I don't have a problem with heatables offering but independent advice is what consumers need and it seems heatable have paid a few channels to get their product advertised on RUclips, without any independent critique.
The best part of this is , the MicroInverter costs nearly as much as the solar panel itself if not a little more down our side..... so If you use microinverters you just end up more than doubling your cost. Another crazy thing is , with 20 Panels you use 20 microinverters so now you have 20 panels that can fail plus 20 inverters that can fail, which will need to be replaced individually everytime and you need to get onto that roof to get it done.... but with the string inverter you have 20 panels as points of failure and just one additional inverter as a point of failure and the moment that fails it can be immediately replaced at the cost of just 2 microinverters , the shading and partial covering is not that much of an issue these days with monoperc halfcut topcon n-type bifacials and by the way bifacial panels are never stuck onto a roof.... you have to have a minimum mounting height equivalent to the length of the panel to make atleast most of what the bifacial has to offer , and those thin transparent lines between the cells.... won't allow enough sunlight through to even light up a half watt bulb with all those panels connected.
Don’t have the bifacial panels, but do have Canadian solar panels rated at 440w connected to an Enphase system. 6.6kw in total. Here in Melbourne, Aus, it started generating this morning at 6:20am and stopped at 6:15pm. 35.5kWh today.
That’s cool. I’m in the UK and have pretty standard panels with a pretty standard string inverter. It started generating at 6:50 this morning with sunrise at 7:01.
My feeling is that these and similar systems are premium offerings that are basically upselling solar systems to increase the margins of the installer. I don't think the majority of people will see enough benefit to warrant the extra cost. Solar panels are much better at dealing with shade and low light than they used to be owing to having half cut cells and three bypass diodes meaning the panel still produces power in partial shade (as it is divided into sections). I'd rather have a well installed system without all the extra inverters on the roof. I would imagine that a solar panel is more durable and reliable than an inverter so you are adding multiple extra points of failure (panels + inverters vs just panels). Probably the most important source of failure is water ingress in connectors so having fewer of them on the roof has to be a better option and with carefull installation (drip loops and sheilding them from rain), you can minimise the chance of failure.
The thing that wasn't clear to me from the video is, now the output from the solar install is AC rather than DC, so it will have to be converted back to DC again somewhere if I want a battery storage solution. Does that mean an additional box to somewhere to manage the batteries and power conversion? What are the overall losses like in this double conversion vs a "standard PV install"? How much additional power will be needed to run the box doing the power conversion? What powers the micro-inverters? If the electricity grid goes offline, do the panels turn into expensive roof tiles and the house loses power, or can they still generate and run the house?
"I would imagine that a solar panel is more durable and reliable than an inverter so you are adding multiple extra points of failure (panels + inverters vs just panels)." They give you a 25-year warranty on these panels, including the micro inverters and cables, compared to the typical 10-year warranty on larger inverters. In my view, this system is much better.
@@chrisdixon5241 panels with micro-inverters are not advisable if you plan to have a battery storage solution. It depends on the country you live in. In the UK, given that there's not much sunlight, having a battery storage unit might not make sense, therefore panels with micro-inverters are a good option (micro inverters have a warranty of 25years while normal inverters don't go over 10-15years). If you live somewhere with plenty of sunshine, you could get panels with power optimizers on them (so you can still see what they are doing individually), a battery and one inverter. And if the electricity grid goes offline your panels will not generate power, no matter what system you install.
@@chrisdixon5241 ... However If you want a DC battery ""later on", you need a hybrid inverter up front (or a changeover cost will occur). If you put in an AC grid coupled inverter up front and want a battery later, the cheapest route is an AC coupled battery with its own secondary inverter supplying a "backed up circuit" - or with automatic switching (ATS) of a selected circuit over to the battery when the power goes out or the sun stops shining (choose your own poison) - NB. it also needs to switch back to the grid under normal conditions when the battery is depleted - preferably while the battery is above 20% - voltage sag and other negatives occur when Lithium batteries are depleted further under high power conditions.
@@денисбаженов-щ1б not sure if you are for or against. What's more likely to fail, something with 20 points of failure or something with 40-50? More complexity never results in more reliability.
I'm being a bit picky, but photons and electrons can't be converted from one to another, they are different animals, photons transfer their energy to electrons is a more accurate description.
If you're going to criticise someone's inaccurate use of language to simplify an idea to a general audience, you probably shouldn't also call photons and electrons "animals" in the same improperly constructed and improperly punctuated sentence.
Not being picky, good point. The way I understand it, a photon from the sun strikes an electron in the silicon wafer to break its bond thus freeing the electron. Is this sort of accurate? P.S. Don’t mind Mr. no one
I keep hearing this marketing-speak about startup voltage. It's not a important as they make it out to be. An inverter may startup earlier in low-light conditions, but that's when energy available is less anyway. So you might get 50% earlier startup, at a time where 2% of the day's energy is available. So I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
totally agreed. In a sense these videos just confuse people who get caught up in the nitty gritty. these single inverters massively increase the cost per panel for minimal benefit.
