Things to Know When Choosing Solar Panels

by Kevin Smith Author

If you’ve decided to go solar at your home, you’ve made a wise decision in converting to a natural, renewal source of energy. Solar can save you money on energy bills and decrease dependence on the grid. That is good for the environment and good for the economy of your household. But to get the most bang for your solar buck, you must properly select the hardware that will be generating and storing power for usage.

For newcomers to solar power generation, it may be difficult to decide whether you need a bank of affordable 200-watt polycrystalline panels or a high-quality 300-watt monocrystalline solar panel. However, by reviewing a few criteria and determining your household power needs, you can carefully select the hardware that will best fit your budget and power requirements. Read on to learn more about a few things you should consider when selecting solar panels for your home.

Decide Your Power Needs

The first thing to consider is how much power you need to generate to meet your household demand. You can review current electrical bills from your grid-tied system to get an idea of how much raw wattage is used in your home. While you may be able to realize some energy savings by introducing more efficiency appliances and being extra cautious with usage, your current power rates give a good baseline.

Nameplate Ratings

Once you know your needs, you can evaluate different components for their ability to help you reach your demand. One such criteria is nameplate rating. All solar panels have such a rating. The rating represents expected power output for a solar panel, and it’s usually between 200 and 400 watts depending on the size and composition of the panel.

Efficiency Rating

Efficiency rating is another key element to consider. This rating is a measure of how efficient a panel is at gathering energy from the sun and converting it to DC electricity. It’s expressed as kilowatt hours generated for every watt of capacity on the nameplate rating. Most quality panels are in the 14% to 20% range.

Temperature Coefficient

Because the efficiency of a panel is a function of the amount of energy lost to heating from sunlight, there is a rating that helps to determine the loss of efficiency of a panel as it heats. That measure is known as the temperature coefficient. For example, some panels have a temperature coefficient of 1% loss of production for every 4 degrees of temperature increase above 77 degrees Fahrenheit. If you live in a hot climate, this is an important consideration because it will affect the output of your panels.

Whether you want to harness the raw power of the sun with a high-quality 300-watt monocrystalline solar panel or more affordable, lower wattage polycrystalline panels, it’s good to know your household power needs and the important characteristics of the various types of panels.