Hello. If there is a thread somewhere that answers this, could someone kindly point me to it? I am looking to install 3 - 100 watt
panels but I need them to be "compact size" - roughly 20" by 40" (500 x 100mm). Renogy has three that would fit and they are $105, $150 & $210 Canadian each. The specs all look the same to me so after waiting on the hold with Renogy for 40 minutes I emailed them and got this wholly unsatisfactory response:
In regards to the difference for the 3
panels that you have listed, yes they are all100w panels but the main difference is in regards to the dimensions, number of cells, and some specific details regarding efficiency when
charging.
Should you have any other questions, please call us.
So I called them and the gentleman who came on couldn't name one spec that was different between the three panels except for the number of cells, where the cheaper one had 33 and the other two had 32. He couldn't say why one was better than the other. The optimum voltage, optimum
current and open circuit voltage were all within a volt or amp of each other and the dimensions were all within an inch of each other.
The only thing he said was the more expensive ones were better in low light conditions and the most expensive one was part of their new "Eclipse" line which is apparently more efficient.
I guess I'm more used to
buying a TV where if one is twice the cost for the same size the salesman can point to a dozen different specs that (rightly or wrongly) justify the extra cost.
Here is a link to each one along with the detailed spec sheet for each one. What I would like to find is a certain spec that I can use to compare panel efficiency or quality across brands.
Or maybe I should just ask the collective wisdom here which one is best and go with that!!
$105 CDN:
https://ca.renogy.com/renogy-100-wat...RoCZAcQAvD_BwE
https://www.renogy.com/content/RNG-1...-Datasheet.pdf
$150 CDN:
https://ca.renogy.com/renogy-100-wat...l-black-frame/
https://www.renogy.com/content/Speci...-BK%20spec.pdf
$210 CDN:
https://ca.renogy.com/renogy-eclipse...e-solar-panel/
https://www.renogy.com/content/files...0MB%20spec.pdf
Many thanks,
Gregg