How Long Do Solar Panels Last?

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How Long Do Solar Panels Last

Solar panels will allow you to power your home or camper while camping or in the middle of a natural disaster. These panels are well-made electronic parts that will need unique placement and electronic connections to be beneficial. But are Solar Panels worth buying?

How long do solar panels last?

Solar panels last between 25 and 30 years with a degradation rate of about .5% per year, equaling a 10% loss in function over 20 years. While this isn’t a considerable amount to degrade, there are ways to improve the life of your panels and keep them producing. 

Solar panels are a huge investment that could impact the lives of your family for decades. They are essential to the safety and security of your family but could also be providing less power than they have in years prior. However, power degradation is something that you can protect against! Read on and learn all you need to know about how long solar panels last.

What Factors Play In Solar Panel Longevity?

When you use solar panels, you undertake a significant financial commitment. Unfortunately, this commitment could hamper your family or keep you from taking a long-deserved vacation. 

Therefore, when you make this investment, you should do an extreme amount of research to see how long panels last and a few other areas you might have yet to consider.

Degradation of the Solar Panel

When people buy panels, they often believe they will produce at the same level for years. This is equal parts authentic and false. 

Degradation is in every product, and with solar panels, its effect is much less than other items like cars. There are ways to improve the loss of power, and you should take every advantage you can get.

Proper Installation of the Solar Panel

One of the biggest things you can do to prevent your panels from losing production is to follow the rules during instruction. A clean installation means that your lines have no leaking energy and everything is placed appropriately. The installation is essential, and doing it correctly will save you money in the long run.

Here are a few ways to ensure that you have a proper installation of your solar panels:

  • Hire an Electrician – One of the best ways to ensure that your panels will last is by having them installed by an electrician. It might cost a bit more than doing it yourself, but if you hire a reputable electrician, there will be no problems with early degradation.
  • Follow the Guidelines – The company has a set of guidelines for each type of solar panel. These guidelines will help improve the degradation loss and keep your solar panels going for many years.

Hiring an electrician is one of the best ways to ensure that the panels follow the company guidelines and have the appropriate connections. Spending extra money might cure the problem, as buying top-rated, expensive solar panels often last longer and perform better.

Quality of the Solar Panel

You can also buy the best panels you can afford. The standard degradation rate is around .5%, but those panels that cost more have a lower degradation rate. So you protect against getting shorted on power down the road by paying more for your solar panels.

A few ways to ensure that you buy the best panels you can are:

  • Customer Reviews – One of the best things you can do to find out about solar panels is to go to customer reviews. The internet is the undisputed heavyweight champion regarding people’s unvarnished opinions. Go to the company site, read the owners’ reviews, and see what they have to say.
  • Price – Another way to ensure that you buy the best panels is by checking the price. Today, companies are dumping tons of capital into making a panel that rivals Tesla’s home battery system. This need to catch up with the big dog has made companies increase the price and performance of their solar panels.

 Buying the best panels requires knowing what you can spend and how much you have. Of course, there can be corners cut on some items, but you should always strive to spend more on the essential items and learn to cope or forage for other things that are hard to find. 

Maintaining the Solar Panels

Taking care of the panels is another way to keep them producing at a high level. It isn’t often that these panels have significant problems, but by keeping a scheduled maintenance plan, you can ensure they continue to produce for years beyond their degradation rate.

The tasks you should perform to keep your solar panels from degrading are:

  • Cleaning – Cleaning your solar panels is an excellent way to ensure that they continue to function at optimal capacity for much longer. You should get a small brush and dust out the grooves around the panels; dust might accumulate in nooks and crannies.
  • Repairs – Being in the elements constantly is hard on your solar panels. The constant weather changes and debris on the wind can chip panels or cause failure in your framing. Repair tiny breaks and issues before they get out of hand. These repairs will keep the main pieces from degrading faster than usual.

Increasing the life of your solar panels is quite simple. If you do things correctly and don’t cut corners, there’s a chance you can stave off power loss for several years. Again, the panels don’t have many pieces that can go wrong. Be sure to install them properly and maintain them if you want to keep them going for years.

Conclusion

Solar panels have a life of around 25 years. So they will still produce electricity after this time, only at a lower percentage than average. This degradation in power is expected, occurs at 0.5% per year, and doesn’t begin to impact your usage until the 20 to 25-year mark.

There are ways to protect against degradation, and by doing some repairs and following the guidelines of your solar panels, you can make them last well beyond their years. Solar panels have an average lifetime of 25 years, but that doesn’t mean they can’t last long.

SOURCES

  1. How long do solar panels last? Solar panel lifespan explained
  2. How Long Do Solar Panels Last? – Forbes Home
  3. Solar Panels Science

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