Transcript
So what is a smart solar system and why are so many customers installing it these days? With nearly one in four households now having a solar panel installed on their roof, solar energy has changed the way many of us use, buy, and manage our energy, but a lot has changed in the past 10 years.
The panels are now twice as powerful, really a tenth the cost, and look better than they were 10 years ago, but with the inverter, the real strides have been made.
In simple terms, inverters convert the direct current that solar panels produce into alternating current that your home uses. 10 years ago there were no smarts, no controls and, in fact, it was often the guesswork of whether you would save money or how much. Ten years ago, all inverters were so-called string inverters, which had some significant limitations.
So let's fast forward to today. Today almost all of the systems we install are smart, but what does smart mean when it comes to solar? When we talk about Smart Solar, we mean a solar system that is firstly optimized to generate the most electricity at all hours of the day.
It also has intelligent management software that enables the system to maximize savings and give customers control over their energy consumption. It's also smart enough to know when something is wrong or not and to do something about it, and it works in tandem with a smart solar battery to keep your home running at the lowest cost and in the event of a power outage. Oh, and it's safe from fire. Okay, that's really part of a smart system, but we think it's very, very important nonetheless.
So let's take a quick look at where we come from so we can see how important smart solar is today. A few years ago, solar inverters consisted of a single box into which all solar modules fit. This had a number of problems, not the least of which was that it didn't work very well. You see, with a single old-style inverter, because of the way the panels are wired together, the entire system happens at the exit of the worst performing panel, and because all the panels function differently even if they are lost from the same manufacturing batch automatically up to approx. 5% of your output. If even one plate is shaded, has a leaf, or is damaged, it becomes dramatically worse.
The other important thing the solar industry has learned over the past 10 years is that having high DC power through your roof and home is downright dangerous and a fire risk.
The modern, smart solar systems installed by us convert direct current into alternating current on the roof, which is far ahead of the old technology. It does this through the use of a small or micro inverter that is placed under each individual panel. For a solar system, this increases the output and thus the savings by 4 to 25%, as each module can be operated independently. This is particularly important if a plate is shaded, dirty or defective, for example by bird droppings.
The other big advantage is that it is much, much safer than the old string systems, especially in relation to fire, as it only uses AC cables that are protected by circuit breakers. There are a number of other advantages to this system, such as: B. the ability to face panels in different directions, but the most important for this video is that it is a really smart system.
The Enphase microinverter system comes with really smart, clever software that gives you control over your energy usage, how much you save and how you manage your energy at home, but also proactively monitors the health of your solar system. That means you always know it will deliver what you expect. In conjunction with a smart battery like the Tesla Powerwall, this system works even in the event of a power failure and even charges your battery during the day to maintain your power supply at night.
Smart solar systems are the heart and brain of every home management system today. This is where you really make sure that your solar power is working for you and bringing you the best return on your investment. And it also means that if you install or install a solar battery, you will get the most out of it too.
Of course, these smart solar systems use complex technology to function well. So they need to be designed, installed, and most importantly managed and supported by experts, and Solaray Energy has been named Installer of the Year by Enphase in Australia every year for the past five years. We have the most experience, the best track record and, more importantly, we have a dedicated team of support professionals to ensure that your system is working as expected and helping you get the most of it.
So if you are looking for a state-of-the-art, state-of-the-art smart solar system in Australia today, speak to us at Solaray. We specialize in Enphase microinverters more than any other solar company, have more customers than anyone, and have the longest track record of support and service.