With so many different solar manufactures its hard for homeowners to weed out the BS of the sales man from the the facts of what the solar panel is capable of. In today’s video, i’ll be talking about Panasonic’s HIT solar panels to help you determine if their premium price tag is worth it for your solar project, I’ll be going over the efficiency, performance, power output, warranty, and provide a value to cost rating.
Now, let’s talk Panasonic, I’m sure you’re familiar with the name, as Panasonic has been a big electronics manufacture for many years around the world. But what you may not know is Panasonic, or I should say Sanyo Electronic had been developing their own solar panel technology since 1980. The technology was referred to as Silicon Heterojunction solar cells, or HIT for short. This HIT technology first debuted around the world in 1997, and has since been in its own league thanks to its solar cell structure.
Which leads us to what the heck is a heterojunction solar cell? Well up until Panasonic released their HIT solar panel, the world had only two types of solar cells, mono and poly, if you don’t know the difference between a mono solar panel and a poly solar panel I’ve provided a link in the description to our blog that covers that. But back to HIT which is a hybrid to say the least of the two existing technologies. The solar cells are constructed in such a way that the electrons from the sun light are better captured between the substrate and silicon layers of the solar cell. This has lead to Panasonics HIT solar panel setting the world record in 2014 for the highest efficiency from a solar cell, it reached an astonishing 25.6 percent efficiency! But don’t go thinking the solar panels you were quoted will have that efficiency rating, that was in a research lap, and the solar panels you’re receiving a quote on have a maximum efficiency of 19.7 percent.
With all that high efficiency and proprietary technology, you can’t help but ask, how much power do these solar panels produce, and the answer is 330 watts as of this video. I do believe Panasonic will produce higher watt modules in coming years, but for now the 330 watt is above the industry average of 295 watts per panel.
A big advantage the HIT’s have over their competitors is their co-efficiency rating, many companies tend to push on this because the technology of these panels allows them to produce better in extreme temperatures compared to other solar panels. But my advise to you, don’t be sold solely on the co-efficiency of the modules, this is one benefit of these panels, and while their co-efficiency is the best compared to other manufactures, if you don’t live somewhere with extreme heat like 140 degrees or extreme cold like below 30 degrees then this advantage is mute.
But what isn’t mute, is the warranty of these solar modules. Given this is a name brand manufacture, Panasonic, you can expect a 10-year product warranty ensuring the solar panels are free from defects, and a 25-year linear performance warranty. This isn’t an above average warranty, as a 10/25 warranty is considered the industry standard, with a small few offering a full 25-year warranty for both.
In closing, the Panasonic HIT 330-watt solar panel is very good panel and I give the cost to value a three out of five. This rating has to do with a variety of reasons. One, this is a name brand solar panel and should have a name brand warranty; two, it has a great efficiency but so do its direct competitors at the 320 to 330 wattage range; and third the biggest selling point I’m always given for why homeowners should go with this Panasonic HIT solar panel is because of it’s co-efficiency, and honestly that’s not as important as you may be lead to believe. I recommend comparing the linear performance warranty over co-efficiency of the panel.
That’s it for today’s video, thanks for watching, be sure to hit that subscribe button down below or on the screen. Don’t forget to like this video, and share it with your friends. And if you or someone you know is interested in going solar, or improving the efficiency of their home, visit us online, we offer free in-home energy consultations, and would be thrilled to offer you a competing quote.