Products
To give you peace of mind, we always use high quality products. We do not buy pre-assembled kits. Instead we source components individually ensuring we can always buy at best prices. The following should be taken as guide only; if you are set on one particular panel or inverter we can usually source it for you.
Our recommendations.
First note that all panels we supply have been tested to the highest levels to obtain MCS accreditation. The PV panel manufacturer warrants the electrical output of the Solar PV Panels to be no less than 80% of their designed performance after 25 years.
Most of the solar cells which make up the panels have been made in the same few factories in China/Asia and in our view one is pretty much like another. The one possible consideration is in the unlikely event you should have to make a claim in 20 years time, which company will be around to honour the warranty? That said, it should be made quite clear that not a lot can go wrong with a solar panel- it has no moving parts- and there is very little likelihood you’ll ever have to make a warranty claim.
The best value for money is provided by companies in China Asia. If you feel more comfortable with a branded panel choose BP solar or Sharp.
Inverters
Many people spend hours wondering what panels they should choose and don’t give any thought to any other component of the system. However the heart of the system is the inverter, it’s a clever piece of kit which costs £1000 to £2000 on a typical domestic system.
The role of the inverter
The main job of the inverter is to convert direct current (DC) to (AC) an alternating current useable in the home, synchronized with the supply voltage. It also has safety features to protect your system and protect men working on the national grid in the event of a power cut on the grid.
Our inverters
The two best names on the market are the Sunny Boy inverters, made by the German company SMA and the Fronius inverters made by Austrian company Fronius. They typically come with 5 year warranties extendable to 25 years. For an SMA inverter each 5 year extension costs £250 up to 20 years.
Warning-it’s addictive. We guarantee that when you first get your system you’ll be checking it 2 or 3 times a day.
