Solar Nerd articles about: Inverters

Solar panels are extremely safe. According to data from Germany, only 120 fires out of 1.4 million solar installations have been traced back to solar equipment. Compared to the 44,000 electrical fires that occur in the United States every year, the risk of fire caused by solar equipment is very low. However, a greater hazard is the risk of live wires to firefighters who might need to work near solar equipment during an emergency.

If you’re getting quotes a home solar system, there’s a very good chance that one of them will specify a SolarEdge inverter. SolarEdge was the market leader just a few years ago, but its market share has been slipping recently and fallen behind Enphase. Even so, SolarEdge still has about 40% of the US inverter market share, so there’s good odds that one of your solar proposals will include a SolarEdge inverter system.

Enphase, the maker of the most popular microinverters in the US solar market, announced that it will be releasing the latest version of the IQ series later in 2021. Product releases from Enphase are often a big deal, because microinverters and power optimizers now dominate the residential solar market, accounting for about 80% of all installations. New features from Enphase are good news for consumers, and also have the potential to move other inverter manufacturers to adopt those features to stay competitive.

If you’re a homeowner who is thinking of going solar, or you’re already working with a solar installer and have a technical proposal in front of you, you’ll know that one of the key components in a home solar system is the inverter. Solar panels generate direct current (DC) electricity, which is the kind of electricity you get from a battery. Grid electricity and your home, however, use alternating current (AC).

When it comes to buying a home solar system, homeowners often focus their attention on choosing the best solar panels. However, arguably the most important component isn’t the panels, but the inverter. The inverter does the work of converting direct current (DC) power from the panels into alternating current (AC) power that your home can use. It’s the most complex device in the system, and the component most likely to experience failures.

If you have a home solar system, it won’t keep your house powered in a blackout unless you have a battery system. This is because solar inverters have a feature called anti-islanding. A solar inverter converts direct current (DC) power from solar panels into alternating current (AC) that your home and electric grid use. AC power has a frequency of 60 hz in North America. In normal operation, your solar inverter “listens” for power from the grid, and synchronizes its AC output to that of the grid.