There is so much confusion with solar panel warranties these days, and in our opinion so many of them are not worth the paper they are written on.
There are two forms of warranty commonly used these days – Structural & Power.
Let’s focus on structural. This looks at the framing, build/workmanship and design of the solar panel. In our opinion this is the REAL warranty on the product and the only easily tested and supported warranty that exists. As mentioned, we believe structural to be the most important particularly in a mobile application. Many factories these days specifically exclude panels installed on anything that moves (houses are generally pretty solid, stable locations free of vibration). Motorhomes, caravans, boats etc however vibrate extensively, and can cause panels just to disintegrate if not well designed. Our panels are warranted from a design perspective for 2 years against defects in materials and workmanship, but let’s face it that in a mobile application any defects will be discovered within six months.
The second warranty that is often used is the Power Warranty. This is the most popular warranty to advertise as it simply sounds the best warranty around. Power warranties are typically ranging from 10 to 25 years, and look at the degradation of power output over a defined period (remember that solar cells actually degrade overtime from being exposed to the sun). In nearly all mobile application, a power warranty is near impossible to prove and in our opinion would be very difficult to prove say 10 to 25 years from now.
Enerdrive will push more focus to build quality and structural integrity over Power Warranty, however this is by no means stating we don’t trust our panel outputs over these times, it’s just we want to be more realistic to the market we are offering our products too.