Seraphim solar panels reviews

Seraphim Solar

Seraphim Solar is a Chinese manufacturer of tier one panels with 10 year product and 25 year performance warranties. They are certified as corrosion resistant which makes them suitable for installation in coastal areas.

I took an in depth look at Seraphim solar panels in August 2016 and you can read what I found out about them here.

Manufacturing Capacity

Seraphim solar was founded in 2009 and is a moderate sized manufacturer of solar panels. Their production capacity was approximately 2 gigawatts at the end of 2016. This put them well behind the world leader, Jinko Solar, which shipped approximately 6.6 gigawatts of panels in 2016.

As with many large producers of solar panels, Seraphim is vertically integrated and produces the silicon ingots and that solar cells are made from. This makes them less reliant on outside suppliers.

Manufacturing Location

Seraphim Solar produces most of its panels in the city of Changzhou, which is a one hour train ride north-west of Shanghai. In addition they also have a small manufacturing plant in Jackson Mississippi in the USA, with a current capacity of 300 megawatts. Seraphim Solar says this may be expanded to 1 gigawatt in the future, but this may not be true as in the United States it is common for companies to exaggerate their intended manufacturing capacity in order to wrangle increased concessions from state and local governments.

Seraphim Panels

Seraphim Solar produces a variety of solar panels. Standard sized, 60 cell panels are the type most commonly installed in Australia, but Seraphim also produces larger 72 cell panels and smaller 54 and 48 cell ones. They are all corrosion resistant and so suitable for installation by the sea. They have 10 year product warranties and 25 performance warranties.

Seraphim SRP-6MB Panels

These are standard sized, 60 cell panels and their efficiency ranges from 16.3% to 17.2%. Their temperature coefficient of maximum output power, which is usually called the Pmax temperature coefficient, is -0.43% which is slightly worse than average and will result. This means their efficiency will decline by 0.43% for each degree the panel is over 25 degrees Celsius.

AC Panels

Seraphim produces panels with built in microinverters called AC panels. They have two types. One panel has its own individual microinverter while the other shares one microinverter between two panels. Seraphim does not state on their site who makes the microinverters, but they have a 25 year warranty, which is impressive.

Eclipse Panels

Seraphim’s highest efficiency panels are their Eclipse line which are made with small, one fifth normal size, overlapping solar cells.. The lower cost polycrystalline version is 17.1% efficient and the monocrystalline version is 18.8% efficient. At -0.4% their Pmax temperature coefficent is average, so losses from heat will be typical for most solar panels.

Black Panels

In addition to standard panels, Seraphim also produces black ones.  These are solar panels that have a black backsheet rather than a white one and this makes the entire panel appear dark without the grid of white lines surrounding solar cells most panels have.  While some people prefer the look of black panels, their performance is generally slighly lower than that of otherwise identical standard panels because they get hotter in the sun and the extra heat reduces solar panel efficiency.

Warranty procedure for orphaned Seraphim customers

If you have purchased Seraphim panels from a solar installer who has since gone out of business, the responsibility for warranty claims shifts to Seraphim. Their customer service line in Australia is 03 9900 6423 - affected customers should contact this line for warranty assistance. 

My Recommendation

Seraphim Solar produce reliable, tier one panels and I have no problem recommending them.