type and quality of panels

Woofwoof

One of the companies quoting for our job says it will use panels called Enhance 250w Monocrystaline (Japanese). Has anyone heard of these Enhance panels and how they compare ?
Another company quotes a Sunmodule plusSW panel (by the German Solarworld company) these seem to have good reviews. Both of these are with an Enphase micro inverter system - which says it offers a better "recovery rate" I think that means it collects more of the suns energy ? Any views or help would be appreciated.

Sterlingtimes

Woofwoof wrote: »

Another company quotes a Sunmodule plusSW panel (by the German Solarworld company) these seem to have good reviews. Both of these are with an Enphase micro inverter system - which says it offers a better "recovery rate" I think that means it collects more of the sun's energy ? Any views or help would be appreciated.

In legal terms, a "better recovery rate" is what is called a "sales puff". To the extent that the phase has any meaning at all, you should ask them to provide specific data.

tunnel

Woofwoof wrote: »

Both of these are with an Enphase micro inverter system - which says it offers a better "recovery rate" I think that means it collects more of the suns energy ? Any views or help would be appreciated.

Can you answer one question...do have ANY problems with ANY shade on your roof?
If not then what it means is that you will be paying a premium price for something that's not necessary and have an extra 16 pieces of kit on your roof that's highly inaccessible if need be. All too often now we are seeing quotes for micros when they're not needed.
So going back to the question...what's it to be?

pw22

As Tunnel says micro inverters are only necessary when you have shading or an install over more than 2 areas. They normally cost quite a bit more than a standard string inverter and are additional equipment which could go wrong.

Woofwoof

Thanks so far folks, we are a bungalow with no shade at all. The panels will go over two roofs - one more south facing than the other (11 panels here) the other more south-east (5 panels here). All the data we looked at suggests micro inverters ensure each panel operates at it individual peek. The string system operates at the lowest common denominator - so might produce less overall power.
The quotes themselves aren't too frightening - we just want the "best system" for our position, don't we all I suppose.

EricMears

Woofwoof wrote: »

All the data we looked at suggests micro inverters ensure each panel operates at it individual peek. The string system operates at the lowest common denominator - so might produce less overall power.

That's quite true - but if you have no shading it can never happen that one panel in a string would behave differently to the others.

You would of course need a dual string inverter so that the two separate rooves are treated individually but they're fairly common.

Paying extra for micro inverters would give you no benefit - just a whole batch of other bits to go wrong (and be difficult to get at if they do).