Microinverters harvest more power from solar panels and are easier to install, monitor and maintain. Another big advantage with Enphase microinverters: they combine ultra-reliable components with a distributed architecture that makes for a more resilient system. That’s something string inverters can’t do.
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Register TodayThere are microinverter systems and string inverter systems. DC optimizers are a more complicated string inverter system. A system is only as reliable as its weakest link and the string inverter is the weakest link in any DC optimizer system. Microinverters reduce system complexity and are easier to design and install.
On the surface, string inverters seem like a good deal. Add up the costs and you get a different story. If you get onsite and have to run extra conduit to move the inverter out of direct sunlight, costs escalate. Or, if the homeowner wants the inverter moved for aesthetic reasons, costs go up again.
String inverters also require:
Third-party studies have shown that Enphase Microinverters produce more energy than the leading string and DC-optimized string inverters.
Compared with string inverters, microinverters are the least failure-prone choice by a mile. When string inverters fail, the entire system goes down, necessitating emergency maintenance. This costs money and diverts installers from doing what they do best: installing systems.
String inverter systems have high voltage DC, which presents risks for customers and installers. String inverters can have “rapid shutdown” workarounds to lower the risk of high voltage DC, but these only mitigate some risk. They do not fully remove it. Enphase Microinverters, by contrast, are low voltage DC by design.
The independent labs at PV Evolution compared Enphase microinverters with Solar Edge string inverters in several key benchmark areas with this study. See what they found.
Download StudyBased on our analysis and experience, I am convinced that the Enphase value proposition is better than the DC optimizers on the market today. Enphase is much simpler and easier, with lower cost for engineering and field labor; whether comparing it to central inverters, DC optimizers, or other inverter architecture schemes. Energy production data support the Enphase selection, and I believe Enphase is more reliable based on installing several hundred Enphase systems and several DC Optimizer systems over the last 5 years.
I feel that customers are catching on to the misconception that you can just buy SolarEdge optimizers and you're getting all the benefits of a microinverter system. You have a lot more points of liability. The warranty is half as long. Why try to make a string system like a microinverter system? Why not just use microinverters?
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