Startup voltage can be an issue but most modern inverters have no problems with it at all. Also the voltage is here as soon as the light is, current is the problem.
As long has you have the right number of panels on your inverter it's fine. Heatable is in the volume game they just want to sell the same parts to 10,000 homes hence the micro-inverter thing. What they're selling to you as a benefit is actually a benefit to their business model.
@@edc1569 my thoughts exactly. Plus you can charge a premium and your mark-up on the equipment earns more because it's a percentage. The cost of good quality solar equipment has come right down and yet installers find a way to keep the price for an installation the same or higher. It's like whenever there is a government subsidy, the total price seems to increase at least as much as the subsidy saved you!
Thanks EES Team for another top video on sustainable energy. These panels seem suited to certain circumstances but need to crunch the numbers on return on investment. It might be best bang for buck to go the standard panel/inverter mix (if you have the roof space) and just spend the extra $ on more panels.
I am an energy engineer. Microinverters aren’t used in order to get better efficiency on cloudy days, or extend production to early morning or late evening. This is just wrong. We use microinverters on systems with complex shading conditions. That’s their main advantage. They also come with a number of their own issues.
Thank you for this comment. It appears this heatable guy is hell bent on misleading his customers and the general public about what micro inverters are meant for. I left a comment similar to the one you wrote here on his channel but he is here again repeating the same lies and the presenter is helping him to promote his falsehoods. Perhaps this whole presentation is a paid ad.
@@adon8672 yeah I feel like if these were legitimately taking off, people would be using them directly solar generators, and they aren't, so, why not. seems suspicious to me.
If a micro inverter can start producing at 20v, not 150v like my system, I am all ears; it can be hard to get shorter strings going otherwise. Agree that microinverters mitigate part shade of panels, but as the product shows, they can also maximise productivity periods (as was very well explained by the presenter, gg). Would add that well designed cheaper dc systems can also do a good enough job on cloudy days, for those on a tighter budget.
This is exactly right, micro, inverters, help optimize when there’s different voltages coming out of the different panels. With a single inverter, it’s a kind of lowest common denominator output, so the worst outputting panel limits the other panels. This can happen if one panel is shaded, but the others and Sun like you said, but it can be for other reasons one panel might just be worse than the other ones. Regardless, it has to little to do with overcast days…
Micro inverters or optimisers are a great solution to a shading problem…if there’s no shading, don’t fit them. One string inverter is far less likely to fail compared to 14? Micros or optimisers operating in harsh weather conditions. As for efficiency, they are worse, by approx 2%. That super 20 year warranty is great but it won’t pay for the scaffolding which could 10x the cost of the micro! The voltage on panels in series is multiplied by the number of panels, so there’s no issue with start up. Trying to replace a panel with a built in micro in a few years could be a real head ache. Don’t pay extra for a problem you may not have. No substantial shading = No to micros or optimisers 100%.
As an installer we have to argue with customers about this quite a bit. Too many people obsess about chasing negligible benefits, thus adding complexity at greater cost and lower reliability. When simple works, it's the way to go.
@@MustangGlos actually string inverted is the part most likely to fail on solar system which is why they only have 10yr warranty, compared with micro-inverters matching panels at 25yr warranty.
@@Lawrence7of9 even if the micro inverters were twice as reliable, if you were to have, say 14 of them, you are still 7x more likely to experience a failure. Plus the expense of scaffolding which could be around £800. Having installed upwards 40k of solar panels, I have the data to back that up.
Microinverters are such a scam... "If one fails, all will fail". Well, perhaps he haven't learned yet about bypass diodes. 200V for string inverter to start vs 20V for single panel? Well, guess what - string of 10 panels, each generating 20V gets you to 200V already. And most string inverters can start with 120-150V, btw. Put on top the fact that the microinverter operates directly at the hot solar panel on the roof, in rain, freezing temperatures, hot temperatures, ... while the string inverter is somewhere in a garage or at least shielded space... And many people found out about the problems with warranty - you will get replacement of the microinverter, sure. But is it still compatible with the old ones you have? Or do you have to suddenly replace all of them due to one faulty? And if your installer went out of business and you don't have the same code to connect them all together? And then add the price and we are done.
Yeah. Quite a lot of bollocks in this piece. We must have reasonably good stats on the relative lifetimes of microinverters and string inverters by now as they've been going on roofs for more than a decade. Bifacial panels do seem like a good idea though, as all you do is miss out the plastic backing. Is there a downside?
