. Asi, in NO panel made by ANYONE, has yet proven to be anywhere near the longeveity of Silcon Solar panels, which at this point look like their output will last decades, not years. For Sanyo to give ANY reason to start exlcuding panels for being over 104F is a clear, waving red flag. My Panels bake everyday at about 70C here in the Florida Sun on my roof.

If Sanyo HIT is around in 10 years and costs the same as Si panels, maybe then and only then would I spend My hard earned dollars on them. For now, Si panels perform as well, within a few percent and I know they will be functional, long after I leave this world ... this is all just one mans opinion, your mileage WILL vary, you have to make your own choices .. yada yada yada

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Solar Guppy wrote:

What I have issues with is the Sanyo is an un-proven over time product. Other Companys that made Asi and what ever warranty there might have been are long gone. Asi, in NO panel made by ANYONE, has yet proven to be anywhere near the longeveity of Silcon Solar panels, which at this point look like their output will last decades, not years. For Sanyo to give ANY reason to start exlcuding panels for being over 104F is a clear, waving red flag.

There's actually a company from Japan that's been in business for about 60 years - Kaneka - that makes an ASi panel. they're actually pretty damn good panels for the right application. out west, mid-west and down south, lots of folks like them for off-grid irrigation. i think their higher voltage makes them a bit less flexible when it comes to sizing though. their warranty is right on par with the other big-brand crystal silicon panel makers, too. from what their reps have shown me, they actually do better in high heat and low-light applications than most silicon panels. they're no good for applications where real estate / space is an issue though. but at $0.50/watt cheaper than crystal silicon, people tend to find the space.

check them out: http://www.pv.kaneka.co.jp/why/index.html

then again, i may be COMPLETELY off base as i've heard folks use the terms "thin film" and "amorphous" to refer a varied many things. if so, please disregard everything above. 8-)

also look up 4 Times Square and the Bank of America building that's also being built in NYC - they both use the stuff.

Solar Guppy · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

joule-r wrote:

There's actually a company from Japan that's been in business for about 60 years - Kaneka - that makes an ASi panel. they're actually pretty damn good panels for the right application. out west, mid-west and down south, lots of folks like them for off-grid irrigation. i think their higher voltage makes them a bit less flexible when it comes to sizing though. their warranty is right on par with the other big-brand crystal silicon panel makers, too. from what their reps have shown me, they actually do better in high heat and low-light applications than most silicon panels. they're no good for applications where real estate / space is an issue though. but at $0.50/watt cheaper than crystal silicon, people tend to find the space.

check them out: http://www.pv.kaneka.co.jp/why/index.html

then again, i may be COMPLETELY off base as i've heard folks use the terms "thin film" and "amorphous" to refer a varied many things. if so, please disregard everything above. 8-)

also look up 4 Times Square and the Bank of America building that's also being built in NYC - they both use the stuff.

It isn't a typo that they are using first year data from an installation from 1998 ... And the sales BS about Asi out performing Si is in light condition of 10-20% of STC ... so what if they are 25% better at 20% ... thats double talk of saying its going to give you 25 watts instead of 20 watts compared to Si for a 100 watt panel ... Asi is hype ... no installation data beyond year one is ever displayed for any of these systems

The warranty is interesing and I qoute "G-TYPE, T-TYPE PV modules wll maintain more than 80% of minimum rated power for 25 years " ... but they only list nominal at 60 watts and I can't find minimum anywhere listed on the web-site . WindSun sells the panel and its listed as +10/-5% on WindSun ( http://store.solar-electric.com/ka60wasoelpa.html ) , so the 20% is really 25%, but better than other Asi I have seen

Fsec here in Florida has monitored about 10 Asi systems, I don't have the link handy, but all the Asi systems last year I checked are now below 50% of there year one performance. As for new building using Asi, that isn't a technical reason as Si is better in every imaginable way EXCEPT out of the box performance which within 1 year is gone forever. One might ask if this is true ( my view on Asi ) how can these companys still be selling panels? ... simple, marketing, not real world data to push the product. Only one company is left in the US making Asi and they aren't growing like all the Si manufactures in this solar boom ... just another way to look at it ...

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Hello Joule-r & BB,

Yes, I have some configuration info over at solar-guppy's forum at http://www.solar-guppy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=540&highlight=

but I'll consolidate questions/dialogue here now since I just realized various folks are on both forums. At this point, solar-guppy has suggested using some smaller panels (& more of them) and moving the vent stacks to get more usable roof space, so I'll see what my contractor can come up with. I'm sure he's as frustrated with me as I am with the roof constraints.

