If you are contemplating acquiring a residential solar power system, perhaps in the form of Magnolia Solar Panels for your home, then it is vitally important to understand all the types and duration of warranties which installers of solar systems may offer you. It is important to understand all the various different aspects of the warranties before you actually have a solar photovoltaic system installed in your home so that you do not end up in the situation of realizing that the warranty is not what you thought it was months or years after you have purchased and installed your solar energy system.

The most durable and long lasting of parts of the panels which you have purchased for your home are generally considered under most circumstances to be the silicon wafers which are encased in glass in the solar panels. Because of this, the warranties that cover these, which are referred to either as performance warranties or sometimes power output warranties, often last as much as twenty five or up to even thirty five years in duration.

Power output warranties exist in order to cover the cost of repairs for the silicon wafers/cells if they amount of electricity which they produce for some reason ends up falling below the predetermined percentage of the capacity at which the panels have been rated. For example, should the array output fall below eighty percent and the drop is caused not by any fault in the rest of the system but by a defect in the actual cells themselves, then this would be covered by the power output warranty. Occasionally, such warranties are graduated so that the performance efficiency rating is only expected to be ninety percent of its original output after fifteen years, or eighty percent after thirty five years etc. However, the fact is that in many cases the panels will still continue to produce electricity at a level near to the system’s nominal capacity even for years after the warranty itself has actually expired.

Important questions to take into consideration regarding power output warranties include how the performance of the panels are measured, and whether or not the warranty is issued by the company which installed the system or by the product manufacturer, which in some cases might mean it is required to ship the products overseas for servicing in the event of a problem.