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We have been installing a lot of Sharp NU range over the last few months. We use Sanyo HIT range if roof space is an issue.

I have heard and read some negative comments on the Sharp panels recently but have not seen any data/ proof to back these comments up. However, this has got us thinking we should be moving to another brand as 'standard'. Our customers like the black ish look of the Sharp and are comfortable with the brand name. We wouldn't be looking to move to a Chinese brand and have installed quite a few Schott in the passed but they are too blue looking but very well built.

With the FIT having been around for over a year, I am surprised there isn't more info in line showing which panels are performing the best.

What in your experience would be a good replacement for the Sharp panels?
Thanks
 
80% ish of the world's panels are made in Asia, Germans manufacture modules to sell to us and buy Chinese for their own consumption because it's cheaper - their market is more mature than ours - draw your own conclusions ...
 
Depends on what the customers' needs are. If they want cheap and don't mind where they come from with a decent yield we use Suntech, some of our customers insist on German engineering so we do either Schott or Bosch depending on budget, some want green/ethical credentials so we'll look at REC/Yingli and some like the Rolls Royce and don't need to have access to their cash in the short term so we install Sanyo.
 
sames as sre but use yingli as the cheap and ill also add for aesthetics most of our roofs are slate so we use kyocera which blend in real nice and yield is good too
 
Just to re-iterate SRE's point, the majority of the worlds panels are produced in Asia. On a recent trip to Germany, most of the actual cells used in the panels are made in China anyway! In our experience, people like Sharp panels purely on the branding; however we've looked into several Chinese panels and the build quality and output of the right ones easily rivals if not betters them.

Its a preconception people have; we offer both sharp panels or our chosen Chinese alternative to our customers, and have found the Chinese panels to be more popular given there aesthetics.

Have a good relationship with your supplier, worth its weight in gold.
 
cant really go wrong with schoeco for the panels and sunny boy for your inverter. but offer the extended warranty on the inverter. as i believe there will be a lot of negative reaction to the industry when the inverters start needing replacing and the customer was not told of the replacement costs.
 

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