I've had micro inverters on a previous house (installed by a company that we engaged) and we have a dual string inverter on our current house. The first thing that happened was that the micro inverter company went bust and the 20 year warranty went with it. Luckily, in the ten years or so of ownership none of the inverters died and the system performed well. We had some shading and the MI were ideal for that scenario. In our current house the string inverter died last year and we had it replaced at a cost of about £600. The new inverter has performed very well so far and where I thought that the poor performance was due to trees causing shade previously, no such issues with the new inverter. This is on a ten year old system. The panels are working fine. If I was starting out again with a fresh install, and assuming that there is no major shading, I'd go with a string inverter. Why? It costs less in hardware and, if unlucky enough to have an inverter die, it's a one hour job to replace it and there is no need for scaffolding or engineers trying to balance on roof ladders to change a panel cheaply. Do micro inverters fail? Well, we were lucky in that none did. A neighbour who also had the same brand of inverter has seen half of his die gradually over the past twelve years. Yes, they may be under warranty, but the warranty "may" only cover the hardware costs, the installer being responsible for the cost of installation and, if he has closed the company down the cost for the scaffolding and the labour may fall upon the customer - if he can find somebody willing to change the hardware.
Bang on! It's like with harddrives and RAID array, the MTBF (mean-time-before-failure) of individual units divided by the number of units is the MTBF of the whole system.
I've always wondered if, in the future, homes should just have an AC and a DC line. Because I bought one of those sockets that also have USB ports on them. And it just struck me as odd to, you know, capture DC with a solar panel, store it DC in a battery, convert it to AC with an inverter, it travels a few meters, then it's converted back to DC again to go into, say, a DC battery (like a phone or laptop). There's, like, some needless conversions there. And I was thinking, instead, a battery-equipped house could run an AC line to traditional 3-pin sockets, but then also there's a DC line that runs to a bunch of USB C ports around the house. Low-power devices can skip the AC conversion. Just plug them into the USB port with a direct DC connection to the battery. Efficiency!
It's going to be fun frying your 5V DC USB devices with the 500V+ from solar... You will need all kind of voltage conversion on that DC line anyway, even if it is more efficient there will still be losses.
I have a 2kwh ugreen battery that does what you described, using in a van so could be an issue scaling to a house. 4 full wattage AC plugs and loads of usb DC outputs, native solar input connections too
For the amount of energy saved, it's likely never going to offset the initial setup cost, the additional complexity of having two sets of wires running through your house and the maintenance of that wiring.
DC >40V gets super sketchy. I've worked on rail projects that used 750VDC, the breakers for dealing with DC faults were the size of home refrigerators, the AC breakers of equivalent capacity were the the size of a toaster. You can do lots of clever stuff with DC, but ultimately you need big mechanical systems to deal with DC faults when all the smarts arc out.
Great product! Almost makes me want to buy a home. It’s crazy that more villages and towns don’t have a community investment fund to build community solar with things like this around. It’s so easy to finance something like this.
What about DC battery storage with this microinverter system? Presumably it would not work and an AC-coupled battery is needed which might be more expensive or bulky.
You'd need to convert back from AC to DC again to charge the batteries, which would result in more losses and basically negate the benefits of the microinverters. Any AC coupled battery is still doing an AC to DC conversion, as a battery doesn't charge with AC current. So the most efficient solution is likely to be DC panels going straight into DC batteries, as there's only one conversion, that's when discharging the batteries.
Hi, would EverythingElectric consider doing a roundup of the most recent solar panels available in the UK? Panels like Astronergy N7s, Phono Solar Draco & Aiko Neostar, specifically testing the cloudy day performance. This would be very valuable information.
The sales hype around micro-inverters is mis-representation, and not persuasive. And 20% bi-facial gain is a real thing, especially with ground-mount. But installed tight against black asphalt shingles? Nope. That is another mis-representation. Does not inspire trust.
Heatable fitted REA bifacial panels (6.3kw) & 10kw battery storage. We have trees around our property too, but system has been excellent - along with Heatable - just completed 1st year installed. We have since added ASHP & run an EV but our electric bill (no gas now) is less than before. Alot less, 4cast use under £500 a year, feed in about £300, so our annual energy/car fuel bill £200. 😂 brilliant.
Someone asked but can’t reply direct (google error) of 3 recommended estimates Heatable was cheapest, £16k. A less advanced panel same size & string inverter (10yr warranty) was more expensive. 25yr warranty on micro-inverters won! Then later discovered bifacial panels way more advanced.
@@Lawrence7of9 I did not anticipate that. Could it be that this was quoted at the height of the energy crunch and that only overly expensive charlatans actually had the capacity to provide sensible quotes, whereas all others were inundated with requests and unable to answer them all?
@@luc_libv_verhaegen the same company later offered me their latest panels/string for slightly less, but still inferior kit, and I’d already gone with Heatable. So pointless & they lost sale.
