I feel a bit like Alice in the rabbit hole, and am in need of perspective.
Situation: Designing an off grid 48v 4-5kw system w/ 36v/7.78A nominal panels (12 count). I am working around some trees that send shadows across the panels at different parts of the day. To squeeze as much as I can out of the turnip, I am trying to limit string sizes. This is problematic for a AIO string inverter because of minimum voltage requirements. Considered microinverters, but they are too pricy. Considered optimizers, but am weary about large voltage dropouts when one panel gets shaded because you still have a single string. As a result, the use of multiple SCC's on smaller arrays is appealing because it has similar performance to microinverters (theoretically).
I know that SCC's can be connected to the battery in parallel through a bus bar with no issue, as long as they have compatible charging settings, but have only seen this done, that I can find, with "old style" inverters. Of this approach, Victron seems to be very good. A straight Victron system is sadly outside my budget.
Question 1: Other than using a Victron inverter, can an AIO string inverter have SCC's added to it? More specifically, I am looking to use the on board MPPT, while adding SCC's.
Question 2: If so, does it use a common bus with the SCC's or is it something more exotic?
Question 3: Is there anything that would caution this approach? If so, what?
Question 4: What are some AIO inverters that have successfully used this approach?
I hope this makes sense. Any help is much appreciated.
Situation: Designing an off grid 48v 4-5kw system w/ 36v/7.78A nominal panels (12 count). I am working around some trees that send shadows across the panels at different parts of the day. To squeeze as much as I can out of the turnip, I am trying to limit string sizes. This is problematic for a AIO string inverter because of minimum voltage requirements. Considered microinverters, but they are too pricy. Considered optimizers, but am weary about large voltage dropouts when one panel gets shaded because you still have a single string. As a result, the use of multiple SCC's on smaller arrays is appealing because it has similar performance to microinverters (theoretically).
I know that SCC's can be connected to the battery in parallel through a bus bar with no issue, as long as they have compatible charging settings, but have only seen this done, that I can find, with "old style" inverters. Of this approach, Victron seems to be very good. A straight Victron system is sadly outside my budget.
Question 1: Other than using a Victron inverter, can an AIO string inverter have SCC's added to it? More specifically, I am looking to use the on board MPPT, while adding SCC's.
Question 2: If so, does it use a common bus with the SCC's or is it something more exotic?
Question 3: Is there anything that would caution this approach? If so, what?
Question 4: What are some AIO inverters that have successfully used this approach?
I hope this makes sense. Any help is much appreciated.