Which solar panels?

To decide which solar panels to choose we need to talk about how solar panels are put together and the different brands and manufactures.

Solar panels are put together using a blend of different components from different suppliers. Some of the companies who manufacture solar panels either buy all the components of the open market and put them together on a production line, stamp them up with there own logo and ship them out. Others actually manufactures the solar cell wafer, and use this solar cell in there own solar panels.

Solar Cells

Solar cells are graded for their purity much like diamonds are, or gold, solar cells are graded A, B, C, D. These grades are based on the purity of the cell under microscopic analysis. Any manufacture that mines there own silicon out of the ground is going to keep all the A grade cells for there own panels and sell the rest “B” grades on the open market. Panel assemblers buy “B” grades cells of the open market and because these B grades are the best they can buy, they then become there A grades.

There is only handful of companies that manufacture there own silicon solar cells, one of these companies is CEEG SST also know as CSUN listed on the NASDAQ in the UK these panels are sold under the brand “Caymax”. Yes these are Chinese panels, but anyone who understands will know most Solar Cells come from Asia anyway. The only difference being it’s not a household name, but no one ever thought Woolworths was going to go under, so just because it’s not a brand you know or love, it is certainly one of the better panels out there.

Panel Brands

Many of the big name panel manufactures such as LG, Samsung, Bosch to name a few all buy cells of the open market and put a panel together. Many of the panels in the UK have to go through stringent testing and certification and many solar systems never have a panel failure, so we don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

Most customers will have more than 3 quotes from different installers and we commonly come across “ive been quoted on Sharp and SMA inverter” and our reply is often “its because they don’t know any different” unless you really really want Sharp and SMA we wont offer you a quote on these products, we don’t have any problems with Sharp, but we feel there are better alternatives on the market, and same for SMA, ok it’s a good brand – but does that mean it’s the best inverter for your property?

Custom design systems

We like to do things differently here, we know what works and what doesn’t and we custom design systems to suit you and your home, it not a case of picking standard arrangements of the shelf, it’s about matching panels to inverters to give the best yields.

For further reading of CSUN (CEEG SST)