Tweet
I have been excited about putting solar on my home since we bought it a year ago. Nice southern exposures, no trees, and living in Colorado make this a pretty nice win. Now then, the company I went with uses LG Neon2 380W panels. Should I push to use a different panel with the exit of LG from the solar panel market? Yes, we do have a contract, and I have made my first payment (we are doing all cash, no financing other than the tax credit). While I liked the thought of their 25 year warranty, what really sold me was the solidity of LG, having just built their plant in Alabama, doing it for years upon years, etc. Now with their exit, I am concerned. Should I be concerned?
-
-
I think people put far too much faith in those 25-year warranties. If it were me, I would not be that concerned about them installing LG panels.Dave W. Gilbert AZ
6.63kW grid-tie owner -
If still possible, I'd order a couple spare panels, and hold them in reserve. One crow trying to crack walnuts, or a wind driven branch is not covered by warranty, and getting a replacement panel, in 4 years, that has the same mounting footprint, might be iffy.Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-ListerComment
-
I just had 44 of those same panels installed last month. The day after they were installed, I heard about LG exiting.Comment
-
Hi All,
I heard it through the grapevine that LG are going to stop making solar panels, it could be BS but it could be a scoop too, to early to tell
Comment
-
I believe there is another thread which has a number of posts indicating LG is getting out of the solar panel business. More than likely they are having difficult time competing in this crazy economic war. With the new reduction of Net metering law going into affect in Florida I expect a number of solar installers will be leaving very soon. So maybe LG had some up front knowledge and decided to get out while it could.Comment
-
Maybe getting a panel or two as a spare would be a good idea. Where I live in Colorado, we are moving over to Net Metering/Time of Use, and it looks like it will pay off rather well. I over-built our system. In Colorado, its a 1:1 credit, and the move to ToU is going to be pretty big. We are at $.12/kwh for winter, $.13/kwh for summer. It will be:
Off-Peak: 7pm-1pm @ $.10 winter/$.10 summer
Shoulder - 1pm-3pm @ $.14 winter/$.19 summer
Peak - 3pm-7pm @ $.17 winter/$.28 summer
If my math is right, which is mostly estimation as we don't have daily breakdowns of power usage, our $235 July bill, where the A/C ran non-stop from 2-8pm and still couldn't keep the house down to 72 degrees, would be somewhere around $450. It makes the repayment timeline a lot shorter than the 13 years we forecast. Probably somewhere closer to 11.5-12.
Given I will have an 8.36kw system installed, and our highest use month was right at 1360kwh with an average at 800 kwh, I should have just about 0 net usage. Hopefully. It will be close. Unless I have completely misunderstood my research. Well, we will see.
Now, where to store the panels is going to be a bit of a trick.Comment
-
No, they are officially leaving it. My installation company seems to be freaking out a bit as they do a good amount of business, and they only installed LG.
Comment
-
Here's a grapevine that might have accurate info
Comment
-
Maybe consider asking for a discount or another brand or possibly including a few spares in current price. I bought my LG 5 years ago when they were 315 s. 380 now? WowComment
Comment