@@Lawrence7of9 Not really. All depends on one's locale. Splendid option for the hazy sunlit uplands perhaps but not necessarily for all areas in dear old Blighty. Which is why area storage batteries may be a better option as said batteries can charge off the grid. It is becoming ever more clear that electricity is not necessarily a "one size fits all" solution. In any event it looks as if private buyers of battery EVs in UK are declining in numbers. We see evermore desperation in the motor trade to sell used BEVs to an "audience" who has moved on, or back, to fossil.fuel cars. What with Rachel finding ever more cunning ways of abstracting taxes from.the general population then will she leave enough cash in people's wallets and purses simply to get whatever car one owns serviced let alone buy another vehicle.
I dont like the idea of having micro inverters since if you have say 16 panels then that's 16x more chances to have to replace 1 if one fails, if you have one large inverter its statically more resilient, although if it goes wrong you stop generation entirely but you don't have to get onto the roof to replace it. I also bet that 16x micro inverters cost more than 1 large inverter on average
The microinverters are about 130-150EUR each, whereas panels are like 75-100EUR each these days. If you really have a shading issue, and want to compensate for the lost production, then you are much better off installing more panels than to go for micro-inverters.
Conversely when the string inverter fails you get no power! Micro inverters or string inverter do your research before buying as each have their pros and cons.
In the end the inverter has an output of 230/400 V so if you feed it with 250 - 900 V DC it's way more efficient than using 20 V DC and converting that to 230V Then you have electrics on your roof minus 10° in winter and plus 60° in sommer because it's directly mounted on the back on the Panel. Which is also really not a great idea because of heat. And that should last for 25 years I doubt it. Which brings us to the guarantee very nice, but it's just the micro inverter which is about 100£ or even less but how much is the installer coming by and replacing the thing? As an installer I would very rarely go for a microinverter solution. If an installer goes for it on all his installations he probably just has no idea an looks for the one fits all option, which in my opinion dose not exist.
- however "most" DC coupled batteries aren't really running at 400V - or whatever the nominal coupling voltage is - that would necessitate over 100 cells in series and most of the offerings are merely running 7-15 Series ( depending on the cell chemistry LMN or LFP - and the desired low voltage level - 24 through to 52 VDC).. To take it up to the voltages needed for bidirectional coupling (rectification and inversion) to 240 or 120 VAC etc. DC (up to 339VDC) level shifting has to occur..
In Ontario Canada just installed some Bifacial panels, in a vertical East facing direction. Intended to catch morning and evening sun and low winter sun from both sides. Also since they are vertical they will not collect winter snow. Use a central inverter, looked into micro inverters, did not want the added complexity, cost and low reliability by being installed in the weather, plus how far in the future will replacements be available. Wires on solar panels are simple therefore far more reliable then complex micro inverters.
The best ROI is on a small 1000-watt system with a microinverter that can handle 2 panels that are grid-tied. Especially when you can install yourself on a shed, 400 quid should do. Energy generated should be consumed, so working from home helps as running dishwashers, and dryers and watching machines during the day. Payback time is just over a year. The ROI increases when we start oversizing and overcomplicating things and adding batteries. A 25-year warranty means nothing in a cutthroat industry like solar with plenty of companies going bust.
The suggestion that DC only strings are not safe is fundamentally wrong! If the concern is the need for rapid shutdown then put in solar optimisers such as Tigo's, which are MUCH cheaper than having separate microinverters for each panel. Adding enphase is an easy way to triple the cost of a solar array for limited benefit.
@@stephenbrickwood1602 I buy 450w panels for 65GBP an Enphase microinverter is 160GBP add in the extra wiring and spark/scaffold time you'll easily triple the cost. Plus I can't use much cheaper 48v LifePo4 batteries without doing AC/DC/AC conversions whereas a regular solar DC inverter will do the much more efficient DC/DC conversion.
Wonder if you'd want to paint the roof under the panels white to reflect more of the light on the back of the panels. Would it matter or could you get a bit more produciton out of it? Was thinking they were going to touch upon the technology that has micro prisms or reflectors in a sheet layer that concentrates the light in low light conditions.
Many solar panels fitted to homes have a white layer behind the PV modules to give the light an extra ‘chance’ of generating as it is bounced back up through the PV. A transparent back is helpful if there’s additional light to gather from behind the panels - think ground mount systems elevated above sand or snow. But mounted a few inches above a roof, there’s not much room for that extra light to enter the rear face of the panels.
@@jesseb4me But if you have panels like this where there are slots between the cells, and since they're double sided, you'd think having that white background would help generate a little bit more than not having it. Or is it really negligible?
I was wondering the same thing if painting the roof white would help with bifacial panels. Would at the very least help cool the roof being white. I am not a fan of the new trend of black roofs. The government tried to ban it in Australia but there was too much push back.