Thanks.
Tom

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Solar Guppy wrote:

I have no special knowledge ... based on this orignally and then a bunch of posts on the RE-Wrenchs list on topica
http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php?topic=2134.0
Regardless of what the "final" chanegs are, they ARE making changes and it is to reduce the warranty coverage... No Silicon only panel manufactures are doing this, that speaks loud in my view of what Sanyo is thinking ...

my dealer, and sanyo, and now naws, confirm that in fact NO CHANGES have been made to their standard operating conditions which exempts some areas in the US, not "3/4 of the US" as you say.

crewzer did tons of research:
"As far as the high temperature spec is concerned, I found few areas in the continental US that exceed the warranty’s high temperature limit. In general, it appears that only areas in the Mojave Desert or the Sonoran Desert exceed the high temperature limit."

sanyo's letter says about the same.

then crewzer says "However, the relative humidity spec might be a bigger problem, depending on how strictly it is interpreted. For example, the relatively humidity of much of the south-western- and high-altitude US regularly falls below 45%, especially in the winter, and the relative humidity of the southern- and south-eastern US regularly exceeds 95%, especially in the summer (yuck!!)."

so basically, its currently VAGUE. this should concern anyone.

then wind sun posts at the end of the thread saying that, in fact, sanyo is addressing customer concerns and has promised to improving the customer warranty language in the warranty, by reducing or eliminating the humidity specs.

_WHEN_ is TBD, which ought to generate some concern until it happens. This is not what you're saying above solar guppy, so i wonder if someone is misinterpreting or you have another source as id like to get the facts and im sure others would too.

i don't want to confuse these issues with my statement that my sanyos were outputting better than rated. Its happened, and has happened with other of my dealer's customers, and i read it from another installers posts (VT). its pretty obvious when your 760w array outputs more than that on a hot sunny day. this was last year, i havent checked recently. but what i have frequently seen recently is numbers like 670w (out of 760w array), and i know for a fact that my sharps dont output as good a percentage of the STC ratings. i dont know how long this will last and im under no illusions, but that is an observable fact, at multiple locations. id be glad to start another thread showing my results, weather, etc.. this is old news to a lot of installers. ive put in a question to my installer as im not sure if the wattage reading on my inverter is the after inversion AC amount or the arrays dc wattage.

i suggest the OP ask an installer who has used them what he thinks from experience, but consider the inferior warranty.

System2 · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

http://lamplight.no-ip.org/files/warrupg.pdf

Solar Guppy · April 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

On the website, the listed Temp for warranty ( Standard Operating Conditions or SOC ) still -4 to 104F, Humidity 45-95%

http://www.sanyo.co.jp/clean/solar/hit_e/download_pdf/ul/HIP-186_190_195_200BA3.pdf

Si Panels don't list those parameters limits, for example for Photowatt a pretty generic Si panel

http://www.photowatt.com/products/pdf_products/PDF_PRODUCTS_49.pdf

I beleive thats what started the whole discussion ..

halfcrazy · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

wow if i read that link right they have a 2 year warranty against defects? and 20 on output that 2 yr clause sounds scary and they say standard operating temps and humidity if those are the warranty specs thats not good here in maine we get below the -4 f and below the 45% humidity easily in the winter :?

System2 · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Check out the posting from mattl with the email from Sanyo at:
http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php?topic=2134.15

System2 · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Solar Guppy wrote:

As for new building using Asi, that isn't a technical reason as Si is better in every imaginable way EXCEPT out of the box performance which within 1 year is gone forever. One might ask if this is true ( my view on Asi ) how can these companys still be selling panels? ... simple, marketing, not real world data to push the product. Only one company is left in the US making Asi and they aren't growing like all the Si manufactures in this solar boom ... just another way to look at it ...

regarding only one company making Asi in the US and not growing like all the other Si makers, please refer to EPV in NJ, Nanosolar in CA and First Solar in AZ. i don't think anything short of actually seeing a meter on a crystal and A-si panel will convince you of ASi's superior high heat and low light performance. i believe Sanyo explicitly attributes it's high efficiencies in high heat to the ASi component. i can also tell you that the low-grade, antiquated, thin film in my high-school era solar calculator is working just fine today (a few decades later). i hope i haven't belabored the issue but though not as power-dense as crystal panels, A-Si does have a very well carved niche in the market.

getting back to the point of this thread,
tsshfs2005, i hope you have seen that you do indeed have options to your setup contrary to what your installer might be advising. all i gathered from your post was that you have between 12 and 14 sharp 208's - what inverter? regarding unequal string sizes, i think there are inverters with multiple MPPT's that can provide that solution for you.

mike95490 · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Power-One Aurora PVI-6000: Photovoltaic and wind converters use two MPPT channels

http://www.edn.com/blog/1560000156/post/1800008780.html

Article from a trade magazine. I don't know anything about these inverters, but they will accept 2 different strings of PV's

System2 · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Hello mike90045 & joule-r,

Thank you for the info. Actually, my installer is quite experienced but I think I gave him too many constraints at first (small roof, 2 orientations, low cost, aesthetics, max efficiency, panels & inverter that his company had lots of experience with). After lifting the cost & aesthetics constraint, we are zeroing in on a 14 panel Sharp 208 with the Fronius or a 12 panel Sanyo with the Xantrex 3.0. I really appreciate the info that mattl was able to get from Sanyo about the upcoming change to their humidity spec - without that, I would not consider the Sanyos, but with my small roof space, I'm thinking it is better to go with the Sanyo rather than try to squeeze the Sharps or fit a lot of smaller panels or a 2 channel MPPT inverter.

