PV Panels WITH micro inverters

dan_c_73

Morning, does anyone have any experience of using PV Panels with micro inverters?
Our roof get small amounts of shade in different parts through the day.

jetski690

Hi dan, yes I have a solar pv system with 20 micro inverters as I have shading at different times of the day also, what you need to know is that using micro inverters can add to the cost quite heavily, roughly they are about £150 each depending on how many you require and they can only be matched to certain panel manufactures so you are a bit restricted if you did have a desired brand you wanted. Take a look here you should be able to gain some more info from this site
http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,14579.0.html

Gizmosmum_2

Enecys have had problems with micro inverters in the last month and had to stop production for a few weeks. Not only are they more expensive but they are still ironing out problems with a new technology - personally I'd prefer not to be a guinea pig and pay for the priviledge. Ask your installer to use seperate strings and a conventional inverter to avoid shading.

zeupater

Hi

Another option would be to look at using optimizers and a standard inverter rather than microinverters as they are far less complex units.

Having a single inverter with multiple strings as opposed to a single string could make a difference but this depends on how much shading you have and the orientation of your panels related to how the diodes are installed relative to the cells on the particular make/model of your panels. However, if one string is partially shaded and the other is in full sunlight the shaded string will pull the performance of the other string down, therefore it would probably be better to have a dual MPPT inverter and put the panels which never shade on one tracker and those which shade on the other. SMA transformerless inverters (3000TL/4000TL etc) also have the ability to switch in some additional sofware (Optitrack Global peak) to help reduce the effect of the shade .... http://www.sma.de/en/products/knowledge-base/optitrac-global-peak.html ... however many/most installers are not even aware of this feature and it's benefits .... have a look at the link and view the embedded animation to see SMA's performance enhancement claim for the system. When you have surveys for your system wait for the surveyor to talk about your shading, then ask about the Optitrack Global peak feature on these inverters, this might be a good way of distinguishing the good installers from the rest ...

HTH
Z

zeupater

bjdarko wrote: »

I found this micro inverter Enphase Energy M190-72-240-S12! Is it OK for my solar panels?

Hi

Depends on the size of your panels. Microinverters need to be matched to panel size .... that's a 240W unit. The other issue is whether you can find an installer who would be happy to source & use the Enphase units ....

If you have shade issues, did you look into optimizers or the SMA Optitrack Global peak possibilities ?

HTH
Z