Best 375-Watt Solar Panels: Cost, Specs & Everything You Need to Know

375-Watt Solar Panel Pricing

Most homeowners that are installing solar will be concerned with the cost of panels, especially since the price of a full solar power system can reach the tens of thousands of dollars. Smaller panels — usually in the 300-watt range — are more often geared toward DIY solar installers and for smaller applications, so they’re priced per panel, and the cost is easy to determine. Some larger panels — including some in the 375-watt range — they’re only available through solar installation companies.

The table below includes pricing for our top panel options where available. Keep in mind that these prices are for single panels only, and they don’t reflect the total amount you’ll pay for your solar power system.

375-Watt Solar Panel Warranties

Solar systems can quickly get expensive, and for many homeowners, shopping for panels without the peace of mind afforded by a solar panel warranty is out of the question. Most solar companies include lengthy warranties for their panels that can cover the equipment, installation or workmanship (where applicable), or power production. Some of the best solar panel warranties include coverage for all three.

When you get into the 375-watt range for panels, warranty coverage will generally be lengthy and comprehensive. We’ll include the warranties available for our top four-panel picks in the table below.

Panel Specifications: How Big Is a 375-Watt Solar Panel?

The physical size of a solar panel with an STC (Standard Test Conditions) rating of 375 watts can vary quite a lot depending on the manufacturer and the number and size of the solar cells included in the panel. The average size is 39” by 77” at around 1.5” thick. Panels of this size can be around 50 pounds or more, which is significantly heavier than 300-watt panels made for DIY applications. Maneuvering these panels, especially on the roof of your home or RV, can be challenging and dangerous.

The table below includes size specifications and per-panel weights for our top four 375-watt solar panels.

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How Much Energy Will a 375-Watt Solar Panel Produce?

Most people installing solar or having solar panels installed by a professional understandably want to know how much energy each panel will produce. Unfortunately, there are a lot of variables to consider, so there’s no guaranteed production rate, even among solar panels like 375W solar panels that are the same size.

You can control some of the things that affect how well your panels perform, including:

• The direction your panels are facing: Many professionals and those doing a DIY solar installation will use brackets or mounts to angle the panels toward the path of the sun.
• Shading from trees or buildings: Of course, it’s not ideal to cut down trees to give your solar panels more access to the sun, but you can sometimes position them so that shading from surrounding trees or nearby buildings is minimal.
• The brand of the panel you choose: Selecting a high-quality brand that is rated for high efficiency will tend to provide a higher energy output, especially as the panel ages and naturally loses some efficiency.

There are also some factors that are out of your control, including:

• The climate in your area: Homeowners who experience more cloudy days, rain, snow, and other inclement weather times will naturally find that solar production is lower than in areas with abundant sunlight.
• Solar irradiance: Solar irradiance, which we’ll explain in greater depth below, refers to the intensity of the sun in your area. Homeowners who live in southern states like Arizona and Texas that receive direct and intense sunlight will have higher solar production levels than people in northern states, where the sun is less intense.
• Hours of daylight per day: Your solar panels only produce power when the sun is shining, which means areas that experience longer stretches of daylight each day will see a higher production, even if all other factors are equal

Despite the many factors that can affect your solar production, you can use the equation below to estimate how much energy a single 375-watt solar panel will produce for your home:

1. (average hours of sunlight) x (solar panel wattage) x (75% maximum power production to account for changing weather conditions and lower sun intensity in the morning and afternoon) = your daily watt-hours
2. (your daily watt-hours) / 1,000 = your daily kilowatt-hours (kWh) per panel

How Many kWh Does a 375-Watt Solar Panel Produce?

Using the equation above, we can calculate how much power your panels will produce, and this gives us a decent estimate of what you’ll experience in reality. We need to know the hours of daylight you get each day, which we’ll assume is eight for purposes of demonstration:

(8 hours of sunlight) x (375 watts) x (75%) = 2,250 watts per day

(2,250 watts per day) / 1,000 = 2.25 kWh per day

As you can see, a single 375-watt panel in an area that receives eight hours of sunlight every day should produce around 2.25 kWh every day, which means your annual production per panel would be around 821.25 kWh. Again, this is just a rough estimate, and your actual production could vary quite a bit. However, this calculation is often a great place to start to determine how many panels you need for your solar project.

