The Best Solar Panels in 2023! Top 5 Models Revealed

before we go into the specs on each of these panels I'm going to dive a little bit into the background as to why these companies and these models were chosen there are after all a ton of different options on the market it's really really easy to get overwhelmed and feel a little bit confused so we're going to try and keep everything as simple and straightforward as possible so these brands that we're going to be looking at are considered to be some of the best as it relates to customer satisfaction warranty performance and just the fact that they continually show up as top performers year after year in the solar panel industry also the panels that we're looking at are the highest watt rating panels that these companies offer at least in the residential line and they also are on their top tier performance lines too so a lot of Manufacturers have different levels of performance for different levels of quality and all these panels are in their top lines for the comparisons in this video we're going to take a look at some different factors first we're going to start with the company obviously it makes sense you want to go with the company a manufacturer that's been around for a while that has a good reputation and one that you know is going to be around if you have to have to have any kind of warranty work in the future there are a lot of different options like I said on the market today and a lot of new companies that keep popping up so you want to make sure that you're going with a company that has a proven track record and one that will be there in case you have any kind of a warranty concern in the future for the panels themselves we're going to take a look at five different areas we're going to take a look at their efficiency the temperature coefficient whether or not the companies offer a complete solution the overall costs and the warranties and yes I did say warranties so typically with a solar panel you're going to have multiple warranties that are in play so it's really important for you to understand what the differences are especially when it comes to the duration of the warranties because those can be different even on the same panel and exactly what those warranties cover okay so first up let's take a look at number five which is a panel from silfab this specifically is the silphab sil-410bg which is a 410 watt solar panel now if you haven't heard of silfab before they've been around since about 2010 they have manufacturing facilities in the United States in Canada and one of the big reasons why this is on the list is because solfab typically offers a panel that has a good balance of looks performance and price now with the panel of specifications efficiency is arguably one of the most important factors to take a look at this is going to tell you how efficient the panel is at converting sunlight into energy so what you want to see here is you want to see as high a number as possible and the higher the number the more efficient the panel is going to be now this is going to be really important if you don't have a lot of room on your roof so by having a denser panel you're going to be able to get more energy production out of the same size roof as you would if you went with a panel that has a lower efficiency rating so for the silfab panel the efficiency rating is 21.4 percent the temperature coefficient is 0.377 percent and don't worry I'm going to explain what that is here at the next panel the panel warranties are 25-year production warranty and a 30-year performance warranty they do not offer a complete solution or at least what we're calling a complete solution for the purposes of this video basically sofab manufactures the solar panels but they don't make any of the other components that go with a home solar system and as far as the cost is concerned sofabs should be on the lower end of the options that we're looking at here in this video next up number four this is a solar panel from a company called hanwa Q cells or just Q cells for short so this is the Q cells Q Peak Duo BLK ml-610 plus which is a long name and it also means that it's a 405 watt panel how those two things correlate I have no idea but that's what it is Q cells is best known for their Quantum technology which uses a reflective Pace that's applied to the back of a solar cell this paste reflects the sun rays that would otherwise pass through the cells which allows them to generate more energy than other competing solar panels hand walk Q cells has been in the Solar industry business since 1999 and they have manufacturing facilities in multiple countries including China Malaysia South Korea and even here in the United States in Del in Georgia as far as the panel specifications go their performance rating for this specific panel is 20.9 percent so this is a little bit worse than the cell fat panel but their temperature coefficient rating is a little bit better than sulfab at point three four percent now let's talk a little bit about what that temperature coefficient is so with the temperature coefficient this is simply a way to understand how efficient a solar panel is at converting the sunlight into energy as the solar panel gets hotter so believe it or not solar panels actually lose their ability and some efficiency efficiency in being able to convert the solar energy from uh you know solar the sunlight into electricity as the temperature of the panels rise now this sounds a little bit confusing at first but if you think about it these are Electronics so as Electronics get hot typically they don't perform as well if you think about your laptop computer or maybe even your iPhone like for example with me if I leave