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  • Opinions on 2 choices of systems

    Hello All,

    I'm located in the greater LA area.

    After doing a bit of research, I narrowed my choices down to the following options. Both vendors are highly rated on yelp and have been very responsive to all my questions. Panels will be placed on West facing roof, or may be split 2:1 west:east. West seems to be slightly better value production if I'm on a TOU plan under LADWP.

    I currently use about 16,000 kWh per year.

    Option 1 (11.1 KW System):

    $27,700 initial cost
    39 x 285 W Solarworld Panels
    10KW Solaredge Inverter
    25 year warranty on panels, inverters and labor
    $2.50/W
    +2000 for Panel Upgrade

    Option 2 (11.39 KW System):

    $30,900 initial cost
    33 x 345 W Silfab Panels
    10KW Solaredge Inverter
    25 year warranty on panels, inverters and labor
    $2.70/W
    +2000 for Panel Upgrade

    There were also a few vendors pushing Sunpower at 3.75+ per watt.

    Any opinions on Solarworld vs Silfab, I know Solarworld recently declared bankruptcy.

    Thanks,
    Ryan




  • #2
    Welcome,

    Those are pretty decent prices for an installed system. Sure the high end brands are more efficient but $1/watt more? No way. It's small percentage points, not enough to justify a a 30% price premium imo. Do you have any reason other than return on investment, American made, or aesthetics you're considering? Solarworld meets all of those needs cheaper than sunpower. And if you stretch the America to North America, silfab in Canada is even cheaper than solarworld.. though their panel warranty isn't as friendly.

    I too debated solarworld vs silfab and decided silfab. It was cheaper, solarworld inventory was not available when I ordered, with no ETA on availability, and I decided Canada made panels (silfab) are good enough "American" panels. The warranty became a moot point when it was $2000 cheaper, as panels don't fail enough to justify the premium warranty return process.

    Also to consider is you're looking at both 60 cell and 72 cell quotes. The silfabs a 72 cell and will be a foot longer panel. I personally like the larger panel, less roof mounts per watt, and where I want them and budget i ended up with symmetrical rows for aesthetics. Your mileage may vary.

    I'm waiting on a permit to start so I can't give commentary on the panels themselves yet, just my opinions on why I chose silfab (slg345m).

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    • #3
      Thanks for the response!!

      We definitely are looking away from the Sunpower, since we have plenty of roof space so high efficiency panels are not a necessity. We also don't have a preference for country of origin.

      The current planned design calls for 2 rows of panels on west roof that isn't visible, and another row of panels on the east street facing roof. There may be slightly more shading on the west facing roof, but only in the late evenings. We will likely switch to a TOU plan to maximize the value we get from the west facing panels.

      Thanks

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