Top 5 Best Solar Panels Going Into 2023

silphab Q cells Aptos what is the best brand of solar panel to install on your home as we're going into 2023 we're going to be answering that question and much much more in today's video [Music] hi everyone Joe ortia here for solar Surge and for the past nine years I've been helping families achieve energy Independence using clean renewable energy now if you're new to the solar surge channel on solar surge we talk about all things having to do with home solar power systems Renewable Energy Systems battery backup and sometimes even generator systems as well now you'll find product release videos as well as head-to-head product comparisons kind of like today's video here now in today's video we're going to be showing you the top five residential solar panels as we're going into 2023 and there's been a lot of competition in the solar panel space this year and I'm very very excited to show you the lineup as we go into 2023. some of the brands you're going to be familiar with other brands you may not be as familiar with but all of these are solid offerings if you're looking for a solar panel to install in your home in 2023 as I mentioned on the previous lineup one of the things that we've seen is that size standards have pretty much been abandoned although all of the module manufacturers stick to something that looks kind of like either a 60 cell a 66 cell or a 72 cell form factor the exact width and height and thickness of the solar panels is going to vary on a manufacturer by manufacturer basis so be sure to check out the spec sheet if you're laying out your solar panel on your roof or if you're using your design software usually those dimensions are going to be pre-loaded in there for you but make sure that you take a look at the spec sheets so you know exactly what dimensions you're working with as you lay out your roof and with that let's go ahead and go to number five all right coming in at number five on the lineup is the jinko eagle Continental 400 watt all black solar module and of course the nice thing about the jinko panel is you know it's cheap it it is one of the most if not the most cost competitive solar module on the market today um of course if you're talking about a tier one solar panel with a 25-year or better performance warranty the jinko eagle is going to come in at a very very price competitive Point here now one of the things you'll notice with this year's jinko Eagle what they call the Continental versus the previous generation is jinko has now moved to an all black on black design black frame black cells of course and a black back sheet and this has really been in response to a lot of consumer demand the trend in the industry really has gone towards all black solar panels if you're talking about a residential rooftop panel and that's exactly the market segment that this product is designed for here now the other thing I should mention about the jinko eagle is it is now a made in USA product jinko has opened up a factory down in Jacksonville Florida area and they're actually increasing the capacity of their Factory to be able to pump out these Eagle Continental solar modules so if you're looking for an excellent cost-effective solar module as as well as an aesthetically you know aesthetically pleasing with the all black on black design the jinko eagle is definitely something that you'd like to consider all right coming in at number four on the list is the brand new silfab Elite 410 watt all black solar module now the silphab elite is a line that we've carried for the past few years and silfab just like the number five panel silfab Elite has always been a very very cost competitive uh solar project but also a very aesthetically very competitive product as well with the all black on black design now with the new generation of the silphab elite 410 they've upped it a level again in terms of Aesthetics because of the new module architecture now if you recall our product announcement video about the new silphab Elite you'll recall that silfab now uses a conductive back layer of copper to do the intercell electrical connections so what that means is that no longer do you see the individual bus bars you know sometimes they look like little silver bars or little you know bars of solder on the top of the solar cell now those electrical cell interconnections are done on the bottom side of the cell so if you look at the module itself it looks much much more like just a flat all black module and similar to jinko silphab has also moved all their manufacturing for the silphab elite onshore to the United States so this is a 100 percent made in USA product now so again guys if you're looking for a very cost competitive all black on black solar module for your residential solar project the silfab elite is something that you're going to want to take a look at as well as of this recording it's available in up to 410 watts per panel now I should mention this is a 66 cell form factor module it's not that it uses actually 66 cells literally but in terms of the form factor the ratio of the width to the height this does conform more closely to a traditional 66 cell form factor but again all the dimensions on these modules are going to be slightly different so make sure that you're using a good design software like Aurora or something that's going to have those specific module Dimensions loaded in there so that when you're laying out your roof you're going to get an accurate and accurate layout all right coming in at number three on the lineup is the Q cell Q Peak Duo G10 all black solar module the Q cell seems to always find its way in the middle of the lineup and all of our top fives and really no change with the 2023 lineup I think what you're going to find with Q cells is it's some of the best combination of price performance Aesthetics