Carolyn Lee talks about DC Optimizers and Microinverters, which are the two types of inverter technology that make partially shaded roofs viable for installing a solar system.
If you prefer to read a transcript of the video please see below.
We often get enquiries from people who have shaded or partially shaded roofs and they’re not sure if it’s worthwhile installing a solar panel system.
This is because panels need as much direct sunlight as possible to produce electricity. We are always up front with people and if their roof is heavily shaded we’ll just tell them that solar is not for them.
But, for people whose roofs are partially shaded, perhaps just in winter when the sun is lower in the sky or maybe their second storey shades the lower level for a small part of the day there are now inverter solutions that make these sorts of roofs viable for installing a solar panel system.
There are three types of inverter technologies and two of them are suitable if you have shade.
The one that’s not suitable when you have a partially shaded roof is what’s called a string inverter where if one panel is affected by shade all the other panels that it’s connected to perform at that lowest performing panel’s output.
The two types of inverter technologies that are really suitable and are good for partially shaded roofs are DC optimizers and microinverters. With both of these technologies one of those units goes on the back of each solar panel and they allow each panel to work independently to the other solar panels.
This means that if one solar panel is impacted by shade, bird droppings, leaf litter or if one panel is under-performing the other panels aren’t affected. They each work to their own individual optimum.
DC optimizers and microinverters both have their pros and cons but we tend to steer people towards the optimizer technology because it comes with a much longer warranty than either a string inverter or microinverters, they are cheaper and you get solar panel level monitoring as standard. This way you can see the output of each panel in real time.
If you are unsure about whether your roof is suitable for a solar panel system we have super up-to-date satellite mapping technology that lets us look at your roof at different times of the day and different times of the year so we can see the impact that shade is having on your property.
The video below shows how homeowners in Jamberoo overcame their roof shading issue and have saved $1,200 per quarter.
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