Solar in USA or Germany

slowbutsure · Mar 22, 2024

Hi

I live in the Philippines and want to start a solar business. I do not want to use Chinese Inverters. The difficulty is finding either American or German inverters that won’t be too expensive. Does anyone know of a good supplier in either the US or Germany?

Thanks,

crossy · Mar 22, 2024

IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

timselectric · Mar 22, 2024

It's going to be hard to find anything that is not made in China.
Especially if you are including the parts inside something assembled in a preferred place.

slowbutsure · Mar 22, 2024

crossy said:
IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

The main reason is that there is tension between China and the Philippines and Filipinos would rather not buy their products.

Hedges · Mar 22, 2024

Midnight has made in USA products.
Also some made in China, for lower price point.

SMA is German, also made in USA and Canada.
Fronius is German.

timselectric · Mar 22, 2024

Hedges said:
Midnight has made in USA products.
Also some made in China, for lower price point.

SMA is German, also made in USA and Canada.
Fronius is German.

All of their guts, too?

koppted · Mar 22, 2024

crossy said:
IIRC the Philippines is 220V 60Hz (3-phase, 3-wire) which may limit your choice even further

Any particular reason not to want to use Chinese equipment, not everything that comes out of the PRC is junk.

I think The Philippines is 220v 60hz 1 phase for residential electricity.

Hedges · Mar 22, 2024

timselectric said:
All of their guts, too?

Midnight said that some electronic components they import from China. And pay a higher percentage tariff on those than the tariff to import an entire inverter. Also buy the cardboard and Styrofoam packaging from there because much cheaper.

My older SMA equipment has some German semiconductors. Don't know the mix now.
It is pretty hard for anyone to be completely divorced from Chinese sources. Many big-name parts are made in China.
I've used some Wurth chokes, think they came with tariff for Chinese source, and we spotted who we think is the actual manufacturer in China.

At least having 100% of firmware, support, and quality control domestic puts Midnight in a fairly unique position.

crossy · Mar 22, 2024

koppted said:
I think The Philippines is 220v 60hz 1 phase for residential electricity.

Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

timselectric · Mar 22, 2024

crossy said:
Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

Pro tip.
It's one of the 3 phases. I believe that you are referring to 2 of the 3 legs.

crossy · Mar 23, 2024

timselectric said:
Pro tip.
It's one of the 3 phases. I believe that you are referring to 2 of the 3 legs.

Yeah, I'm used to the UK system of single-phase being taken from the star point to one leg/phase (3-phase 4-wire).

koppted · Mar 23, 2024

slowbutsure said:
Hi

I live in the Philippines and want to start a solar business. I do not want to use Chinese Inverters. The difficulty is finding either American or German inverters that won’t be too expensive. Does anyone know of a good supplier in either the US or Germany?

Thanks,

Schneider makes a Single phase 230v XW Pro that might work in your country.

timselectric · Mar 23, 2024

crossy said:
Yeah, I'm used to the UK system of single-phase being taken from the star point to one leg/phase (3-phase 4-wire).

It doesn't matter if it's star or delta. One leg and neutral, or two legs. Two wires gives you single phase. And three will either give you 3-phase or split-phase.
And yes, split-phase (or the exact same thing) is available in the UK. Two legs and a common neutral is the exact same thing. We just do it at a lower voltage in North America.
Here, it's 120v/ 240v (or 120v/ 208v if from 3-phase)
There, it's 230v/ 400v. But as far as I know, you all don't use 400v single phase for anything.

Edit: I should clarify this a little bit.
In a 3-phase Wye (star) system. Two legs (or wires) are connected through 2 of the 3 phases. But all power used is single phase. (Hopefully, that makes sense)

Quattrohead · Mar 23, 2024

Tim you are kind of correct without knowing it about split phase in the UK, it is used on building sites via center tapped to ground transformers to reduce the risk of lethal electric shocks.

UK Building Site 120V Equipment - ECN Electrical Forums

www.electrical-contractor.net

Quattrohead · Mar 23, 2024

crossy said:
Yeah, I wasn't totally clear.
The 220V comes between 2 phases of the 3-phase supply, so there's no actual neutral so both wires are "hot", a bit like the US 120-0-120 system with the "0" not brought to the home.

Could you possibly explain the system better to us, I'm particularly curious about how the ground gets involved because the way I'm currently understanding it, is the whole 220v is floating up in the air with no reference to ground whatsoever. That sounds like you can get fatal shocks off of either wire even if a device is turned off.

timselectric · Mar 23, 2024

Quattrohead said:
Tim you are kind of correct without knowing it about split phase in the UK, it is used on building sites via center tapped to ground transformers to reduce the risk of lethal electric shocks.

UK Building Site 120V Equipment - ECN Electrical Forums

www.electrical-contractor.net

Oh yeah.
I do remember reading about this a while back.

NC_hydro · Mar 23, 2024

Victron is also an option, Netherlands design with builds now happening in India I believe.

timselectric · Mar 23, 2024

Quattrohead said:
Could you possibly explain the system better to us, I'm particularly curious about how the ground gets involved because the way I'm currently understanding it, is the whole 220v is floating up in the air with no reference to ground whatsoever. That sounds like you can get fatal shocks off of either wire even if a device is turned off.

It's not floating. There's still a N/G bond (provided by the utility company). While the neutral is not provided to the home, the ground is.

Quattrohead · Mar 23, 2024

timselectric said:
It's not floating. There's still a N/G bond (provided by the utility company). While the neutral is not provided to the home, the ground is.

That is putting a lot of trust on...well you know, dare I say 3rd world country

timselectric · Mar 23, 2024

Quattrohead said:
That is putting a lot of trust on...well you know, dare I say 3rd world country

The UK Grid is pretty well safety regulated.
But other places , not so much.

Solar in USA or Germany

New Member

Solar Addict

If I can do it, you can do it.

New Member

I See Electromagnetic Fields!

If I can do it, you can do it.

Solar Enthusiast

I See Electromagnetic Fields!

Solar Addict

If I can do it, you can do it.

Solar Addict

Solar Enthusiast

If I can do it, you can do it.

Solar Wizard

Solar Wizard

If I can do it, you can do it.

Solar Enthusiast

If I can do it, you can do it.

Solar Wizard

If I can do it, you can do it.

Similar threads