Replacing 100w Solar Panel

A pair of 100 watt panels will run around $225 with free shipping. The poly, China brand we've have used for the last five years no problem. The used 120 watt Kyocera I picked up shorts the first 18 cells above 40 der F. This is a known failure mode for the year 2000 thru 2002 Kyocera panels.

Presently redoing the solar. The two we've currently have will go on the roof and we will purchase two 100 watt from Missouri Wind and Solar because of the foot print.

Stopped by Northern AZ Wind and Sun last summer and picked up several items. Nice folks to deal with.

I had 3 of the panels you are considering. Yes, they were expensive. I had them 6-7 years and they did not lose 6-7% output as was suggested. Excellent panels!

It's hard to notice 6-7% without proper logging and software like on high-end controllers.

Projected degradation in manufacturers specs range from 0.3 to 0.9%. Kyocera reports 0.4-0.5% a year, so it could be only 3% in 7 years. You won't notice this. Dust on the panel will affect the output more.

Almot wrote:
It's hard to notice 6-7% without proper logging and software like on high-end controllers.

Projected degradation in manufacturers specs range from 0.3 to 0.9%. Kyocera reports 0.4-0.5% a year, so it could be only 3% in 7 years. You won't notice this. Dust on the panel will affect the output more.

The Kyocera 120 watt I had, a 2001, until it failed, met new specs when I received it last spring. Keeping it clean was the big problem.

Santa Clarita is an easy drive to SolarBlvd.

I would be surprised if there are not some corners cut in making the cheapest panels.

I have several cheap ones from ML Solar. Probably equivalent to Renogy. They work. That's the extent of my evaluation so far. :)

Snowman9000 wrote:
I would be surprised if there are not some corners cut in making the cheapest panels.

There are.
#1: labor $2/hr with no benefits.
#2: thinner aluminum and/or simpler frame profile. They copy existing designs but when profile is too complicated=expensive, they cut the corners.