When deciding which Solar PV system best suits your needs and budget there are four types of systems to choose from.
Below are the pros and cons of each to help you decide which would be best for you.
These are the most basic of the four systems but this doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be best suited to your particular property or produce less than any of the other systems available.
They are the cheapest way to add solar to your property.
Most manufacturers offer a subscription free monitoring platform.
Solis inverters come with a 5 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 20 years and has a free monitoring platform (dongle required)
FoxESS inverters come with a 5 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 10 years and has a free monitoring platform (dongle required)
Fronius inverters come with a 2 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 10 years and has a free monitoring platform (dongle required)
If your property suffers from shade on any part of the proposed roof best suited to install solar panels the output power can be drastically reduced. This means the total amount of kWh’s the system is capable of producing daily/annually will be caped due to the shade cast on the solar array.
These systems by design can stop producing power if a fault occurs with the array or the inverter resulting in unwanted down time until the fault is rectified.
When the system has stopped producing power the panels will still be live during daylight hours. This means the DC voltage produced by the solar pv array could still be in the hundreds of volts.
The monitoring platform will show everything the system is doing but you can’t see what each individual panel is producing.
These are systems that use voltage optimisers which connect to each individual panel and turns them into smart panels. This type of system can overcome shading issues and results in a higher output power and total kWh’s produced daily/annually.
Each panel acts independently from all other panels in the array. The advantage of this is that shade cast on one panel will not affect the power produced by any other panel in the array.
In the event of a fault these systems will limit the output voltage of each panel to 1 volt. This greatly improves the safety of these systems by reducing potentially dangerous array voltages to safe levels of DC.
By installing voltage optimisers each panel can now be seen on the monitoring platform. The advantage to this is that if there is an under performing panel due to a fault or shade it can be easily identified.
SolarEdge inverters come with a 12 year manufacturer warranty, this can be extended to 25 years.
SolarEdge optimisers come with a 25 year manufacturer warranty as standard.
SolarEdge have other products in their range which work together
If there is a fault with the array or inverter the system will stop producing power until the fault is resolved.
This type of system has a small inverter connected to each individual panel or group of panels. The advantage to this is that shading on any panel will not affect the output power of any other panel in the array.
Because each panel is connected to its own dedicated inverter this now works independently of all other panels in the array.
A fault with one part of the system will not cause the system to stop producing power.
Each individual panel can be seen on the monitoring platform. The advantage to this is that if there is an underperforming panel due to a fault or shade it can be easily identified.
Enphase microinverters comes with a 25 year manufacture warranty as standard.
Enphase microinverters have a 1 in 2000 failure rate
Free monitoring software (hub required)
Enphase have their own battery range.
Charges the battery directly from DC power produced by the solar panels making it the most efficient.
Cheaper than installing a standard solar pv inverter and an additional AC coupled battery inverter.
FoxESS inverters come with a 5 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 10 years.
FoxESS has its own range of batteries and free monitoring platform (dongle required)
Solis inverters come with a 5 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 20 years
Solis inverters have a free monitoring platform (dongle required)
SolarEdge inverters come with a 12 year manufacturer warranty, this can be extended to 25 years
SolarEdge optimisers come with a 25 year manufacturer warranty as standard
SolarEdge have other products in their range which work together
Output power from both the solar production and the battery is limited by the size of the hybrid inverter.
If the inverter develops a fault you will loose both the solar production and the battery until the fault has been rectified.
If you would like to discuss either your requirements in more detail or would like a quote, please contact us.
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