Our Solar Panel Hardware Guide
As a solar panel installation company, we’ve got to work hard to choose the best hardware for our customers. When it comes down to it, we’re going to be in your home for as long as your children will – so we want to start off right!
With this, we feel it’s important to put a spotlight on the brands of hardware that Whaling City Solar offers – solar panels specifically today. There are many brands to choose from, and we are technology agnostic, but I’ll tell you – some panels just outperform others in the same conditions.
Curb Appeal
The thing that matters most to homeowners first is how the solar system will look – what’s the aesthetic appeal? How are you going to feel emotionally when you pull up to the home and lay eyes on it?
Solaria’s aim is to look good, while delivering higher than average performance.
These two Massachusetts homeowners – in Mattapoisett and Dartmouth – chose the low profile, uniform black of Solaria. The pictures speak for themselves.
If you ever do plan on selling your home, plenty of research suggests a higher home sales price – $15,000 for an average system according to these folks (hyperlink study page) – when aesthetically designed solar panels have been installed.
High Output
The pure black look of a PowerXT™-U-370-380 from Solaria comes from its use of “shingling” technology. This shingling technology allows Solaria to put 68-70 individual solar cells, in the same space that a regular solar panel fit about 62 cells.
This means more solar cells facing the sun, in fact, other than the frame – the whole solar panel turns into one giant solar cell! And since the Solaria solar cells are all black, you get that clean, low profile appeal.
Hardware Specs
The power ratings of solar panels are typically measured in Watts, same as a light bulb or a microwave. The Wattage of a solar panel effectively shows the rate that solar panel can convert sunlight to usable kWh. A higher efficiency cell structure results in more kWh per hour from the same amount of sunshine.
As noted in the specification page (hyperlink spec sheet), a PowerXT 370 has a 20.5% efficiency level – one of the industries higher numbers.
The panel’s wiring also helps protect against shade (shade white paper link). All solar panels get some shade, whether it’s from a passing cloud or a fixed obstruction like a tree/chimney. Microinverters or optimizers help mitigate some of that shade loss, but Solaria solar panels protect against shade that lands on the panel itself.
One last item about Solaria – they stand behind their product at a high level, and for a long time!
If you’re in the Massachusetts SMART program – you need a high level of performance for ten years, and hope your system runs well for 25 years.
After ten years, your Solaria system will still be greater than 93% of its original output ten years in – and after 25 years – the company warrants the unit will be bove 86%.
The reality is, your solar system will probably work for 30+ years – and that’s why we focus on higher quality product. Let us know during your site visit if you think Solaria PowerXT panels are the right fit for your home if we didn’t default to them already.
Wish you could evaluate solar for yourself without the high pressure sales visit?
Just let us know what you’d like to see up there on that empty roof.
