Solar Panel Recommendation - Beach House

[Benzimidazolone]

I am trying to decide which solar panels to use. Almost all the reviews I see out there either proprietary (ie 'I rate these panels highly and I can sell them to you') or somewhat contradictory. I have a decent south and west facing roof with very little shade about 200 miles due east of Miami (ie in the Bahamas). The roof is about 200' from the beach so there is lots of salt corrosion (the panels would face south and the house faces north so there is a bit of protection there). We also get a hurricane every now and again. I do have a fair bit of roof space but I need about 10-12 KW of panels to supply enough energy for summertime AC needs. The most common source for any supplies are south Florida (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale) but we can get stuff from anywhere. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kernel]

Amorphous pv modules would be highly hurricane resistant. They stick onto generally metal or membrane roofing.

Any commercial module would be a good pick. Hanwha, silfab, heliene, helios, sunpower, rec, panasonic, hyundai, canadian solar, jinko, there are scads.

Id stay away from amazon specials for a residential power system, just saying.......

300W and larger and 55-65 cents a watt is a good mark. You can pay more, but i wouldnt.

Larger modules usually have higher voltages and reduce the parts amd effort required to mount something like 12kW. We used to do it with 120W panels on old-school uni-rac slotted rail, with lay in lug module grounding or module weebs............ all..... day(s).......long! Nooooooo! (Mister Bill)

 

[MisterSandals]

Check craigslist for big cheap panels. Some south florida folks found some 350 watt panels for $150 or something like that.
Regarding the differences between panel for handling salt, i have never heard of any design consideration for that.

 

[JoeHam]

Santansolar.com sells brand new 400w panels for $200.

Shipping is the variable.

 

[NaletDaskon]

Yeah, santasolar is realible one. I once saw it on vacation and wondered if it is good and useful and how hard it is to install one. Theowner from the site with beach houses and villas said a solar battery is a great solution for each house. However, it’s most effective for beach houses, where the electricity is used not every day and mostly once a season and the sun heats hard. They ordered from santasolar and said it was a good choice. After talking to them, I started thinking of trying to do the same to my house