How Does Solar Irradiance Impact Power Output?

Solar irradiance is a very important factor to consider — it has a significant impact on the energy production you’ll see from your solar panels. Solar irradiance refers to the intensity of the sun in your area. The closer you live to the equator, the closer you are to where the sunlight hits the earth in a perpendicular fashion. As you move further from the equator, the sunlight comes in at more and more of an angle, leading to lower solar irradiance.

Solar modules will provide the highest levels of energy generation — and possibly even a positive power tolerance over their rating — where the sunlight is most direct. Solar irradiance is a crucial factor to consider when determining how many panels you need for your project, as it determines how much energy you’ll produce with each panel and thus how many panels you need to power your home, RV, boat, or other solar projects.

Here’s a look into solar irradiance:

Is Panel Voltage Important?

Panel voltage is another important factor on your solar panels’ datasheet, and it’s one that’s often overlooked by DIY solar installers. Voltage is easiest to think of in terms of liquids, so if you imagine a water tank with a pipe leading out of the bottom, you can conceptualize voltage easily. The more water you place in the tank (higher voltage), the more rapidly the water will empty out of the pipe at the bottom (higher amps). Similarly, the higher the system voltage of your solar panels, the more readily it will send power to solar batteries or devices for use through a charge controller. Items that have a high-rated voltage (voltage at the maximum power point or Vmp) will need panels with an even higher voltage to deliver power to them.

Panel voltage is important because you need to know what your panels can power. For example, you can have a few solar panels that provide enough watts to power an electric stove. However, most stoves require a voltage of around 240 volts. You’d need panels that deliver more than 240 volts in order for the energy to flow from the panels to the stove. Open circuit voltage (VOC) and short circuit current (ISC) are crucial things to consider because they determine which batteries you can charge and which items in your home or RV you can power with solar.

What Can a 375-Watt Solar Panel Run?

A single 375-watt solar panel can run a lot of the smaller electronics in your home, and you can check the rating from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to see the wattage required for your devices. The table below provides a list of some of the common things you can power with a 375W panel, along with the rated watts (the watts required to run) of each.

What Factors Influence Solar Panel Power Output?

In most cases, it’s best to overestimate how much power you’ll need and underestimate how much power your solar panels will produce, as this will give you an array that is sufficient for your purposes regardless of weather and other power-limiting factors. There are quite a few things that can affect your solar production.

One of the most important things to consider is the shading on your panels. If you have trees or buildings near your home that will cast a shadow on your panels for any portion of the day, your energy generation will be limited. Long periods of shade can decimate your production and might even make your solar panels a poor investment. Similarly, the climate in your area will affect your production, as locations with the abundant sun will almost always have higher production, as will areas with warmer weather since solar panels lose efficiency as the temperature drops according to their temperature coefficients.

The number of daylight hours you experience will also affect your solar energy output. Areas with longer days in general — like those near the equator — will have a greater opportunity for solar production and will generate far more power. Areas with a higher level of solar irradiance — more intense sunlight — will also have a higher rate of power generation. Finally, the brand of solar panel you choose and the PV module efficiency can have an impact on your rate of production.

How Many 375-Watt Solar Panels Do I Need?

Your first step in determining how many solar panels you need is figuring out how much power you need at your installation site. If you need to know how many panels you need to power a house, for example, you can check your past electric bills for your average annual usage and use that to determine what combination of panels can supply that amount of power.

For example, if you use our calculation from before and assume that each 375-watt panel will produce around 2.25 kWh per day, and you assume that you consume the average amount of energy — 10,715 kWH, according to the Energy Information Agency — you would need 13.04 375-watt panels (or 14, as it’s always best to round up).2 If you’re installing panels on your residence, the best panels for homes are those that have a higher output potential. These can minimize the strain on your roof, and they are often put in series with connectors that route power through a busbar to an inverter for use in your home.

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