@@lavectech forget painting the roof - it’ll be shaded by the panels themselves. My loft space is cooler now as I have a roof full of solar to shade it, and the air gap behind the panels lets it circulate. Forget this attempt to market something different - just buy standard solar that has that white/reflective rear layer. Having the back of the panel transparent isn’t helpful - it’ll just mean more light passes through and hits your roof!
The enphase system does AC all the way it seems. This means that for batteries to work, they have to be AC coupled. So for any electrons to go into the batteries, the AC current has to be transformed to the DC that the battery accepts, and then to use battery power, you have to invert it back to AC. This is shown in the data for one of their IQ batteries (the 3.3kWh one): the battery itself claims to have a 96% roundtrip efficiency, but the AC inverter that has to be included has a 89% roundtrip efficiency. For an equivalent DC system, you only do the AC conversion once, so logically and simplistically we can take the efficiency of the micro-inverter(s) and the efficiency of the battery itself as the efficiency of the whole DC system. Then we are still left with the 89% of the extra 2 inversions that the Enphase battery system has to do. As soon as you add storage to this system, all supposed advantages of the enphase system go up in smoke... Well, heat actually...
Do you earth the solar panels ? incase of lightning strikes. As there have been a number of storms here in the uk. And increasing. As this is the number 1 cause of catastrophic failure. This would be my concern of having solar panels. Thanks.
How will these panels compare to the new Perovskite panels which might be available soon? Is it worth waiting for the newer technology if the panels might be cheaper and and more efficient?
I have a 13 panel array with micro-inverters. As the house is an old Victorian Farmhouse the roof could be described as all over the place. There are 6 South East facing panels with at least one shaded by a dormer window in the early morning. There are seven South West facing panels with a large chimney stack shading one or more sometime in the afternoon. Today was a poor day for the array but I can tell the output for each panel and the best panel produced twice as much as the worst.
Even if the panels have lower voltage they might start producing at about the same time with a microinverter as with string inverter. As for the string inverter all voltages from the panels get added up anyway. Also Enphase microinverters are shit for most panels over 400W, they just can't get the most of such panels. I'd rather get Hoymiles microinverters. Also no use pretending Enphase is special, what he describes are microinverter advantages in general.... This is a commercial...
Can’t wait to see these on more and more roofs. We have a south facing rear roof and i mean perfection sun rises in the East and Sets in the West over a ark over our house. Prices are coming down and new innovations is always welcome. Is it worth the 10% premium time will tell.
Love the show and Fully Charged, love the clear, as this video, explanations of technological advancements and the bow wave of incontrovertible information to counter the greedy fossil fuel lobby's frenzied campaign of misinformation ! We also desperately need some consideration for flat owners. Can we install electric boilers and have some discrete but effective solar panels on minimal "real estate" ? What's out there for us if we want to kick our gas combi into touch and get some of the financial benefits of solar !??
Microinverter systems also allow staged roll out of solar to meet needs / wallet - even adding different panels later down the line - as technology changes - string inverters are only suitable for the whole "adequately sized" installation. (NSW central coast - patchy rain today - Spring, solar faces NW - topography reasons - 24kWh produced - 18kWh exported between 6am and 5:45pm - SE string inverter with optimisers.) Power companies are fighting back hard to reign in the ca$h drain to residential solar owners - governments are facilitating the clawback (fortunately my household has been well into the cash positive territory with solar over the last 6 years, while power ($$) rates have increased at least 50% - of course it took a capital investment, 6 years ago savings was paying negative rates and the stockmarket was going sideways - I see it as a great investment..)
Is there anyway you can store or use electricity as soon as its being generated from your PV panels (ie no minimum or very low voltage 10volts)? Such as storing it in a DC battery, using a hybrid battery or charging your EV? If there is a way, could you please describe it. As we're looking to install a large East/West solar array and have an Ioniq 5 too
Using bi-facial panels so close to the roof tiles is just pointless. Micro inverters are more inefficient than normal DC strings. Disappointing video Imogen.
The bifaciality gives about 5% extra apparently, if installed on a roof. It'd give quite a bit more if installed on a ground-mount or vertically. Regarding microinverters, I don't know about more inefficient, I think it's about the same as a typical string inverter, but I struggle to see their value if there isn't significant shading to deal with. Perhaps if there is a chimney or similar, put them on the nearest panels to the chimney, but I don't see the point of putting them on all the panels.
This is far from the worst of it. One of the worst fully charged videos ever. But the bifacials are not bad, depending on how much of a premium Heatable charges for bifacials. Bifacials these days are almost on parity with standard panels for some solar panel manufacturers, so you get the advantage of having your silicon sandwiched between two glass layers instead of one glass and one aluminium with coating for the same price. But i seriously doubt that these snake oil salesmen are charging the real prices here.