my iPhone out in the direct sunlight I'll sometimes see a notice on it that says says that I can't use it for a little bit it has to cool down because it got overheated so that's kind of the same thing that's in play here with these solar panels so the thing that we need to really look at with the temperature coefficient is what is the number and how close is this number to zero so if the number were zero which no panel is then that would mean that it took no type of a performance hit whatsoever as the temperature got hotter outside now this is going to be a more important factor if you live in an area that's hot all the time so say if you live in the southwest or you know in Arizona or someplace that's really hot most of the time this is going to be a more important factor than you than it would be for someone say that lives in the midwest or maybe uh in the Northeast in the United States because those areas are more seasonal and they're not hot all the time so they're not going to take as much of a hit consistently across the year with the Q cell panels their warranties are a 25-year performance warranty and a 25-year production warranty now 25 years is pretty typical so that's pretty much the standard you're going to see at least the most pan channels on those manufacturers across the industry and the in performance rating is the best between these two panels that we've looked at between the sulfab and the Q cells panel at 86 percent efficient after that 25-year period as far as the cost is concerned this is another high quality panel that's offered at a reasonable price just like the silphab panel so this is definitely one that you need to keep in mind for number three we're going to take a look at the Tesla t430s which is a 430 watt panel so this is the highest wattage panel that we've looked at so far and most of the solar retention with Tesla is focused on their solar roof and their powerwall so sometimes it catches people off guard to realize that Tesla offers a solar panel as well that's a more affordable option so with Tesla they got into the solar business in 2016 when they acquired a company known as SolarCity and before that Solar City had been in business since 2006. so as far as the Tesla panels are concerned the efficiency rating is 19.8 percent which is so far the lowest of the three the temperature coefficient rating is 0.331 percent which actually is the best of the three and for their warranties um they actually have another warranty in the mix that we haven't seen before so let me dive into the warranties and explain uh the differences now as to what these warranties are and what they cover so the first one is pretty straightforward it's the manufacturer's warranty so that just simply states that if there are any manufacturers defects in the panels for that duration of time typically it's 25 years with the solar panel that those are covered going to be covered under warranty the other type of warranty you need to be aware of is the performance warranty so this is a way that manufacturers can guarantee the panels will continue to produce a certain amount of energy over its lifespan now this number the the amount of years that the warranty is in place correlates typically to the in performance percentage that you should expect out of the panel so basically that means for example people with the Tesla panels they have a 25-year performance warranty and they're in performance percentage is 85 percent so that means at the end of 25 years you should still expect the panels to produce 85 percent of the energy that they're rated to produce now there's also a scale that's typically involved as to how much energy production they can lose every year and still fall under warranty so if you have any kind of a performance issue with the amount of energy these panels are producing the performance warranty is the thing that's going to come into play and be able to help you get those panels replaced if there's any kind of an issue with that last but not least is the labor warranty so this is new compared to the first two panels that we looked at with the Q cells panel and the silphab panel with Tesla they offer a labor warranty as well and so basically that covers the labor of replacing a part that's under warranty so if you have any kind of an issue say for example with one of your panels that someone needs to come out and actually take the old panel off the roof and put the new panel on the roof the labor warranty is going to cover the labor expenses that are involved with that with Tesla you need to be aware that they offer a 25-year manufacturer's warranty as well as a 25-year performance warranty but their labor warranty only lasts for the first 10 years so while it is nice to have that labor warranty it would be a little bit better to see a labor warranty that covers the entire warranty period for those panels Tesla does offer a complete solution and when it comes to the cost Tesla is going to be right on par with other premium panels in the market all right our number two pick is from Panasonic this is the Panasonic EV PV 430 HK this is a 430 watt panel which is the highest watt producing panel that we've taken a look at so far so obviously Panasonic is a really well-known consumer electronics brand and they offer some of the best panels on the market today they're really well built they're really high quality and Panasonic offers a really good warranty now with Panasonic they've been in business as a company since 1918 which is a really really long time and they've been in the Solar industry since 1975 so you can be sure that they're going to be around for many years to come now some people have made comments to me that Panasonic