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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.
String inverter based systems are the cheapest way to add solar to your property.
These are the most common type of solar PV inverter and are found worldwide.
Most string inverter manufacturers offer a subscription free monitoring platform.
There are many string inverters available on the market but we would recommend FoxESS to our customers.
Our opinion is based on quality of products, value for money and overall customer service, which we give them a 10/10.
Most FoxESS inverters come with a 5 year manufacturer warranty as standard, this can be extended to 10 years by simply registering your inverter and has a free monitoring platform.
Product Features
Prices start from £4,499 for a 2.5kW system fully installed.
Shade – 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 capped due to the shade cast on the solar array.
Scalability – There are limits with these systems regarding the amount of panels you can install per inverter.
If you wanted to increase the size of your system in the future, for example, you got an electric vehicle and wanted to be able to use surplus solar energy to charge your EV then you would need to either, install a bigger inverter or a separate system entirely to run alongside your existing solar PV.
Safety – These systems by design will 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 between the solar PV array and inverter could still be in the hundreds of volts.
Monitoring – The monitoring platform is totally free and will show everything the system is doing.
The only limitation is that you can’t see what each individual panel is producing, this isn’t overly important but is handy if, for example, you have a faulty panel as it means you can pinpoint exactly which panel is in fault, or, if a tree has grown over time and has started to cast shade on a panel.
Power Optimizers allow each solar panel to achieve peak performance, improving the overall efficiency of the solar system. Shading, soiling, aging and different tilts do not pose an obstacle to solar generation as experienced with other systems.
The Power Optimizers connect to each panel and send detailed data to advanced monitoring software. In this way, the performance of your system is continually tracked and any issues generate alerts which are monitored by your installer.
SolarEdge is a trusted manufacturer with a good reputation. The system they offer is one of the safest available on the market today.
They are a global leader in smart energy solutions for residential, commercial and automotive applications.
Traded on Nasdaq and listed on the S&P 500, SolarEdge systems power over 2.7 million installations across the
world. SolarEdge technology is designed to maximise solar energy production, helping homeowners reduce their
energy costs and their carbon footprint.
The company currently has multiple subsidiaries in 25-plus countries and employs over 4100 people worldwide. SolarEdge has delivered more than 3.7 million solar inverters and 89.6 million power optimizers across the world. The total capacity of shipped solar inverters is more than 31.0 GW. SolarEdge has installed the systems in more than 133 countries across the globe.
We recommend SolarEdge. Our opinion is based on quality of products, value for money and overall customer service which we give them a 10/10.
Full optimization – With other systems, if one panel is soiled or produces less energy, all the panels on the string produce less. Power Optimizers instead
enable each panel to perform independently, maximizing your
power production.
SafeDC™ – Automatically shuts the system down to touch-safe levels, 1v per panel, in the event a fault is detected or to provide safety for maintenance teams or rescue workers.
Free Monitoring Platform – View and manage your SolarEdge Home operation through a single easy-to-use app. It lets you track your solar production, storage and consumption – anywhere, anytime. Track and control your SolarEdge Home performance from the mySolarEdge app, easily accessed from your smart phone.
Warranty – SolarEdge inverters come with a 12 year manufacturer warranty, this can be extended to 25 years. Optimizers come with a 25 year manufacturer warranty as standard.
Expandability – SolarEdge have other products in their range that can be added to the system.
Prices start from £4,950 for a 2.2Kw system fully installed
Safety – The systems by design will stop producing power if a fault occurs with the array or the inverter resulting in unwanted down time until the fault is rectified.
Scalability – Future expansion is limited by the size of the inverter.
This type of system has no centralized inverter but instead has a micro-inverter connected to each individual panel or group of panels. DC power is converted at each panel to AC and then connected to what is known as an Enphase Q cable, this in turn connects directly to your property. This system is unique when compared to traditional solar PV installations.
The Enphase pioneering IQ Microinverter performs a seemingly impossible feat with brilliant simplicity.
It transforms photons, quantum particles of light, into safe AC power you can use to power your home. With an Enphase Energy System, every solar panel is equipped with its own microinverter, so if one panel slips into the shade or experiences a rare glitch, the other panels keep generating power. There is no single point of failure within the whole system.
That’s in stark contrast to traditional string inverter systems where if one panel goes down, the whole system can go down with it.
Enphase is an American energy technology company headquartered in Fremont, California, that develops and manufactures solar micro-inverters, battery energy storage, and EV charging stations primarily for residential customers. Enphase was established in 2006 and is the first company to successfully commercialize the solar micro-inverter. The company has shipped more than 48 million microinverters to 2.5 million solar systems in more than 140 countries.
We recommend Enphase. Our opinion is based on quality of products, value for money and overall customer service which we give them a 10/10.
Microinverters – The Enphase IQ Micro-inverter design is the safest choice for solar. Unlike systems with a string inverter, Enphase solar never contains high voltage direct current (DC) power, eliminating the risk of fires caused by DC arc faults. All IQ Microinverters are all weather with an IP67 certification. A double insulated, corrosion resistant polymer housing means they’re rated to withstand just about anything mother nature can throw at them.
Safety – All micro inverters include built in rapid shutdown so that, in the event of any emergency, your solar power can be turned off instantly and easily, keeping utility workers and first responders safe.
Scalability – The Enphase system has a plug and play design.As your home energy needs grow over the years, you can simply add more panels and microinverters to your system.
Low Light Tech – If shadows or clouds pass overhead, Enphase IQ microinverters use breakthrough burst mode technology to capture more energy in low light conditions. Making them ideally suited to our UK climate.
Free Monitoring Platform –Monitor your system status from anywhere and know exactly how much energy your solar system is producing. Generate reports on energy production by day, week, month or year. Complete with clean and easy to read graphs and infographics.
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.
Warranty – Enphase microinverters come with a 25 year manufacture warranty as standard. They are renowned for there reliability with a 1 in 2000 failure rate
Expandability – Enphase have other products in their range that can be added to the system.
Prices start from £5,600 for a 2.9Kw system fully installed
It is the most expensive system we offer, but in our opinion is worth every penny.
Hybrid inverters charge 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 Hybrid 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.
SolarEdge Hybrid 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
Prices start from £5,995 for a FoxEss 3.7kW Hybrid inverter with 4kW of solar panels fully installed. Batteries not included, please contact us to discuss your individual requirements.
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.
We work for both commercial and residential customers.
A family-run business based in Buckingham, specialising in solar PV installations and repair, battery storage systems, and solar cleaning.
