Beware of High Efficiency Solar Panels

Why beware of something that's "high efficiency" especially when it comes to solar panels?

Because the term "High Efficiency Solar Panels" is a dirty tactic used by some solar companies to fool you.

It's a term solar panel installers and some solar retailers use to describe products they don't want you to know anything about or who has made them. It's akin to selling a car branded as a "Really Fast Car" and saying nothing else. Nothing about who manufactures it, who warrants it, or what people or reviewers have to say about it.

Why would they do this?

Because its usually the cheapest solar panel they can lay their hands on made by a Tier 3 or 4 (or lower) solar manufacturer. If they were made by a reputable solar panel manufacturer surely they would want you to know that and not call it a "250W High Efficiency Solar Panel".

The questions you should be asking the solar company selling the panel:

• Who manufactures the panels?
• Who provides the warranty and do they have representation in Australia?
• Where can I find a specification or data sheet?
• Why aren't they providing brand and model number of the panel?
• What are they trying to hide?

Generally the final slap in the face is that the panels offered aren't even high efficiency! 

Just take the "250W" part - that watt class of solar panel has largely been superseded in terms of efficiency. Most of the Tier 1 solar manufacturer's lower efficiency panels are coming out at around 260W+ in early 2016. A true high efficiency solar panel is now inexcess of 300Ws, like the Winaico PERC 305W panel or the Sunpower 327W panel.

Many of these so called High Efficiency Solar Panels also have "negative tolerances" of 5 watts or even 5%. This means that the panel doesn't even have to be 250Ws to sell it as a 250W panel. A negative tolerance of 5W means it could be as low as a 245W panel and a 5% negative tolerance means it could be as low a 237.5W.

Selling no-name generic panels like those branded as "High Efficiency Solar Panels" is specifically forbidden in the Clean Energy Council's Solar Retailer Code of Conduct which must be signed by all CEC Approved Solar Retailers. This is another reason many solar companies do not meet the requirements of being an Approved Solar Retailer.

As a signatory to the Code, and one of the few CEC Approved Solar Retailers in Australia Infinite Energy only sells solar panels from top of the range solar manufacturers like REC Solar, Canadian Solar, Sun Edison, Winaico and Sunpower.