January 12, 20179 yr The gemors is that with solar production there is so many different variables that I think it would be difficult to really measure the "degrading" but I suppose if you have a year or two's data you could start to compare the average production and check that. Also come to think of it. The guys that feeds back in to the grid will most likely be able to get a fair measure as they will utilise the panels at thier optimal the whole time.
January 12, 20179 yr 2 hours ago, SilverNodashi said: 200W energy? At the risk of being pedantic (and most of us know this, just trying to be helpful by pointing this out), that is partly where the confusion start. Watts isn't energy, it is power: It's the rate of energy over time. You have to multiply by the time component to get energy. In a visual sense, what it means is that on a line chart it is not the peak of the bell curve you are concerned with but the area covered by the bell curve. The advantage of the thinfilm panels is a fatter bell curve. I also heard that they have a shorter lifetime/warranty, but upon inspection I found this changed in the last years. It's still not all rosy, as Silver pointed out, you need more roof space. They are also higher voltage as I recall, so you usually end up with shorter strings and more expensive MPPTs.
January 12, 20179 yr 4 hours ago, plonkster said: At the risk of being pedantic (and most of us know this, just trying to be helpful by pointing this out), that is partly where the confusion start. Watts isn't energy, it is power: It's the rate of energy over time. You have to multiply by the time component to get energy. In a visual sense, what it means is that on a line chart it is not the peak of the bell curve you are concerned with but the area covered by the bell curve. The advantage of the thinfilm panels is a fatter bell curve. I also heard that they have a shorter lifetime/warranty, but upon inspection I found this changed in the last years. It's still not all rosy, as Silver pointed out, you need more roof space. They are also higher voltage as I recall, so you usually end up with shorter strings and more expensive MPPTs. ouch. I knew someone would burn me on that blunder. I just wanted to point out that no single panel can produce it's rated power. Well, at least, constantly and reliably. The thin film panels are generally 110V 2.2A, so it's not difficult to match them to a MPPT charger. Just use them in parallel
January 12, 20179 yr 21 minutes ago, SilverNodashi said: I just wanted to point out that no single panel can produce it's rated power. Well, at least, constantly and reliably. I agree, panels are flash tested at the factory under perfect conditions (STC value) and that is what it is rated at. But when used on installations there are a lot of factors that can influence the production of the panels
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.