What Are Solar Inverters and Which One you can Select For Perfect Efficiency?
With a solar inverter system, you can get the most out of the solar energy while saving on the electricity bills. The function of a typical solar inverter is to take the direct current (DC) collected from the sunlight and convert that into Alternating current (AC) power that’s utilized by all the electrical appliances. And also they can do the vice versa (inverting AC to DC). They carry out some other important tasks too. For instance, they also function as data supervising devices or as a power optimizer.
Most of the electrical appliances run with the help of AC energy. So if you don’t have an off-grid inverter to transform the energy from the sun, you can’t use the power for running your electrical devices and the stored energy will go wasted. This is what makes a solar inverter a necessity for any solar power system.
Take a close look at the types of solar inverters that can help you make a correct choice while buying a solar inverter.
There are various types of an inverter that can go with solar power systems, like off-grid, grid-tie inverters, modified sine wave inverter and more. They all have the same final goal to get the energy converted to AC energy. The perfect one for you will depend on your requirement, the type of performance you need and the budget that you decide. Most of the solar inverters may be considered expensive. But if you don’t need a much powerful one, why invest more amounts?
You can just upgrade your existing system. And the following section provides an overview on each:
String
This one is often referred as a centralized inverter and is mainly used in small-scale solar power panels. With the help of this inverter, each solar panel is connected like a string. When each string produces the energy it is provided to the inverter. They are the most affordable and are very easy to maintain. The only issue with this type is that it converts less amount of electricity as compared to other types.
Microinverter It functions in the same way as a string inverter but can convert more and is expensive. Rather it needs you to invest more in the maintenance. The advantage with microinverter is it will continue to convert electricity even if the solar panel is not performing well as it should.
Power Optimizer This can be called as the compromise between the traditional string inverter and the advanced microinverters. Like microinverters, it has to be placed with individual solar panels. But they need to transmit the harvested energy to the centralized inverter. The most beneficial point about this is they set the voltage of the electricity prior to sending it to the inverter. String inverters become much more effective when coupled with a power optimizer. This is also cost-effective. To be precise, power optimizers can be best when one want the efficiency of their solar unit but not ready to get the upgrade now.
