Sanyo HIT Panels: anyone have practical experience?

[TheChief]

I am being offered Sanyo HIT panels at a fair hike in cost, but supposedly they are much more efficient (and also happen to fit my awkward roof quite well). Has anyone used these, and how much better is generation vs monocrystalline?

 

[iainjj]

Fitted these panels two weekends ago and again today. Feedback from the 1st custoer has been good

 

[Easters]

Fitted allot of them and all I can say is they are great for many reason and yes I think they are worth the extra cost.

 

[hopkins85]

There the Lionel Messi of panels

Sent from my HTC ChaCha A810e using Tapatalk

 

[SolarCity]

The best panels on the market. They are expensive - perhaps disproportionately so. But if you have a tricky roof and they seem to fit then it's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Energetic]

Great for confined roof spaces where only a smaller mono system would fit. Not enough extra output to warrant the extra expense of 4kw of Sanyo where 4kw of mono would fit. 250wp is 250wp in any panel...

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Not strictly so, the Sanyo HIT will perform better than most when heated. Ive installed Sharp and they loose about 25% on a hot sunny day. Dont think the Sanyo HITs suffer the same

 

[northernsun]

Great for confined roof spaces where only a smaller mono system would fit. Not enough extra output to warrant the extra expense of 4kw of Sanyo where 4kw of mono would fit. 250wp is 250wp in any panel...

In a lot of circumstances you would be right- 250w is 250w, and I would be wary of anyone who is just bigging up a module because it is "more efficient"
With the sanyo modules it is not just a case of efficiency though. But with the sanyos they perform better in low light and at higher temps because of the fact they use thin film as well as mono technology. They are worth the extra in lots of cases- like lots of things though it depends what you want from the system.
For different reasons this holds true with a lot of panels, 250w is not always 250w even when comparing mono vs mono- if one has a tolerance of +/- 5% and one has -0%+5% figures for example you would expect a difference. In most cases though it is horses for courses.
And yeah- Sharp, I've yet to see some good figures for a sharp module in comparison to other similar sized modules

 

[Energetic]

Fair points maybe but Sanyo are not immune from efficiency drops at higher temps I've seen it this week, hitting peak in a sunny interval between clouds on a chilly day when they didn't get within 400w of peak day on a sunny day last week, perhaps they cope better than mono?

As for the low light thing, does a small percentage increase on a low production day really amount to very much extra? difficult things to quantify. PV sol doesn't rate them monstrously higher than a good quality mono on a like for like system size generally speaking.

That said, absolutely my favorite to install, lightweight, sturdy and quite pretty...

 

[cjapeterborough]

Take a look at the uksolarcasestudy site which compares a number of systems around the uk of different panel types.
The data shows the Sanyo's to be much the same as all the rest....good panels but not worth the price differential imho.
Sanyo and Sharp etc have undoubtedly been historical market leaders but the market is pretty saturated with equivalent
and probably better value panels....

 

[gr7]

Whilst we usually recommend Sanyo over other panels I'm struggling to justify using them when roof area is not an issue. The much less expensive 235W Samsung modules claim NOCT output of 188W compared to Sanyo HIT235 at 182W. Am I missing something here?

 

[SolarCity]

A 250w panel does not always produce the same as another 250w panel. All it means it that it will produce 250w at STC. If you look at how they perform at lower light conditions then you can see why all panels are not equal. Sanyo, REC, Kioto, UpSolar and Suntech do very well under low light (and hot conditions) while Sharp, Mitsubishi etc. tend to struggle.

I believe that Pv Sol Expert may be underestimating the Sanyo's performance for one reason or another. Our test forms show that we seem to get unusually good results under low light conditions and the yields suggest a decent improvement. We have just won two jobs next door to each other. They are both having Sanyo panels and their neighbour has already had Sharp panels fitted (albeit a slightly smaller system). We can't wait to compare annual results.

 

[MCS Renewables]

Sanyo is easy to sell when you can proove the returns against cheaper brands.
We have over 120 Sanyo systems installed compared with a handfull of other brands.
We had Romag and Sanyo systems on our office and home to compare and there was no comparison.

Sanyo have there own new website at SANYO Component Europe GmbH - Sanyo Solar <a href="en/service/solar-glossary/?tx_a21glossary%5Buid%5D=86&tx_a21glossary%5Bback%5D=79&cHash=245582945c1539e3d8df68d6fa2a1ad4" class="lexicon"><dfn>Photovoltaics</dfn></a>-Europe: Home - Home
which also links to their prefered installers.
The site was launched on 1st September 2011 and we were the first UK installer registered !!
(Which is not really fair as we did know about the site four months in advance and had pre done all the necessary paperwork and proven our Sanyo installs )

 

[amigo4lavida]

You can see real time output graphs of Sharp & Sanyo on this site
Sanyo Hybrid ci-S with amorphous silicon coating | Sheffield Solar Farm

BTW our 9.4Kwp system (Sanyo-SMA Tripower) was finally commissioned late Friday and despite the awful weather since then we are at 112 Kwh generated. We are even generating a few hundred Watts approaching dusk

 

[TheChief]

I guess my bottom line is that it looks like I can fit 14x Sanyo giving 3.5 kwp on my main pitched roof opposed to 2.5kwp for mono 250 panels due to available space. I could use mono panels and put some extra on a flat roof below, but shading/ flatness issues make this less attractive

 

[Energetic]

In this situation go for Sanyo every time... The extra expense will be paid back by the extra output over the life of the system.

 

[SolarCity]

which also links to their prefered installers.
The site was launched on 1st September 2011 and we were the first UK installer registered !!
(Which is not really fair as we did know about the site four months in advance and had pre done all the necessary paperwork and proven our Sanyo installs )

We must have been right behind you We went live on the site on September 1st also. Getting the logo put on the van tomorrow.

 

[series530]

I guess my bottom line is that it looks like I can fit 14x Sanyo giving 3.5 kwp on my main pitched roof opposed to 2.5kwp for mono 250 panels due to available space. I could use mono panels and put some extra on a flat roof below, but shading/ flatness issues make this less attractive

We have a similar situation you you - go with lesser performing panels in the available space or stick 14 Sanyo's up. We're going with the Sanyo's and micro inverters (due to some shading) and my hope is that I will recover the extra cost and a bit more over the life of the FIT.

 

[TonyL]

I have Sharp 245s and compare readings with someone who has Sanyo 235s. We get pretty much the same power generation BUT he has shading mid morning. Only been doing it for 6 months. So the +10% mantra feels about right.

My cost delta was £2k and I decided not to go for it. £2k is £2k and I am already making a mint from FIT. Who knows what will still be working in 10 years time and what FIT will be. I dont regret going for Sharps.

If £2k was a rounding error in my finances and I wanted to maximise the return in 10-25 years then I would go for Sanyos.

Good luck

 

[malibu]

I totally agree.

SANYO's are very good at marketing and seem to be fooling everyone!

They are not the best panel on the market and certainly not worth the premium if there is enough space on the roof to fit a less efficient panel. They are easy to sell because customers and it seems a lot of installers dont seem to understand efficiency - so they go for the most efficient panel. We have installed both SANYO HIT 240's and REC PE240's in the same town and on the same pitch etc and REC are actually doing better than the SANYO's. HOWEVER - if you have a small roof they allow you to get more KW's on.