Why Solar Edge is the Best Choice For Your Solar Inverters
When we talk about Solar PV Systems everyone understands what a panel is, but what is the function of the Inverter? What are the best inverters, and why? This is Stephen with Pingo Solar, and we are going to get started with Solar PV Systems and Their Components with Pingo Shop Talk, right now.
Solar Edge is the brand recommended and used on Pingo Solar installs, and its for a number of different reasons. When it comes to best bang for your buck, and versatility & dependability of performance, SolarEdge ticks all the check-boxes. If you don’t know what an inverter is, stay tuned, we will certainly cover that. If you’ve done your homework and you want to get into the nitty grittty of why this over that, we will also compare Solar Edge with some of the competition out there, and show you a comparison.
What Is AN Inverter?
Solar Energy System Inverters are components which convert the DC electricity that your solar panels harvest into something much more usable for your home — namely AC electricity.
In the Solar Energy industry, you are basically looking at three different types of inverters. We will cover all three types of inverters, why you would want one over another, and then more specifically, we will cover why Solar Edge Inverters are the brand we recommend and why they are heads and tails above the rest.
Three Types of Inverters for Solar Energy Systems
- String Inverters
- Micro-Inverters
- Power Optimizer
String Inverters.
String Inverters are the most popular, globally — and are the most cost-effective inverter option available in the U.S. These inverters are also very popular outside of the United States. When your solar panels are arranged on top of your roof, they are connected through groups, which from this point forward we will refer to as “strings”. Each string of panels has a single inverter connected whose mission is to transform the DC electricity produced by the panel into AC power. AC power is what your home will use. This tried-and-true technology has been around for decades.
One downside is that a string of solar panels is only going to produce as much electricity as it’s least productive panel. Which means, as your panels age, they will produce less; and the impact will be greater, because it will be as they are all aging at the same time, with the same output. Shading is also an issue because of this copy-cat output restriction.
Micro-inverters
Micro inverters are very popular with residential solar systems and the costs that used to be associated with this type of inverter are dropping quickly. At any rate, Micro-inverters tend to be more expensive than String inverters as well as Power Optimizers.
How they work, you ask? Well, Micro inverters are typically installed on each individual panel in a solar energy system. Their job is to convert the DC power from your solar panels into AC Power which is usable by your home — same type of mission as the String Inverters and Power Optimizer.
The difference is that micro-inverters can cancel out the negative impact of partial shading or even complete shading. Since each panel has a micro inverter, and the DC to AC electricity conversion is taking place at the panel itself, there is no “bottle-neck” that can occur when one panel’s production decreases over the rest of the solar array. This is helpful if you have a roof that has many different angles, or if you have lots of trees around your property, that you haven’t decided to cut down.
Power Optimizer
Power Optimizers have some of the benefits of the micro-inverters and some of the benefits of the string-inverters. They tend to be less expensive than the microinverters, and are considered to be a compromise between the two.
The Competition
Here’s Some Reasons Why SolarEdge is better than their Competition
- Solar Edge is the most efficient
- Solar Edge is the most Flexible In Panel Layout
- Solar Edge is the mostThe Most Reliable
- Solar Edge has the longest warranty
- Solar Edge is the best reporting statistics
Because SolarEdge is using a Power Optimizer, The SolarEdge Solution gives much of the benefits of the Micro-inverters, in that they are able to provide full data tracking at the panel string, module, and system level. The DC Optimizer, gives the reliability of wall mounted String Inverters
