There are only a handful of suppliers of solar equipment in South Carolina and they all carry reputable, good-quality equipment.  We are not going get into any discussions about efficiency, mono vs. poly, the latest technology, etc.  You can Google that and go nuts. 

 

Our main concern is effectiveness, which we define as:  $ COST ÷ kWh PRODUCED

​

The ONLY WAY you can compare a solar proposal to your electric bill (or one solar proposal vs. another) is to look at how much you are paying per kWh.

​

The equipment we design for you will offer the most solar production for the lowest cost or $/kWh. 

​

MODULES (panels) -  There are two main categories,  Standard (390w to 425w) and High Efficiency (450w +).  In this case, "High Efficiency" doesn't mean it is necessarily more "efficient in converting light to energy" just that it is a higher wattage and, thus, costs more.  90% of our customers are fine with the Standard module.

​

The recent tariffs have decreased the overall supply in the Southeast and firmed up the cost.  Some manufacturers we use are Seraphim, Trina Solar, Silfab, Jinko Solar, Solaria, and Hanwha QCELL.   Most are made in the Far East, but we can confirm that Silfab, Seraphim and Solaria are Made in the U.S.A.  In our opinion, they are all of comparable quality and only vary moderately in price.  They are also - almost always - all black.

​

INVERTERS - Modules produce D/C electricity and your home uses A/C, so an inverter is necessary to make the system work.  There are two main categories, String and Micro.  You can Google for a detailed explanation.  We use the leading inverter manufacturers Solaredge (string) and Enphase (micro).  The vast majority of our customers use micro inverters for main reason of reliability.  Our experience with Solaredge over the past few years has produced an uncomfortable number of issues and returns.  Both companies have remote monitoring as long as you maintain wifi internet connection (or a cell connection with an upcharge).

​

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT EQUIPMENT - Be aware!  The inverter determines the overall production of the system so the capacity of the inverter has to match the wattage production of the module.  We have seen cases where a customer was sold a high efficiency module (425w+) but not the corresponding upgraded inverter.  So they were not receiving the full capability of their system because that was more than the capacity of the inverter.

​

STORAGE - This space has expanded a bit over the last 5 years, but we have yet to see it compete with a gas generator from a cost perspective.  If you are only concerned with emergency backup of a few appliances in the event of a storm, that is the route we often recommend.  If you have a certain electric service and desire to move away from them as much as possible, we can pair your solar system with battery storage.  If you have a strong desire to be energy independent and want to spend the money we can work up a proposal with a Sonnen, Panasonic, or LG storage setup.  This is a decent article from June 2020 about storage options.

​

We will endeavor to expand on this explanation in the future, but essentially, this is the bottom line:

​

The equipment options in South Carolina are pretty standard, it's the overall design of the system that is of greater concern.