- putting bicacials on tilts (or stand-offs) - can allow a bit more ambient back scatter collection- somewhat better cloudy day performance - probably better with a metal roof rather than tile.
Assuming that the current from these panels gets fed directly into you home's electrical system, how is the 50 hertz from the panel inverter(s) synced up with the 50 hertz coming out of the grid power coming in from the electrical utility.
Why aren’t optimisers mentioned for normal PV arrays where you only have one inverter? The guy in the video makes it sound like a micro-inverter per panel is the only way to be able to monitor the performance of each panel and also manage shading issues, which just isn’t true … I thought EE would have picked up on that? I have two arrays, one with 11 panels, the other with 10 panels, so assuming the inverters I’ve got have a 200V startup voltage, then there doesn’t seem to be any benefit of the micro-inverters over the optimisers I’m using? I like the idea of generating power on the back of the panel … although I’d be surprised (and am a bit dubious) that the rear of the panel can generate 20% extra power just by the tiny about of light that creeps through the cracks between each solar cell … given that the cells on the back will only be generating by the light that’s reflected off the roof tiles? 🤔
Does anyone know why, if you have panels collecting light from both sides, you wouldn't put some kind of reflective coating or board between the panel and the roof?
Why would anyone in their right mind spend 75-100EUR per solar panel, and then add another 130-150EUR for a micro-inverter per panel! The bifaciality here is just useless this close to a dark grey shingled roof, the only good thing is that these days bifacial panels are on price parity with normal panels, so it should cost nothing more for panels sandwiched between two layers of glass. Loads of useless nonsense here, i hope Heatable paid the fully charged crew well for this "infomercial", with surprisingly bad info in it.
Thank you for this comment. It appears this heatable guy is hell bent on misleading his customers and the general public about what micro inverters are meant for. I left a comment similar to the one you wrote here on his channel but he is here again repeating the same lies and the presenter is helping him to promote his falsehoods. Perhaps this whole presentation is a paid ad.
If you wish to stay off the grid as much as possible, to avoid higher energy costs (and reduce system payback time) then, low voltage start up would be desirable to many people. Especially in grey ol' UK.
@@benbocc1549 low voltage start up is even easier to achieve on some string/hybrid inverters than these micro inverters. The Goodwe ES G2 for example has a startup voltage of 58V and an mppt range of 60 to 600V. With several panels in series, this hybrid inverter will achieve 58 and 60V faster than a micro inverter can achieve 20V on a single panel. Micro inverters have their places, especially in installations with extreme shading problems. Why this heatable guy is desperately advertising them for what they are not meant for is most likely a matter of pure greed and selfishness.
@@benbocc1549 I am not sure low startup voltage is that useful really. This is just a carrot to sell more microinverters. You want high string voltages to keep the amps down to reduce friction losses. You also want high string voltages for more efficient inverters. Take a look at the victron inverters for 12V, 24V and 48V systems. Notice the price difference between the respective voltages for the same power output. They are more priced per Amp as per Watt between these 3 voltage standards. Panels have an inherent voltage even when not generating meaningful current or power, this depends on the number of cells (shortcircuit voltage). Once they get insolated they start generating power, but how much power and at what exact voltage (and thus amperage) varies on many factors. Therefor every modern solar inverter or charger has one or more MPPTs built in. These trackers constantly adjust the voltage to be able to get the maximum power out of your panels. Inverters and chargers come in different shapes and sizes and different MPPT ranges. Imogen claims to give us a science lesson and then states that some hypothetical big string inverter has a starting voltage of 200V whereas these microinverters have starting voltage of 20V, and then claims that the lower starting voltage means a bigger "range". Total nonsense. She is talking about completely different things. You can have a big string inverter with a starting voltage of 200V and a maximum voltage of 450. And you can have a single panel inverter with a starting voltage of 20V going to 60V. The big inverter then has a way bigger range (250V), and the smaller inverter has a range of 40V. So nothing of what she claims to be "Science" makes any sense. The advantage of having one micro-inverter per panel is that you have one MPPT per panel, and can track the maximum power point on a per panel basis. And that is the only advantage. Everything else is a big disadvantage, from price, complexity of installation (and with increased complexity comes increased failure rates) and efficiency of the whole system. You might get some more power out of some panels from time to time though, but this is not true for this installation here as there seems little in the way of shading. This whole film is paid for nonsense fluff. Almost no-one needs a big solar array with micro-inverters and enphase only has a business because of low knowledge customers with too much money to burn. As soon as enough people catch on, enphase will go out of business unless they can actually scale their company down to serving only a few niche installations.
One thing i didn’t hear asked not answered was if the inverter goes out but the panel’s still good can you swap out the inverter itself and not the panel or does it even matter bc they’ll just swap out the whole panel with inverter under warranty?
