It quickly became one of the most popular articles on our site. So now we're back with its counterpart: a review of the best solar inverters you can buy for grid-tie systems in 2021. Contact online >>
It quickly became one of the most popular articles on our site. So now we''re back with its counterpart: a review of the best solar inverters you can buy for grid-tie systems in 2021.
These are the inverters you would use in a traditional home or office system – any property that has access to power lines and can connect to the utility grid.
In some ways, when you pair a microinverter with a panel, you''re creating a self-contained single-panel solar energy system. Each will produce power regardless of how many panels you have.
We recommend the Enphase IQ7+ Microinverter for these applications. As of the time of publication (January 2021), these are $147 apiece. You also need a mandatory Q Cable for each microinverter, which adds $18 per panel.
Each inverter and panel pairing works out to around $350 (fluctuating by ~$50 depending on which products you pick). This does not include the cost of mounting or wiring the system.
If you want to cancel out a portion of that bill right away, you might get about 8-10 panels with microinverters on them. You''d start saving money on electric bills right away, and you can easily add on to it a few years down the road until you hit your target of 100% energy offset.
In all, microinverters make it possible to get started with solar and build out your system at your own pace. But that scalability comes at a slightly higher price than other options.
A string inverter is a single unit that hooks into a string of solar panels. Our recommendation in this category, the SMA Sunny Boy, is sized to support strings in the range of 6-14 panels.
If you live on a city block with buildings or trees casting shadows on your panels…not so much. You''d never get close to the expected output from your system.
But if you''resure you have enough room to build away from obstructions, go with the SMA Sunny Boy inverter. It''s a reliable string inverter that is far cheaper than other options assuming you meet the requirements.
The SPS acts like a small backup power source in case of outages. While it''s not a long-term solution, the SPS powers a dedicated 120v outlet that can power up to 2000 watts during the day if there is solar power available.
It makes sense to add the optimizer if you previously built an SMA system, then needed to retrofit the array due to new obstructions. Adding optimizers onto the panels would be easier and more effective than ripping out and replacing your whole inverter.
Our best-selling residential grid-tied inverter is the SolarEdge HD-Wave line, a string inverter with optimizers. The classic HD-Wave line received a major update in 2019 with the introduction of the SetApp feature, which allows you to program and monitor your system from a phone app (rather than on the LCD screen).
This is our go-to grid-tied inverter option because it offers the best of both worlds. You get the lower cost of a central string inverter combined with the individual panel monitoring offered by microinverters.
For that reason, it works in a broad range of applications. In most cases, it''s simply the best combination of features and cost you can find in a grid-tied inverter.
The system is shade-tolerant thanks to the optimizers attached to each panel. And it''s cheaper than microinverters once you scale to at least 8 panels (the minimum string size compatible with SolarEdge inverters).
In the end, SMA and Enphase are tailored to a specific application. The SMA Sunny Boy needs full sunlight, and Enphase microinverters are more appropriate if you start with a small system.
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