and warranty that you can find in one one solar product so it's not going to be the cheapest solar panel out there if you're just looking at price per watt the Q cells is not going to be the cheapest price per watt but it's always going to be in that competitive range likewise in terms of performance if you're looking for the most efficient or just the best warranty solar panel out there Q cells is not going to fit that range as well but what it is going to do is it's going to kind of find that sweet spot if you can imagine that Venn diagram where you find that sweet spot between price performance and warranty Q cells is generally going to be right right in the middle there uh and of course the hanwa Q cells panel is the most popular brand in the US right now for residential solar panels so if you're worried just about about the financial strength and the financial stability of the company um given that this is the number one residential U.S solar module manufacturer in terms of market share it does indicate that it is a financially strong company that's not going anywhere anytime soon now there are two technical innovations that make the quantum panel or the Q sales panel different than some of the others that are on the market and there's two new enhancements that make the G10 different than some of the previous generation panels now the first thing is what you've probably heard of before which is where they get the name Q cells and it's what they call the quantum technology and what the quantum technology is is it it's a reflective paste that's applied to the back of the solar cell that is able to reflect a portion of sunlight that otherwise would have passed right through the cell and hit the rooftop it's able to reflect a portion of that back out the front of the cell capturing up to five percent more energy and being able to capture and convert that into usable electricity so that's the that's the big performance advantage of the Q sales panel versus a standard solar cell now also new with the G10 solar panel is first of all they have moved to a 12 bus bar design so again when you talk about 12 bus bar design what you're talking about is 12 individual current paths where electrons can flow from one solar cell to the next cell in the series so what that means is basically it's giving the electrons more paths that they can flow through the solar panel so if you ever did have localized damage or if you had shading hitting one part of a solar cell it gives electrons alternate Pathways that it can flow through the solar module so all that translates to is higher energy yield or shade mitigation right there's going to be less loss due to shading or due to localized damage on the solar module by providing those multiple bus bars and multiple Pathways for the electrons to flow and then the other thing you'll notice is what they call zero Gap technology which means that the individual solar cells are directly butted up flush to one another so you don't even really see any of the back sheet if you're looking at the module surface here where some of the older older solar modules you may have seen what kind of look like a checkerboard type design you'd see a little bit of a white back sheet in between the individual solar cells on the corners with the zero Gap technology the rectangular cells are all butted flush up against one another so aesthetically when you look at the module it just looks like a nice sheet of black glass and of course since the entire module surface now virtually is functional solar cell it means you're going to get higher energy Harvest per unit of surface area so for all of these reasons the Q cells panel is a very very solid panel performance wise performs a little bit better than a standard solar panel slightly more expensive but still in a very very healthy competitive range and of course solid company and solid warranty backing the product all right and coming in at number two on the lineup is the Aptos DNA 440 watt solar panel the Aptos DNA line has actually been our best-selling solar panel this year especially in some of our hottest markets like Texas and Florida and I'll explain a little bit why the Aptos panel is especially popular in those markets the Aptos panel was designed with extreme weather conditions in mind whether you're talking about extreme high temperatures extreme low temperatures high wind rating or even hail impact and hail damage and so if you know if you're watching this from Texas out there you know in many parts of Texas there's a real threat from tornadoes as well as a real threat from just hail storms sort of popping out of nowhere I remember I was in Austin about a decade ago and driving around what looked like a nice sunny day and all of a sudden there was just a hail storm and it was pretty decent sized hail about the size of ice you'd get out of the ice maker from your refrigerator and so the Aptos panel is really designed to work well in those extreme weather conditions whether you're talking about temperature wind or hail now the panel does come in two different form factors there's the DNA 144 which is a 144 half cell design and then you have your DNA 120. which is a 120 half cell design more more like your traditional 60 cell module in terms of the ratio between the width and the height now the other reason that we like the Aptos module in the Florida Market in particular is that the Aptos module is the highest wind rated module that we have available for a residential solar panel in fact the only one that I've ever worked with with over 200 mile per hour wind rating um so if you're in Florida particularly Coastal Florida where you're in that high hurricane wind Zone where we have to build to a higher a higher wind rating standard than other parts of the country having a solar panel with an extremely high wind