Hi,
I'd like to install solar panels on my house. My goal is to reduce my bills, carbon footprint, and dependency to the grid.
That last point is important to me, but not enough to make me buy an expensive battery.
Not knowing much about solar, I naively assumed that any solar installation would be able to power my house in the event of an outage.
I mean, I have solar panels, I have an inverter, what else would I need.
But from what I understand, the problem is that grid tied inverters are designed to draw as much power from the panels as possible ans send it to the their output. Then you use what you use, and the rest goes to the grid.
The solution would be to use an hybrid inverter, but many seem to only do what I want if you add a battery to the system, and I don't want that. Reading through the descriptions in online stores, it's never really clear whether the offline capabilities are available without battery.
For now the only system that seems to do what I want is Enphase IQ8 which is not available for now, or some overpriced inverters like the sol-ark.
But even with the IQ8, this is not perfect because it's a micro inverter and I really don't need that. My system will be composed of 16 405Wc panels, all on the same roof with nothing to make shadows on them except clouds. And from what I understand, micro inverters are less efficient, right ?
I think one common solution is to use AC coupling, but from what I've read it only works down to a certain power, if the load is too low then the frequency goes up too much and the inverter shuts off.
This is what I understand. Am I wrong ?
What I want is quite simple : a system that can produce electricity at full power and send the surplus to the grid when it is online, and that can also work off grid by giving me from 0W to full power depending on my load, without any battery.
Do you have any advice about that ? Should I look for an hybrid inverter or for micro inverters ?
Micro inverters are more expensive but my supplier gives me a 25 years warranty on them vs 10 years for classic or hybrid inverter
Thanks
I'd like to install solar panels on my house. My goal is to reduce my bills, carbon footprint, and dependency to the grid.
That last point is important to me, but not enough to make me buy an expensive battery.
Not knowing much about solar, I naively assumed that any solar installation would be able to power my house in the event of an outage.
I mean, I have solar panels, I have an inverter, what else would I need.
But from what I understand, the problem is that grid tied inverters are designed to draw as much power from the panels as possible ans send it to the their output. Then you use what you use, and the rest goes to the grid.
The solution would be to use an hybrid inverter, but many seem to only do what I want if you add a battery to the system, and I don't want that. Reading through the descriptions in online stores, it's never really clear whether the offline capabilities are available without battery.
For now the only system that seems to do what I want is Enphase IQ8 which is not available for now, or some overpriced inverters like the sol-ark.
But even with the IQ8, this is not perfect because it's a micro inverter and I really don't need that. My system will be composed of 16 405Wc panels, all on the same roof with nothing to make shadows on them except clouds. And from what I understand, micro inverters are less efficient, right ?
I think one common solution is to use AC coupling, but from what I've read it only works down to a certain power, if the load is too low then the frequency goes up too much and the inverter shuts off.
This is what I understand. Am I wrong ?
What I want is quite simple : a system that can produce electricity at full power and send the surplus to the grid when it is online, and that can also work off grid by giving me from 0W to full power depending on my load, without any battery.
Do you have any advice about that ? Should I look for an hybrid inverter or for micro inverters ?
Micro inverters are more expensive but my supplier gives me a 25 years warranty on them vs 10 years for classic or hybrid inverter
Thanks