When it comes to alternative energy sources, we have three things to turn to – wind, water and sun. All of these come directly from nature and all we need to do is find a way to harness their energy to our benefit but we also have to keep it as green as possible.
Now out of all of these three sources, solar energy is somewhat easiest to harness. When thinking about the difficulty we are talking about how to set up an end product to harvest the energy and store it where we need it. With sun and wind, there is a lot of finicking, and a lot of ingenuity and you have to have an engineering degree in all of this to understand how to pull the energy out. This is why solar energy is the easiest and quickly became consumer acceptable.
When it comes to solar energy there is only one way to harness the power of the Sun – via the solar panels that translate that heat into energy and send it to be used instantly or stored for later usage. With solar panels, you don’t have to do anything, you go to a dealer o manufacturer, buy as much as you need and hook all of these up in a certain order. The best way to get all the power possible is to place them in the open where there is as much sun as possible throughout the entire day and just wait for them to do their magic.
Just like in any other product out there we have several price points and several manufacturers that sell these. The best thing to choose here is a brand that is well established, that has some experience and that has proven over time that its solar panels are worth the money. If you want to go solar and harness the energy of the sun click here and see what types of panels you can get and the service you will be provided.
OK, there are several things you need to consider when buying a solar panel, and from the title of our article, you can see that one of those things is the lifespan of solar panels. Some think that this factor is not as important as some others, but as we go through the article and explain a few things, we will tell you why this is as important.
Before you decide to go solar and t get solar panels you first need to think of a usage. Where it will be, what it will be for, what and how much is it going to power and so on. You need to have a plan to choose the correct panel for your use case scenario. What we see lately is that people tend to go overboard with these picking the biggest in dimension, the biggest in wattage, the most expensive, and they opt to power their summer home or a cottage. Some decide that their separate garage or workshop will be solar-powered and they do the same things. This is so unnecessary and such a big waste of money. You need o to calculate what the wattage use is in the place which these panels will power and according to that, you will make the right choice when the power of panels is considered. According to the needs and the power, you will also get the estimate on how much of a square foot of solar panels you need to achieve that, and lastly, you get to choose the manufacturer and the price that fits into those parameters.
It all sounds somewhat complicated but it is rather easy. You will be asked about your use case and your wattage consumption and the people who sell these or mount them will give you educated information on what exactly you need.
Now wattage is an important factor you need to consider but you also have to take into consideration the wattage the panel is rated for and the wattage it produces when in operating conditions. These two vary slightly so try not to miss on this because you may not be able to power everything you wanted.
Durability and dimensions are a factor that needs to be considered depending on where and how you plan to mount these panels. If you are trying to go green in your home, the rooftops are always the best solution and the most efficient one. If you will power a garage or workshop, or if you are trying to make power in your cottage in the forest you will need to consider placing these down on the field, especially if you need more panels and don’t have the roof space. This means that you need a durable brand that will not get damaged and that can withstand all that nature can throw at it.
Price is a factor as well but if you want higher efficiency, reliability and warranty then this shouldn’t be an issue. We are not saying that you need to run toward the most expensive panel out there but consider that the price range hugely impacts these as well. Again, your use case and needs will also dictate the price.
We know that we left this for the end, and it is the topic of the article, but you simply can’t just discuss solar panel lifespan as a single factor, and not include others that are as important. Most of you know by now that 95% of solar panels come with a 25 to 30-year warranty. This is something that manufacturers have to put and where they need to protect themselves in some sense. What you can realistically expect I that your solar system might last up to 40 years maybe even longer. Every panel will degrade over time and based on materials, technology and innovation some of the panels will go off sooner some later. This is another time where price plays a big role. With degradation, you will need to expect the loss of efficiency and most panels factor around 0.5% of efficiency loss per year. You don’t have to be scared of this and you need o to understand that with this degradation percentage at the year 25 or 30 your panels will still be going and still produce power just not like in year 1. In that time, near the end of the warranty period, you will get around 88-90% of power, again, depending on the manufacturer and the quality of the panel as well.