5 Best Solar Panels for an Indian household 2021
Solar panels are the building blocks of any PV ecosystem. They’re the most basic and the least intricate of all PV devices.
A solar panel consists of numerous small converter cells called Photovoltaic Cells. PV cells are responsible for converting the incident sunlight into power. Today, we’ll be looking at the 5 best solar panels in India. A few basics to start with —
How do solar panels work?
The incident sunlight on the silicon-made panels carries some energy. This energy knocks off the valence electrons of the semiconductor. The positive and negative plates juxtaposed upon each other create an electric field. This field aligns the drifting free electrons in a particular order, producing electric current. For a complete explanation, visit the mechanism of solar panels.
If you’ve been longing to get a solar panel for yourself and are undecided on how to choose, you’ve come to the right place. Here, we discuss the criteria for choosing solar panels based on a handful of parameters and rank the best for you.
What do you need to look at when buying a solar panel?
Efficiency
The efficiency of solar panels is the ratio of the incident solar energy converted into productive electric output. Solar panels are usually efficient in the range of 15-20℅. While the values may seem paltry, any panel with an efficiency of 20% would be considered high-end and among the best solar panels in the markets.
Durability
Solar panels should be strong enough to last in external environments. Households station them in the open sun, so they must have a good build quality to face high heating, rains, hailstones, and storms. If the panel tears and wears quickly, it’s better you pay a few extra bucks to have one of a good build.
The temperature coefficient of a solar panel has a direct relation to its productivity and efficiency. With increasing temperature, the efficiency of any solar panel gradually decreases.
If the temperature coefficient of your panel is -0.4/°C at any temperature, it will register a drop of 0.4% in efficiency for every 1C rise in temperature.
The lower the temperature coefficient — the lesser the efficiency loss per unit degree rise in temperature. The best solar panels, thus, have a comparatively low temperature coefficient.
Brand Reliability
Brand reliability is one of the foremost aspects of choosing the best solar panels, or any electronic device, for that matter. Reliable brands have more expertise at building efficient and durable panels.
The cost of the devices also rises proportionally to the reliability. As such, we’d recommend against choosing your preferred panel solely based on brand value. Several small players are coming up with great stuff these days.
Financials of a Manufacturer
Solar systems mean energy security that spans decades. Generally, most solar module manufacturers give a performance warranty of 25 years. The panels, though, run for a lot longer than that. The estimated life of commercial-grade solar panels is 60 years.
Do you see where we’re going? We recommend that you choose a company having enough finances so that the company survives for the duration of Warranty — brand reliability at play, again.
It shouldn’t be the only criteria, though. Many good companies are new and small but offer quality service.
We now proceed to the list of the best solar panels for an Indian household.
The best solar panels in India
Based on all these parameters, we’ll now get into our list of the 5 best solar panels in India. We have duly tested all these modules for generation, compared them, and formulated this list.
Vikram Solar Ltd.
Vikram solar is one of the oldest standing and leading manufacturers of solar panels in India. They have good financials on books and are likely to be in the business for the next many years to come. They have time-tested and proven quality standards.
Waaree Technologies
Waree Technologies is one of the pioneers of PV equipment production in India. Based on their proven track record, they have a long-standing reputation to keep.
Dhoop Solar Panels
Dhoop Solar Modules are from the Agrawal Group based in Goa. They have been into manufacturing all sorts of stuff since the 1950s, and have some of the best solar panels in India. The group has diverse business verticals. They’ve been in this business for a long time and are unlikely to leave anytime soon.
Luminous solar panels:
Luminous is another big brand among all solar device manufacturers. Their 335W/24V model is one of the best sellers in the Indian markets. They have a variety of different products in the market — from solar modules to solar inverters.
Renewsys Solar Modules
Renewsys solar modules come from the ENPEE Group, a long-standing business conglomerate in India. They also have very diverse business portfolios. You can rest assured about long-term support when buying their device.
It concludes our list of the best solar panels for all the budgets and capacities meant for the Indian household. The list features all brands but one of indigenous origin. We have intended to give space to quality domestic players for the list. The list also compiles all those who offer the best-build quality at minimal prices.
