Luxen Solar solar panels reviews

Luxen Solar is a Chinese solar panel manufacturer. They are a relative newcomer to the industry, having been established in 2011. They are generally considered to be a tier 2 manufacturer. I usually recommend people buy from tier one manufacturers, but the tier ranking system is not a direct measure of quality and tier 2 manufacturers can also produce quality, reliable panels. From the information I have, Luxen panels appear to be reliable.

Luxen panels come with a 10 year product warranty and a 25 year performance warranty. They are certified as corrosion resistant which makes them suitable for installation in coastal areas. They do not have an office in Australia, so under Australian consumer law, the company that imports them is considered responsible for their product and performance warranties.

Luxen Is A Small Panel Manufacturer

Luxen Solar has one factory with a production capacity of 250 megawatts a year and employs 200 people. It is located in Suzhou, which is 80 kilometers west of Shanghai.

A video of their highly automated panel production process can be viewed here. Other companies have produced videos that make their production seem more automated, but that’s often because the steps involving human workers have been edited out.

The video shows humans still performing some production steps, but with less than one employee per MW of megawatt of production, Luxen produces more per worker than any other solar panel manufacturer I am aware of. Partly this is because Luxen does not produce its own silicon wafers and instead purchases them from outside suppliers, but mostly it is because of automation.

At the other extreme, Yingli Solar, with far less automation, has almost 8 workers per megawatt of production capacity.

Luxpower 60 Cell Panels

Luxen produces one series of 60 cell panels, called Luxpower, that are the standard size used for residential installations. They come in both polysilicon and polysilicon versions with efficiencies ranging from 15.7% to 17.8%. They are certified as corrosion resistant.

At 20 kilograms these panels are at the maximum end of the normal weight range for standard sized solar panels. For households households the extra kilogram or so of weight is normally of no importance. But as far as installers are usually concerned, the lighter the better, as they have to get them up onto roofs.

Their Duo Glass Panel Is Mysterious

On their site Luxen shows photographs from 2012 to 2014 of installations using their Duo Glass panels (the one in Turkey looks pretty grotty), but they don’t provide a datasheet for them and I can’t find one online. This suggests that, as of December 2016, their Duo Glass panels may not be available for purchase.

My Recommendation

Luxen appears to produce reliable panels and if a friend or family member told me they were getting them installed I would not be concerned. But if they asked me for my advice I would probably tell them to go with a tier one manufacturer instead, because at current low prices for tier one panels there is no good reason not to get them and be just a little more confident they are reliable.

This is unfair on Luxen because for all I know their panels are just as good as those of tier one manufacturers, but that is my hard hearted business advice.

Another issue is, without an office in Australia, the company that imports them is responsible for their product and performance warranties. Whether this is good or bad depends on your opinion of the importing company.