Best Solar Panels

As complicated as solar technology seems, there is still one very easy way to discern which are the best solar panels. That is by the solar panel cost per watt.

There are a number of other factors to look at too. This short article is going to discuss these factors and explain them to you in plain english. Other factors to look at are what is included in the price. Some solar roof panels are simply sold as stand alone units, while others come with a controller and inverter. You’ll need to have both of these to run your panels and bought separately these items will set you back around a couple of hundred bucks.

This page covers only the best solar panels which are in the DIY or semi DIY category. These are the units which you can install yourself, or get them installed by a local installer / electrician. This site strongly advocates this type of domestic solar power over the hugely expensive commercial and ‘so called’ professional installers, which charge the earth for the same kind of thing you can buy yourself on Amazon.

DIY Essentials

To install the best solar panels in your home you’re going to need some good instructions. The best guides are all available online for under fifty bucks and some of the best ones include Earth4energy, Greendiyenergy and Homemadeenergy. The majority of these guides show you how to build your own solar panel system from scratch using cheap solar panels which you can find online and also locally, they’ll tell you where to go.

Even if you buy a solar panel kit, most of the time you’ll still need to get one of these guides as the instructions that come with the kits are notoriously difficult to understand and only give you the most basic information. The best solar panels guides are the online ones because they include videos and offer support via email and forums.

Factors Explained

If you’ve been looking into solar panels you’ll have noticed that they are described either as monocrystalline or polycrystalline. Without going into great detail, the main thing you need to know is that the best solar panels are the monocrystalline type because they are more efficient and are known to last a lot longer than the polycrystalline ones.

The main difference between the two varieties is that the mono panels, as the name suggests, are made up of mainly large fully intact pieces of silicon, while the poly panels are made up of smaller pieces of silicon which are aligned closely together.

Most solar panels for your home come with a wattage (watts) reading. The watts is basically the measure of power the panels will produce and is calculated by the voltage (volts) of the solar cells multiplied by the amperage (amps). The best solar panels don’t just have a high wattage. It has to be relative to the cost per watt.

Very high wattage panels become inefficient once they get to a certain level. Solar cells have a set voltage of around half a volt each. This cannot be increased easily, so the best way to increase your overall wattage output is to connect a series of solar panels in series. All of the online guides tell you how to calculate exactly how many solar panels you’ll need to match your current electricity usage.