Hi everyone, I have a question and would like to hear your thoughts. I'm looking for a micro-inverter to be used in a balcony photovoltaic system, the system size is about 800W.
I looked for products from some big name manufacturers, I think Enphase's IQ7A model and apsystems' DS3D model are good. But the DS3D of apsystems seems to be suitable for the power system of 1800W, which is much higher than the power of the photovoltaic system on the balcony I planned. Will this affect anything?
In addition, I recently got information that the brand of photovoltaic panels I purchased, Maysun Solar, recently launched a new balcony photovoltaic product, using hoymiles micro-inverters. It just so happened that I noticed the hoymiles brand during my search, and the PV panel model I plan to use for the PV system is roughly the same model as the one in the new product. So I also want to know about the hoymiles HMS-400-1A model micro inverter.
Has anyone used the same model inverter? Are there any caveats or suggestions?
What do you think?
There shouldn’t be a problem using an inverter rated higher than your panel output. Maybe there will be a small efficiency loss at the low end (grey day in winter kind of thing), I don’t know.
However it is also possible to go smaller than your rated panel size. Panels are typically rated for 1kW/m2 of sunlight which is roughly the sunlight you get at the equator. If the panels are at a different latitude or tilted then you get less. So an 800W inverter would capture the peak output of the panels, but much of the time the output is going to be less. If it is, a smaller inverter would miss out on the last few watts of peak generation but might be sufficient say 95% of the time.
If you do the calculations for your site (I recommend Global Solar Atlas) you may find the actual output is much less than 800W and a smaller inverter will suit.