Tips - Mono vs Poly Marine Solar Panels
Transcript is auto-generated.
(upbeat music) - Hi, Jeff Cote here with Pacific Yacht Systems. One of the common questions that we get asked all the time at boat shows or even from boaters, and they are wondering, "Jeff, what's the difference between a mono and poly panel and why does it matter to me?" well one of the biggest difference between the two panels, is their efficiency. When you're choosing a panel for your boat, and you have limited space on your boat, and you don't have a large area to mount panels, and you want the most amount of solar panel possible, you are going to end up probably choosing a mono panel. Mono panels offer for the same amount of space, about a 20% increase in Wattage over a poly panel. So you can literally have two panels of exactly the same size, and if you buy the mono panel, that panel might be 120 Watts, and the other panel of the exact same dimension, is going to be 100 Watts. So for instance on my boat, having a more traditional sail boat with limited surface area to mount solar panels, and I wanted a large solar array, I went with mono panels because that was a way for me to get as much solar power off from my Bimini. Now some other boaters have lots of canvas area or lots of surface area. So for them it might make no sense. And so what they end up choosing is they choose a poly panel that is maybe not as efficient as a mono panel, and they simply buy more panels. So you're really doing a trade off between cost. A mono panel costs more money than a poly panel, and between efficiency because a mono panel is more efficient at a higher cost than a poly panel. So those are really for us the main differentiators when we suggest the difference between poly panels and mono panels for boaters. Thanks for watching.
