Most modern MPPT's are around 93-97% efficient in the conversion. You typically get a 20 to 45% power gain in winter and 10-15% in summer. Actual gain can vary widely depending weather, temperature, battery state of charge, and other factors.
I have microinverters on my 2012 install (Sunpower). I knew their advantages, but didn't realize how unique they were in that time period. System paid for itself in 8 years. Best investment ever.
Can you use solar panel optimisers in offgrid system? I have 4kw panels feeding 24v into Victron 150/100 mppt, into AGM battery bank then into 3000w low frequency inverter. I have a mix of different panels and want to stop the lowest producing panel drag down the rest of array with it. Cheers
It is just a plain lie that one shaded panels brings the whole string down to the performance of that one shaded panel.... Modern solar panels have bypass diodes, normally 3. Numerous real life test have been performed between string and micro inverters and the consensus is that it only brings max 3% increase. What people seem to be blind for is that both micro and string inverters are external to the solar panel, so the limiting factor is always what the solar panel can produce. Technically with a shaded panel with bypass diodes it can be that there are 2 (or more) maximum power points to be found, where ofc only 1 is the highest. String inverter will fail to find the best mpp of that shaded panel, going for the average mpp of the panels in the string. So the difference in performance is really not so big as this person says. Think for yourself: is al the additional costs for micro inverters worth it? System costs of micro-inverter vs string are considerable more. Currently in Netherlands a 400W panel costs 80EUR and a microinverter also 80EUR.. For simplicity say you do 12 panels, resulting in 960 euro costs for micro (also you need some hub devices costing between 200-350 euro), compare that to a 600euro string inverter, it is clear that I am not paying almost double for the panels+inverter micro components vs the string approach. I rather add 2 more panels of 80eur/piece to the string inverter to overcome the performance gap of 3%..... So my advise is for people watching this video: google for "real-life test between micro-inverter and string inverter"
