LG 330 for $3/watt or SunPower for $3.30/watt

[Ckhreg]

Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking to install solar system on my roof. The best quotes so far are the following:

Option #1:
12 panels LG335 with Enphase microinverter IQ6+ (or SolarEdge SE5000), $3.00/watt

Option #2:
12 panels SunPower E series 327 with SolarEdge SE5000, $3.30/watt

Which one should I select and why? Thank you.

[max2k]

Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking to install solar system on my roof. The best quotes so far are the following:

Option #1:
12 panels LG335 with Enphase microinverter IQ6+ (or SolarEdge SE5000), $3.00/watt

Option #2:
12 panels SunPower E series 327 with SolarEdge SE5000, $3.30/watt

Which one should I select and why? Thank you.

Price is not the whole story- what about their reputation, actual contract content, warranty?

In general I'd go with SE if there are shading issues or with string inverter if there's no shading. I would not go with micros as I don't want to have maintenance headache later. So far microinverters proved to be less reliable than alternatives. IQ6+ are fairly new arrival and I wouldn't want to take a risk to be their testing site.

[Ckhreg]

Thanks max2k. These companies have good yelp reviews and are local. I have not seen the contract yet. What should I look for in the contract?

[max2k]

Thanks max2k. These companies have good yelp reviews and are local. I have not seen the contract yet. What should I look for in the contract?

I'll be honest - I never seen one as I went DIY route. Try to search this forum for previous threads and you'll find plenty of real life examples. I assume those prices are before 30% federal tax credit or any other, this way you can compare them against quotes in other threads. SP has reputation of higher quality but overpriced equipment. Whether that perceived extra quality worth extra cost for you is your call. I don't readily recall they came this low before so who knows, may be they decided to come down to realities. Consensus around here is SP is good but you could just put extra 10% panels (if you have roof space) for that extra price and get even more power for the same money. Major other panel brands perform very close to SP if not the same at the same location. You can take a look at PVOutput site to see others around your location and compare system efficiencies.

[J.P.M.]

That seems to be about $1/Watt less than the previous/recent going rate for S.P. Although their pricing seems to be improving, I'd question that it's dropped that much. Terrible to pay too much, worse to pay too little.

Where are you located ? How many bids have you solicited so far ?

Still, there's a lot more to the solar buying decision than the fool's choice of buying on low initial price, which is a lot different than the sane choice of most bang for the buck, vendor evaluation, optimization of system size for most cost effectiveness.

Either of your material choices are decent quality and will probably produce about the same annual output for as long as you're as you're likely to own a system.

Choosing a vendor is as important as choosing material. I'd spend as much time in vendor evaluation as material selection.

[Ckhreg]

The SP E series is $3.3/watt, the X series is $3.8/watt. All these price is before 30% fed rebate. I'm in southern California. I got about 6 quotes so far. Not sure if I'm allowed to mention the company name here. It sounds like SolarEdge is the better choice.

[CharlieEscCA]

I'm in southern California.

What county?

[Ckhreg]

I'm in Orange County.

[OurLeaf12]

I'm in Orange County.

Me too! Also shopping around. Which company did you get the Sun Power from?