rating can be helpful for you as well um and in terms of pricing you know if you're looking at you know cost per watt or price per watt whether for the panel or for the installation you're going to find that the Aptos panel despite being you know in that sort of high output premium range at 440 Watts on a price per watt basis it's very comparable to other panels on the lineup and for that reason we rank the Aptos number two overall solar panel as we're going into 2023 and finally coming in at number one is the rec Alpha pure R 430 watt all black solar panel now for those who've been following this space for a while you know that Rec has had a pretty constant Ascent up the ranks in terms of the top solar panels of the year and this year in the the 2023 Edition they are ranked number one a big reason is because frankly a lot of their competition has fallen by the wayside the LG neon and the LG neon are solar panels are no longer being manufactured and and sun power with the issues that they've had with their their restructuring and the fact that that price wise they tend to really price themselves out of a competition Rec now stands alone at the top of the heat in terms of best residential solar panels for 2023. and their latest generation is called the rec Alpha pure r um aesthetically again one of the best looking panels that are available on the market if you look at the module itself it looks like just a sheet of flat glass you will not see the individual bus bars on the surface of the solar module so aesthetically great looking panel here but the two things that typically set Rec apart from its competition are the same two factors that we talk about most frequently which are warranty and temperature coefficient in fact if you look at the spec sheet here RAC actually has one of the lowest temperature coefficients in the industry now when we talk about temperature coefficient what we mean is that when the solar panel has to operate in extreme temperatures right there's a certain percentage of power output that the module loses for each degrees Celsius above the ideal temperature and for test purposes the ideal temperature is 25 degrees Celsius now the rec Alpha pure R has a temperature coefficient of only 0.26 percent per degrees Celsius whereas a standard solar panel has a temperature coefficient closer to 0.4 percent and what that means is that the rec panel when it's operating in extreme high heat which is very common in places like Florida Texas Nevada Arizona and even places of Southern California what it means is the RAC panel is going to lose less power production because of the the efficiency loss of operating at high temperatures so all that translates to more total energy harvested over the lifetime of the system so very important factor here if you live in one of those markets where you can have extreme high heat during the summer months now the second factor of course is the rec warranty now all solar panels degrade at a certain rate in fact a standard solar panel we expect is going to lose about half a percent of its power production each year throughout the lifetime of the 25-year warranty however the rec premium panels only lose a quarter of a percent of their production per year and therefore even at the end of the warranty term in year 25 the rec Alpha pure panels are guaranteed to produce at least 92 percent of their initial rated power out in year 25. so again what this means is more total energy harvested over the lifetime of the system so if you're considering this solar investment and you're in a home that you you plan to be in for more than 10 or 15 years or or maybe you just you just built or just moved into your forever home looking at a premium solar module like the rec Alpha pure R is something that you should at least take a look at although it's not going to be the cheapest price per watt on day one if you consider total energy produced over the lifetime of the system even if it requires a slightly higher upfront investment having a module with the best warranty the best temperature coefficient and aesthetically one of the best looking panels out there backed by a solid company in your case it might be worth it well folks this has been the top five solar panels going into 2023 lineup as always if you're getting good value from the videos that we post on solar surge be sure to give us a thumbs up and also consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already that way as we post new videos it'll show up on your feed and you can keep up to date with the latest product news of course if you are in the process of getting solar panel quotes for your home if you'd like to get a quote for any of these options or or any of the other popular options out there as always feel free to reach out to us on the link below you can schedule a short 15-minute Zoom call with one of our system designers in one of our one of our experts here and we can just talk through with you what your goals are and show you some some options and some pricing well folks I thank you for taking time to tune in to solar surge today as always I'm Joe ordia encouraging you to get prepared and be empowered thanks for watching and we'll see you again soon [Music] thank you [Music] foreign

Channel: Solar Surge

Views: 52,247

Keywords: tesla, silfab, jinko, aptos, panels, solaredge, solaredge inverter, solar, solar power, q cells, q cells solar panels, rec, best solar panels going into 2023, solar panels, best solar panels, solar panel 2023, upcoming solar panels, upcoming best solar panels, best solar panel 2023, top 10 solar panels, 10 best solar panels, 5 best solar panels 2023, best rec solar panels, best qcell solar, qcell solar, tesla stock, best solar panels for home, best solar panels for home use

Id: S2jaUMbqbaY

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022