So, you've bought solar PV, you're receiving a quarterly Feed-In Tariff payment
and benefiting from reduced energy bills.
But are you confident that you're getting the most out of your solar PV?
Many people are now discovering the benefits of upgrading their system.
Did you know that a simple inverter
upgrade could significantly increase your generation, maximise your savings
and tariff payments, enable you to view the performance of each panels on your roof
extend the warranty term to cover the life of your Feed-In Tariff and ensure
the safety of your system.
So how does it work?
Your inverter is an essential
component of your solar PV system, converting the electricity generated from
DC to AC so it can be used by all of your appliances as well as regulating the
flow of energy between your panels. Most inverter systems are wide in series
which simply means that panels are linked together.
If one panel is under performing then your inverter will restrict the output
to the lowest performing panel resulting in less production overall and similar
to old Christmas tree lights, if one goes down they all go down.
Individual solar panels produce different amounts of power
due to shading from trees, dirt and
cloud cover but the biggest cause is manufacturers tolerances.
Ready for the science bit?
Every panel performs differently due to
the nature of silicon which is the raw material used to make PV panels.
So let's say your panel is a 250 watt panel with a manufacturing tolerance of plus or
minus 5%. The performance can range between 237 and 263 watts giving you a
vast range in the potential power. If your system is restricted to the lowest
performing panel, then you are losing out on all of that extra generation.
Like all electrical appliances, solar panels become less efficient through age
and the difference between your top performing panel and your lowest
performing panel increases over time meaning the problem will only get worse.
As part of our upgrade we attach a SolarEdge power optimiser to the back of
every panel to act like a brain, this guarantees that you will get the maximum
performance from your system, increasing your panels output straight away from
between 2 and 25%.
Most traditional inverters only come with a 5
year warranty this is because they have to work really hard, not only are they
converting the DC electricity generated by your panels to AC they also have to
balance the transfer of power between your panels.
I'm sure you've heard of the saying
'many hands make light work' - instead of having an inverter carrying
out all these tasks on its own we're able to share some of the workload
with the power optimisers meaning and easier and longer life for the inverter.
This is why SolarEdge can offer a 12 year warranty as standard for the
inverter with the option to upgrade to 20 or 25 years. The power optimisers come
with a 25-year warranty as standard protecting your investment until the end
of your Feed-In Tariff payments.
Solar Plants are upgrading hundreds of systems
a month as many people are finding their inverter has developed a fault or their
system is massively underperforming which is nearly impossible to diagnose
due to having no visibility of their system.
Many were unaware of the fact
that their stringed inverter would need changing probably around three times
during its lifetime and some didn't even notice their inverter was not working
until they had the upgrade.
One of the great advantages of SolarEdge is the
ability to have individual panel level monitoring. You can view each panels
performance live time and also historic performance.
Here at Solar Plants, we have taken it one step further - we use our installer
monitoring site to continuously evaluate your system and have a dedicated team
to do this, if there's ever an issue the majority of the time we can fix it
remotely and if not rest assured an engineer is en route!
Another important feature is that each power optimiser
is equipped with safeDC technology. The DC voltage is
designed to automatically reduce to an extremely low level if the
inverter or grid power is switched off. This ensures the safety of everyone in
your home if required. Here at Solar Plants, we have consistently been the
UK's largest SolarEdge installer with over six thousand happy customers now
enjoying this market leading technology.
It's really simple to find out whether
you would benefit from a SolarEdge upgrade.
Visit our website to request your free performance healthcheck.