Black is Out

M.C. of groSolar called to fill me in on what he'd found out about the black-framed panels. First, he educated me. The black-framed panels I've been looking at aren't just black-framed -- the panels themselves are black. These are less efficient than the bluish ones. We'd be sacrificing efficiency and kilowatts by going for the trendier look.

On a more practical level, the black frames and panels are newer (and scarcer) and he thinks it would be months before he could get enough black panels, frames and mounting brackets. Not only do we not want to wait months, we also have to get this system online by July 31 or we lose our New Jersey rebate.

So we're sticking with the bluish panels and grayish frames.