@@robinbennett5994 Except: "This is the iqa uh HC ACM and that's the cradle that it sits in so this is a different version than you would normally get with n phase" - 3:30 ish How much you want to bet that you can't buy them separately?
Something tells me that this microinverter is going to be bonded to the panel... With a glue that can endure multiple 80+C cycles a day for 25 years. You can buy them separately but good luck prying this thing off.
So, if I had a patio, thirty feet from the batteries, If I used micro grid inverts for the roof, the sunlight hitting the concreate pad and the ambient light would add to the total.
@@WyndStryke Cheaper is not necessarily better. The issue is voltage drop. Depending upon wire gauge, over greater distances AC has less voltage drop, as T. Edison learned. To be clear, I do not know the answer.
@@chrisconklin2981 For a short distance like 30 feet, there's not much voltage drop (on either AC or DC) given a reasonable wire gauge. You should be able to use 4mm DC cable without any issue. If you were going longer than that, then 6mm. At 90 feet then you might need to transition to 10mm cable if you wanted to keep under the 1% voltage drop benchmark. Even with 10mm cable, it'd still be significantly cheaper than using microinverters ... and there's no reason to be using DC cable in that situation anyway, you can put the small string inverter in the patio, and just run A/C from the patio back to the consumer unit (what's what I'd be doing). The reason I'd run A/C is not the voltage drop, it's that A/C joints are more tolerant and don't arc in the same way.
20 volts startup voltage from one panel or 200 volts from a string of 10 panels is effectively exactly the same so claiming a lower startup voltage is very misleading.
Would definitely love to install solar on my roof but got rejected twice by our utility here in Slovenia 😢😢. They said that grid can't support it till they make updates to the transformer stations
It's been 14 years since I installed our solar, which paid for itself years ago. What concerns me is that the temperatures are getting so hot in the summer that my array can no longer keep up. I fear I'll have to swap some of the original panels for newer ones that are much more efficient.
How much light passes through those small gaps and bounces off a dark slate or tile roof really? It's like 5% of the area bouncing off something with 90% absorption. OK you'll get some light coming round the edges, but still. Unless I hear otherwise I'll assume that 20% from the rear face is relevant to frame mounting on the ground or a flat roof, and the benefits of bifacial on a pitched roof are negligible. As an installer I'd also recommend not to have micro-inverters up on the roof when you could have a string inverter in your garage or loft, unless there's significant shading issues.
See my recent comment. Also, if 20% is gathered after 20% first gathered, how does that work? Is it an extra fifth of the fifth, or is it a fifth of the four fifths that wasn't gathered? Lies; damn lies; and statistics?
Problem with micro inverter from Enphase panels are now 430-480w and enphase biggest micro inverter maximum output in 380w so potentially losing 100 W per panel. Better off with string system with optimisers can get most of the same advantages as micro inverter.
Not really, each panel is rated at 100 percent lab conditions. The uk generally has sun irradiance of between 650 to 750 out of a 1000. Meaning a 440w panel will only produce between 285 to 350w anyways.
The problems are 'software', I'm sorry, the inverters crash and don't self recover, how is that ok. I think micro-inverters are great if you have a roof that is accessible at a reasonable cost and is complex in layout or has complex shading issues, or you don't trust the electricians installing it to know how to crimp an MC4 connector and not set fire to your house. Otherwise I'd choose simplicity. As for properties value, for the first time ever I had to declare if I had solar PV when I did my most recent home insurance quote, I'm not sure it was to offer me a discount!
What's with all the negativity here? The guy is just highlighting some of the selling points as would anyone else promoting their product on this show. It's true microinverters may only boost the overall output by a small margin unless shading is a huge issue, and while I accept there are plenty of more budget friendly solutions which offer better output per £, there is nothing wrong with offering premium products which offer the best tech available today. The size of your roof isn't going to change over time so if max generation is the goal this package seems competitive. Even more so where non optimal orientations are concerned.
besides being a pain for the average consumer to purchase one.. what's stopping someone from buying one and plugging it into their bluetti or whatever, if it already has a micro inverter on it?
I can't really see that any advantage that micro inverters have, is outweighed by the upfrobt cost, the increased risk of failure and the difficulty and disruption of changing them. Just add a couple more panels instead and where possible don't put Bifacial panels on the roof to get the best out of them.
From a physics viewpoint I would suspect that the dark side of the panel might receive orders of magnitude less light energy than the front. The illumination of the back side will always be in direct proportion to that of the front side. This is not different on a sunny day to a cloudy day. It will not suddenly make them work better on cloudy days. If there is actual well founded scientific data plus a believable cost benefit analysis compared with the newest standard panels then I might be convinced. Not persuaded by salesman's talk sorry.
There is the idea that on cloudy days the light is less direct it comes from all around, so if you have a bifacial panel on an open field installation it might produce a bit more, on a dark roof like in the video I doubt it.
