Best Solar Panels for 2021

q cells lg silfab what is the best solar panel on the market in 2021 we're going to be answering that question and much much more in today's [Music] video hi everyone joe ortia here for solar surge and for the past eight years i've been helping families get their home set up to survive a loss of the electric grid and of course here at solar surge we do that primarily using renewable energy solar plus battery storage now over the years i've had an opportunity to be involved in over 600 residential solar installations and i've had an opportunity to use probably a dozen different brands of solar panels and the technology and the performance really has evolved and changed over those last eight years or so in today's video we're going to be looking at the top five solar panels for this year 2021 and how they might fit for your individual solar project so let's start with number five coming in at number five is the silphab black on black mono solar panel as of this recording these panels are now available in up to 340 watts per panel and the reason silfab is on this list is because it's probably going to give you the best value you know if you're looking for an economy solution that offers current state-of-the-art technology as far as you know high efficiency cells a sleek black on black aesthetic design but without the super premium price the sil fab is going to be one of those panels that offers you that tremendous value there now part of the reason that they can do that is that their manufacturing is almost fully automated meaning that these solar panels come off of a robotic assembly line there's very very little human interaction in that process and so that allows them to drive the labor cost virtually to zero which drives the cost of the panels down as well so if you're looking for a very low cost option that offers good performance silfab could be a great choice for you as of this recording if you know where to shop you can get these for as little as 49 cents a watt okay that's before shipping and freight but if you're just looking for sourcing the solar panels themselves if you know where to buy you can get them for 49 cents a watt so that is the silfab panel coming in at number four on the list is the han wah q cells q peak duo g6 panel uh the q peak duo g6 is a 120 half cell panel but in terms of the size and the form factor it's a standard 60 cell size the unique thing about the qcells panel is what they call quantum technology which is really just some fancy marketing talk the folks at hanoi have developed a reflective paste that they apply to the back of the solar cell which actually reflects some of the sunlight that otherwise would have passed straight through and been lost will get reflected out back the front of the solar cell which allows the cell to capture more energy that otherwise would have been lost so that offers better direct sunlight performance also better performance on overcast days using that quantum technology in terms of cost the qcells panel is very close to the sill fab i mean it is a very competitively priced product but you can expect to pay probably five to ten cents a watt higher than with the regular silfab panel but other than that they look a lot the same same size and form factor and overall a very very good value for residential solar installation coming in at number three on the list is the rec alpha black panel now the rec panels offer higher efficiency and power ratings up to 375 watts per panel now not all of that additional power comes from cell efficiency the modules themselves if you look at the dimensions the modules themselves are actually a little bit larger than a standard 60 cell module a standard 60 cell module is 65 inches tall by 39 inches wide whereas the rec alpha panels are 40 inches wide and 68 inches tall so a little bit more surface area means a little bit more power production for you as well the other nice thing about the rec panels is they carry a like a premium tier warranty now when you look at solar panel warranties a standard solar panel is supposed to produce at least 80 or 85 percent of its rated power in year 25. they pretty much all have a 25-year warranty but one question you want to look at is what is the guaranteed power output at year 25 so a standard panel is going to guarantee you between 80 and 85 percent a top tier panel is generally going to guarantee you 90 or 92 percent and that's the case with the rec panel they actually guarantee 92 percent of the rated power at the end of the warranty period so this is important if you're calculating total performance over the lifetime of the system whereas a normal solar panel will lose about half a percent of its performance per year the rec and the other premium panels are only going to lose about a quarter percent per year so that's something important to consider there also as i mentioned earlier the physical dimensions are a little bit larger than a standard 60 cell module so when you're using your design tool if you're designing your own system or if you're an installer out there make sure that you account for those few extra inches of the the dimensions when you're laying out your solar panels on the roof and then the other thing i'll say about the rec panels is that although you will pay a slight premium over an economy brand like silfab or maybe q cells it does not really come with that super steep price point like some of the top top premium brands do so if you're looking for a good high efficiency panel that's nice aesthetically nice design as well the rec panel may be the right choice for you all right coming in at number two on the list is the lg neon prime all black panel as of this recording we're now able to get up to 380 watts per panel out of a 60 cell form factor so you know lg has always been one of the premium brands when it comes to solar panels but i'll tell you now when you have other brands coming out there like rec that we just mentioned for me it's hard to justify paying the additional premium which could be 20 or 30 cents a watt extra for the lg neon panel to get an extra let's say 10 you know 5 or 10 watts of power where i could get an rec alpha black 375 watt panel and save considerably on the material cost but for those of you that want the premium brand name the lg neon prime is an excellent product it performs flawlessly if you're in an area where you have very limited roof space and you just have to squeeze more power out of a limited surface area then premium panels like the neon r prime uh could be a good choice for you again it's not going to be cheap but if the price tag is not an issue for you the lg product is a great product coming in at number two on today's comparison and finally coming in at number one is the sunpower maxion 5. the maxion 5 is an integrated ac module meaning that the solar panel actually has a built-in micro inverter factory integrated underneath each solar panel for those of you who've seen our previous video on optimizers versus micro inverters you'll recall that at some point in the solar system there has to be an inversion meaning you're converting the direct current dc power that comes directly off the solar cells into usable alternating current power which is what our homes are wired for and what the electric grid is wired for so by doing the factory integration of the micro inverters on each panel it saves a lot of time as an installer you don't have to worry about your individual solar panel mounting and bonding on the roof everything's already built in there for you for the system owner it's a nice benefit because it allows each panel to operate independently at its maximum potential and it gives you the ability to track each individual solar panel on the app now the other thing that's very special about the sun power panels is that they have hands down the absolute most efficient solar cell out there with their maxion 5 panel you can get up to 420 watts per panel now these panels are what's called a 66 cell form factor meaning that instead of the standard 65 inches tall by 40 inches wide form factor these panels are actually 72 inches tall by 40 inches wide so basically one extra row of cells in the panel but still in terms of the energy density and the efficiency you're not gonna find anything that's really even close to what a sun power panel can offer now with the advent of new ac coupled batteries you can also use sun power for grid tie with battery backup systems you're not you're not limited anymore to grid tie only so with a sun power maxion system you can use the the sun power sun vault battery if you saw a recent comparison video about that one uh the tesla powerwall battery the sonan eco sonan core battery any ac coupling battery can be used with the maxion product and again you're not going to find a more efficient residential panel out there now you will pay a premium for this and but again you know if you're a sun power owner or if you're looking at sun power you already know that if you're comparing multiple bids generally the sun power bid is going to be the highest bid but if if a cheap price is not your concern if what you really want is top-tier performance top-tier warranty and maximum efficiency then the sun power panel is going to be what delivers that for you and that's why i'm calling it the number one top residential solar panel for 2021 folks i thank you for taking the time to watch the video comparison today as always if you're getting good value please click on that like button so that youtube knows to show this video to more people and of course if you need help getting connected with a certified installer in your area or you'd like to get a free no obligation price quote for any of these options feel free to reach out to us there should be a link below there where you can request a free no obligation quote well as always folks i'm joe ortea here encouraging you to get prepared and be empowered thanks for watching and we'll see you again soon

Channel: Solar Surge

Views: 119,411

Rating: 4.9570236 out of 5

Keywords: solar, prepping, off grid, powerwall, sunpower, rec alpha, lg neon, q-cells, silfab

Id: 9-nvBuCrZOI

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021