Tom

Solar Guppy · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

From a harvest point of view, go with the Sanyo/GT system ... understanding long term performance of HIT is not field proven, but if sanyo will back there warranty in 10 years IF the need be I say for YOUR needs thats the best option

Solar Guppy · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

regarding only one company making Asi in the US and not growing like all the other Si makers, please refer to EPV in NJ, Nanosolar in CA and First Solar in AZ.

I'm building a 5kw array within a month ( really ), please provide links any of the above companies where I can BUY these high performance panels ....

niel · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

Solar Guppy wrote:

regarding only one company making Asi in the US and not growing like all the other Si makers, please refer to EPV in NJ, Nanosolar in CA and First Solar in AZ.

I'm building a 5kw array within a month ( really ), please provide links any of the above companies where I can BUY these high performance panels ....

now that would depend also on what you would refer to as growing for it seems to me they were largely taking advantage of the european solar boom. only one even mentions dealers(special ones at that) and are not readilly available to the us market(evident by no widespread availability by independent solar dealers). none offer the statement, that i recall seeing, of any us certification, but it really doesn't matter as they aren't geared to the us market. only one offered to share the pv power specs and i see nothing spectacularly different from the ailing unisolar on any of those products. in fact unisolar seems to have the edge with the triple junction technology. imho the bottom line is they are only fly-by-night opportunists with none of them offering a price tag for individual consumers. they look to fry big fish and would probably fold long before being made to make good on a warranty. i could be wrong, but we'll see.
henry,
note that epv makes reference to what looks to be a test site in central florida and they claim their pv is better at peak times. http://www.epv.net/static.asp?Page=4 the curve shows lower output towards dawn and dusk which blows a big hole in their other claim of better output under low light (cloudy) conditions. it is also evident that they make a comparison of a higher wattage output rated asi panel to a lower rated crystaline pv. the curve, if on the level(comparing pvs of equal watts), would have a peak that is identical to that of the crystaline pv and a rise on the edges to show the better low light capabilty. they lied and showed a higher wattage rated thin film pv with similar low light abilty. as you point out here henry that one need not delve into reading between the lines as your simple question answers much, but i stirred it abit anyway.

Roderick · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orienta

niel wrote:

note that epv makes reference to what looks to be a test site in central florida and they claim their pv is better at peak times. http://www.epv.net/static.asp?Page=4 the curve shows lower output towards dawn and dusk which blows a big hole in their other claim of better output under low light (cloudy) conditions. it is also evident that they make a comparison of a higher wattage output rated asi panel to a lower rated crystaline pv. the curve, if on the level(comparing pvs of equal watts), would have a peak that is identical to that of the crystaline pv and a rise on the edges to show the better low light capabilty. they lied and showed a higher wattage rated thin film pv with similar low light abilty. as you point out here henry that one need not delve into reading between the lines as your simple question answers much, but i stirred it abit anyway.

In looking at that graph, I think the Y-axis is [actual watts]/[rated peak watts], so the comparison is fair in that sense. It illustrates that the a-Si panels are conservatively rated, which is their claim. However, there are 3 weaknesses:

1) No mention of larger surface area requirement due to lower efficiency;
2) 40-60% of peak at noon would not be very good in the first place, at least compared to where I live in California. At this time of year, I'm getting about 80-85% of peak from the panels for many hours a day, with polycrystalline modules. It might even theoretically be higher, except that the inverter pegs at maximum output during these hours. Maybe they picked a really cloudy day for their data.
3) I wonder how those curves will look after the a-Si panel has baked in the sun for 2 years? It could be that they conservatively rate the panel to account for a natural drop in output over time.

Solar Guppy · May 2007

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

That graph is bogus ... Asi is about -0.35% to Si about -0.45% loss in performance per C above STC ... so for even 10 degree's C you get 1% better for Asi. I Live in Central Florida and the typical operating temperature, on a roof is about 65C here ... so 40 * -0.45 ~ -18%, which I have field verified with three different array that are Si. Asi would be about 4% better, best case.

Without the raw data, a full description of the systems, the measuring equipment used and a pyrometer for irradiance measurement we have no idea of the true performance

If one would like to see real systems, with real panels being measured, check out http://securedb.fsec.ucf.edu/pv/pv_systems. ( This is the link I was mentioned in an earlier post )

These are sites FSEC monitors, for Asi, check out DW1 & DW2, which is at Disney World ( click on the system , the select performace ). In every single Asi system, they are performing below Si, that being actual produced DC watts compared to the STC name-plate rating.

newenergy · June 2008

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

Old thread, but I thought I'd bump it to see if anyone has changed their mind about the Sanyo modules. Aside from Sunpower, which I can't get, they have pretty far and away the best power per area of readily available modules.

A lot of people have limited space and want as much power as they can get out of it.

Solar Guppy · June 2008

Re: Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

I'd suggest the Evergreen ES-195 ... with its -0%+2.5% tolerance, its right up there with either the HIT or SunPower panels ( when you take into the wattage the tolerances of the other panels ) with the benifit of no unknown technology concerns of Asi or the issues of positive grounded systems

Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

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Experience with Sanyo HIT panels &amp; shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation

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Experience with Sanyo HIT panels & shorter warranty, 2 strings for 2 orientation