is no longer making solar panels but that's simply not true I think what's happened is they've gotten Panasonic confused with LG Now LG used to make solar panels in fact they used to make really good solar panels but they announced early last year that they were exiting the solar industry so LG is no longer making panels but Panasonic definitely is so when it comes to this panel's efficiency rating it's 22.2 percent which is the best yet as far as the temperature coefficient goes it's at 0.26 percent and that's also the best that we've seen up to this point the warranty period is 25 years all around which again is the best that we've seen and the end performance percentage is at 92 percent after 25 years which is really really good Panasonic also offers a complete solution and just to clarify what I mean by complete solution for the purposes of this video there are a lot of different manufacturers that create solar panels but those are the only components they create so they don't don't make the inverters they don't make the battery Banks and other things that go into a complete home solar system also some solar panel manufacturers don't have a certified network of installers or don't take care of the solar installations themselves and I think that's a really important distinction to make because you want to make sure when you're making this type of an investment in your home that you're not only getting a quality product but you're also getting a quality installation as well as far as cost is concerned Panasonics are truly a premium panel when it comes to Performance and build quality so you should expect the cost to match all right so the top panel is the sun power M series 440 watt panel so this is the highest producing wattage panel that we've looked at in this comparison and it's one of if not the best panel that's on the market today so as far as sun power the company is concerned they've been in business since 1985 and they're located in San Jose California typically SunPower sets the pace when it comes to solar panel Innovation and Manufacturing so a lot of the other solar panel companies have to catch up to sun power's Innovation so SunPower is one of the top brands and they've been around for quite some time in fact SunPower is one of the few manufacturers that have been around longer than their warranty period so that says a lot as far as the efficiency of this panel it's rated at 22.8 percent which is the best of all the panels that we've taken a look at the temperature coefficient is not quite as good as Panasonic but it's definitely better than all the other panels in the lineup the warranties are 25 years all around so this is on par with the Panasonic offering and SunPower does offer a complete solution now since some power typically has has the best specifications you should expect the prices for some power to be some of the most expensive if not the most expensive option in the lineup but that's really to be expected because when you go with the best solution those typically cost the most money now I realize I've been a little bit vague when it comes to costs throughout this entire video and that's really been intentional and the reason for that is because there are a lot of different factors that can be involved When selecting a home solar system that's right for you and your home everything from the size of your roof to the orientation of your house where your house is located in the country and other factors like what rebates or government incentives are available all these things play a factor in a role into understanding what your total cost of ownership is going to be for any solar system so like any other investment in your home I highly recommend going out and getting at least one or two bids if not more to understand what your options are and what the total cost is going to be so once you have a bid or multiple bids what you can do is you can take that total price that total price on the estimate and divide that by the number of Watts that your system is rated for this is going to give you a per watt price that you can use to compare apples to apples against other bids so you can make an informed decision now personally I like to go with the best option that I can so while Panasonic and SunPower are really close in terms of specifications SunPower does make it really easy to get an online quote so with SunPower you can go to their online estimator they can pull up a satellite image of your house create a virtual diagram and lay out different solar panels on your roof so you can see and understand exactly what it would look like and cost to own a sun power system so if you haven't gotten a quote from SunPower yet I'll leave a link in the description below that you can use to go to their website and request a free quote so as a final recap here's the comparison side of all the different panels that we've looked at in this video really though all these panels are great so no matter what panel you decide to go with I don't think you can go wrong that's it for this video don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Top Homeowner

Views: 54,039

Keywords: best solar panels, best solar panels 2022, home solar installation, home solar panels, how much do solar panels cost, solar energy, solar panel system for home, solar panels, solar panels for home, solar panels for home cost, solar power, sunpower review, top homeowner, tophomeowner, sunpower, solarpower, solarenergy, solarpanels, panasonic, bestsolarpanels, silfab, qcells, q cells, tesla, sil-410 bg, peak duo blk ml-g10+, T430S, EVPV430HK, sunpower m series 440, best solar panels 2023

Id: 53hLQV39G5I

Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022