Solar Panel Warranties

Jagtazman

In the process of obtaining quotes, one company asking £9k but offering 25 year warranty on panels
Seen one company online offering £5k but with a 10 year warranty.

I believe the £9k is way too high and am in the process of looking at alternatives however.

My question is it is worth paying extra for a longer warranty?

gazapc

In all likelyhood, no.

What was the exact warranty for? Power or manufacturing warranty? The later is typically for 10 years and covers manufacturing defects, the former that the peak power of the module reaches certain levels after each year and is typically for 25 years. Both pretty hard to prove fault to be honest.

There has been a lot of module manufacturers going bust and if your one did go bust the warranty would likely mean nothing. Infact alot of the big renewable energy investment firms won't put really any faith in the manufacturer warranty and will set aside their own maintenaince reserve account (cash) to fund replacements (source: my job).

Paying for a longer inverter warranty I would maybe consider especially if from the likes of ABB or SMA.

Edit: Not talking about a £4k difference though, keep a bargepole length away from them.

Jagtazman

gazapc wrote: »

In all likelyhood, no.

What was the exact warranty for? Power or manufacturing warranty? The later is typically for 10 years and covers manufacturing defects, the former that the peak power of the module reaches certain levels after each year and is typically for 25 years. Both pretty hard to prove fault to be honest.

There has been a lot of module manufacturers going bust and if your one did go bust the warranty would likely mean nothing. Infact alot of the big renewable energy investment firms won't put really any faith in the manufacturer warranty and will set aside their own maintenance reserve account (cash) to fund replacements (source: my job).

Paying for a longer inverter warranty I would maybe consider especially if from the likes of ABB or SMA.

Edit: Not talking about a £4k difference though, keep a bargepole length away from them.

The 25 year was y sun edison - 25 year module warranty (limited warranty for materials and workmanship) - 2 years full 23 year limited. agree not worth the 9k but was curious is made a different or just sales talk...

tunnel

Jagtazman wrote: »

The 25 year was y sun edison - 25 year module warranty (limited warranty for materials and workmanship) - 2 years full 23 year limited. agree not worth the 9k but was curious is made a different or just sales talk...

Why not post your rough location so someone nearby could recommend their installer.
As for £9k, tell the cowboy to go play with the Indians. Robbing bar stewards


Tell the nice folk of MSE what size system you're looking for, direction your roof faces, pitch and any shading problems(if any). You'll then get a whole host of advice/information to help with your decision.

Jagtazman

No probs,

Halifax, west yorkshire
4kw system - 16 panels
Due South facing - no shading whatsoever
Roof pitch believe standard 35-40?

captainhindsight_2

When you are getting quotes you need to ask all the companies to quote for like for like.

There are a lot of different products on the market with lots of different quality and appearance etc. I think you need to make a decision of what you want and ask every one to quote for the same job.

As one could be quoting for a rolls Royce and the other for a lada and they may be coming out at similar prices...

ed110220

captainhindsight wrote: »

When you are getting quotes you need to ask all the companies to quote for like for like.

There are a lot of different products on the market with lots of different quality and appearance etc. I think you need to make a decision of what you want and ask every one to quote for the same job.

As one could be quoting for a rolls Royce and the other for a lada and they may be coming out at similar prices...

There are so many models of panels and they're bulky items so suppliers won't have them all in stock and installers won't be able to get them all at a good price. So this method will tell you more about your initial choice of panel etc, which will probably be rather arbitrary.

See where you're coming from but as different installers will be able to get different equipment at different prices it's unlikely to get you best value for money.

Ed

captainhindsight_2

ed110220 wrote: »

There are so many models of panels and they're bulky items so suppliers won't have them all in stock and installers won't be able to get them all at a good price. So this method will tell you more about your initial choice of panel etc, which will probably be rather arbitrary.

See where you're coming from but as different installers will be able to get different equipment at different prices it's unlikely to get you best value for money.

Ed

Every one buys the panels from the same handfull of merchants any way, different merchants have different prefered panels and I agree an installer may have a prefered pannel thus a prefered supplier and greater discounts at that supplier.

Maybe another tact rather than specifying make and model for the reasons you mentioned is to specify what you want from the kit so say:

'I want a black pannel with 10 year waranty, 25 year performance gurantee and an inverter that can be monitered wirelessly and has a 20 year gurantee'

This way the quotes you are getting are on a level playing field, for maybe not identical kit but similar performance