Hello everyone, Xindun Power is here again. Work has been incredibly stressful lately, so we went hiking and hot springs with our colleagues. Traveling with her favorite people was incredibly enjoyable. After all the unpleasantness faded, she felt like recharged battery, bursting with energy.
Speaking of charging, how many solar panels does your off grid solar system have? Have you ever considered the optimal number of panels?
As Xindun Power mentioned before, generally speaking, the total power of solar panels should be around 66% of the inverter's maximum output power, which is suitable ratio for most homes. For example, 10KW solar system would be suitable for 6600W solar panels. If you want more, we recommend maximum of 120% - 150% of the inverter's maximum output power.
A customer asked us two questions: What are the effects of having too many or too few solar panels on the inverter?
Let's first consider the case of too many solar panels. For example, if you have 10KW inverter and add MPPT to bring the total solar panel power to 20KW (for example, 40pcs 500W panels), will this damage the inverter? No, because the inverter has built in "clipping" function for the incoming solar power. Even if the incoming solar power is 20KW, the inverter will only receive 10KW and output it to the load. The inverter will waste any excess solar power. It's like a bucket with hole at the highest water level. When the water level reaches its maximum but the water level continues to rise, the excess water will flow out through the hole, ensuring that the amount of water in the bucket only reaches the capacity. However, it's important to note that while inverter have overpower protection, they don't protect against overvoltage or overcurrent. When connecting solar panels in series or in parallel, they must be installed strictly within the inverter's MPPT tolerance. If the solar input voltage or current exceeds the inverter's tolerances, the inverter's power panels may instantly break down and become irreparable.
What if you have too few solar panels? The answer is obvious: if the solar power isn't enough to meet the load, the inverter will use the mains or battery to compensate, effectively defeating the purpose of saving electricity costs. So, we advises you to spend what you should. Otherwise, you won't get what you want.
Well, we has completed another installment of inverter knowledge. If you would like to learn more about inverter, please join the Xindun Power team to explore together.
