MICRO INVERTERS

SURGES, SPIKES AND LIGHTNING STRIKES.

There are two simple rules when designing any electronic circuit for longer life.

1. Limit your component count.

2. Limit the amount of exposure to the utility grid.

Unfortunately the Micro Inverter concept violates both of these rules.


 

For every Micro Inverter that you install, you dramatically increase both your system's parts count and your system's exposure to the electric grid's destructive environment of silicon vaporizing surges and spikes.

Unfortunately surges, spikes and lightning strikes will typically void any inverter's warranty so it's far better to have less inverters to remove and replace at ground level than to pay an electrician to climb on to your roof and dismount dozens of solar panels so he can remove and replace dozens of micro inverters.

No matter how long of a warranty you are being offered, read your warranty documents carefully and you'll find that your inverter's warranty is null and void if your micro inverter is subjected to voltages "beyond the micro inverter's design limitations" in other words surges, spikes and lightning.

Don't think you're appliances have ever been the victim of an electrical surge or spike ?

Think again....

With an estimated 20 million cloud to ground strikes occurring every year in the U.S., lightning induced damage is not an uncommon mode of failure.

 Keep in mind that lightning does not need to strike the solar equipment or even the building where a solar system has been installed. Often a nearby strike or even a strike miles away can induce voltage spikes into the electrical grid that can damage inverters. And even lightning protection that has been added to your system at additional expense can be overwhelmed by lightning resulting in non warranty damage to your inverters. 

We know this to be fact because we've owned and operated one of the oldest factory authorized inverter repair centers in the nation and we've seen over and over the damage that surges and spikes can cause to an inverter.

With a SolarEdge system you limit your exposure to the electrical grid's volatile environment in two ways.

1.  For every 25 inverters in a typical micro inverter installation that are directly connected to the grid, as little as only one SolarEdge inverter is required, thus limiting the amount of potential component damage from surges and spikes.

2. With a micro inverter, both the Multi Point Power Tracking circuitry and the power electronics are mounted in the same box. This "all of your eggs in one basket" design means that when damage from a surge or spike occurs, the entire Inverter/MPPT unit or units must be replaced involving a great deal of non reimbursed labor.

With SolarEdge the Multi Point Power Tracking circuitry is installed separately on the solar system's electrically stable DC circuit along with your solar panels while the inverter is installed as a separate, easy to remove and re-install unit. 

Some salesmen will try to convince you that a micro inverter offers better protection against spikes and surges due to its "distributed nature" but it's this "distributed nature" that assures that surges and spikes are "distributed" to all of the inverters in each branch circuit.  

With SolarEdge you basically have the potential for an easy to manage single point of failure while with Micro Inverters you have the potential for multiple points of failure that are far more difficult to manage.
 

COMPARISON

With SolarEdge you'll not only get a bigger cash rebate in many states, but also higher energy production because of SolarEdge's higher CEC weighted efficiency rating.

And why would you want to connect a 225 to 245 Watt solar panel to an inverter that's  only rated to handle a maximum of 190 Watts ? And when it comes to warranties, SolarEdge's 25 year solar panel mounted Power Optimizer Unit warranty says it all !

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