Why bond the inverter to the panel? You've now linked them in failure domain and made it harder to fix? Is it a silly ask for me to want to place the micro inverters in the attic? I don't want disparate components bonded for some reason? I want a panel on my roof and a micro inverter connected to it. With as much as possible accessible from within my attic. I think this is an obvious request. Also how can software be that bad? At the moment it feels the industry is not behaving in an innovative way. This feels like yet another mess like the EV charger situation. If any component of my house has some weird requirement on cloud or some other weird software connection the solution is not sufficient.
You are presenting old news as if it was new; microinverters were available since 2008. The panel backing is the only new part, but then you omit the most important effect - increased power draw. A panel is around 21% efficient, so what has that risen to with this new backing? Is it now 22% or approaching 30%? All the other guff about seeing your problem areas are available on most systems.
So erm, at around the 6:50 mark, the seller claims that you need micro-inverters so you can know exactly which panel is not producing... ...But then he goes on to claim that 99% of the issues are software. Pray tell what software do these solar panels run on their silicon? Oh wait, it's going to be a software issue with the oodles of micro-inverters you needlessly installed! Is there anything in this video that cannot be debunked?
Not so quick to get micro inverters! I am not convinced by your 20v startup per panel. I have a SolarEdge system, and I have 14 panels. I can see start-up at ~ 150v, for the complete string that's about 11 Volts per panel. Why get micro inverters?
Microinverters give you no high voltage DC cables on your roof. Much safer and also easier to add new panels as you don’t have to buy a new big inverter of the right size🔥
"Designed to harvest any energy in the atmosphere", the co founder can't even describe how they work. So will they harvest heat on a hot night, would they not work in space as its without an atmosphere. This honestly feels like a video sponsored by snake oil salesmen.
What is a worry is that the platform seems to make a habit of having as guests all sorts of guests who ate not quite the thing. Apart from that young Yasmin lady (chemist engineer by profession) who had a fair bit of experience in the industry working for various government outfits. Other guests it seems are chosen for their ability to instantly do the confirmation bias thing for Robert's views. As is now known sales of BEVs are now in decline. It was an experiment which failed, mainly because the general car buying public didn't appreciate the initial costs, time to recharge and dismal residuals. And of course the possibility of self ignition with some lithium tech. Doubtless this will provoke arguments but the only viable technology left for reducing the carbon in our atmosphere is hydrogen. We read scathing comments apropos the suitability of hydrogen as a fuel from those who simply don't keep up and post history lessons. This is despite car manufacturers developing hydrogen powered cars using "off the shelf" fuel cells almost, deemed to be perfectly acceptable to power cars. Granted the hydrogen fuel distribution system is pants but that was more of a governmental thing which is now being rectified albeit not before time. Come on Robert! Bite the bullet and include hydrogen info, hydrogen produces electricity which comes under the EV heading.
@@t1n4444 You have a problem with lithium to self ignite? And promote hydrogen? Ah, so you wanna see bigger booms then, quite understandable. FYI: a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has a battery pack in it due to the fact the fuel cell can not provide enough power for acceleration.
@@Sekir80 😂😂😂 What on earth are you droning on about? Clearly you don't quite grasp the technology so allow me: hydrogen gas has to mix with air at a certain ratio before the mix becomes explosive. The ratios can be found online to save me cribbing out the info here. However, hydrogen gas, being the lightest element in the Periodic Table, has the property of being the fastest rising gas of all. This means that an escape of hydrogen gas into the atmosphere will rise up so fast in the air ocean it won't have time to mix into an explosive so to speak, unless confined of course. If you were to research the Hindenburg airship disaster you will find there was no huge explosion. The airship burned but did not explode. The fire was a result of the dope covered outer sheath burning in air. The hydrogen gas had risen so quickly it no longer posed a risk of explosion. Ergo you have little understanding of hydrogen science. You would have been wise to research all this prior to posting. Now, hydrogen cars requiring a buffer battery to allow for acceleration from stationary ... so what? The fuel cell will be charging the battery as the battery discharges through acceleration. Again, so what? Hydrogen fuel cell cars have been working for over a decade, as in the Marai. Recently fuel cell cars and buses were to be seen in Paris providing logistical support as in transporting competitors and official to the various venues. In short the French wished to parade their "green credentials" to the world at large. The hydrogen used was reduced by green energy to. underline their attempts to be as green as possible. Again you could have found this out for yourself prior to posting if only you had applied yourself, but you failed miserably. BEVs are now in decline and unless such a BEV can be "invented" which is "cheap", can be charged in minutes to provide similar "performance of operability" to a petrol/diesel car then they are destined to be a mere footnote on history. What Robert will find in seminars yet to be is that increasing numbers of people will be asking about hydrogen fuel cell cars. It may be Robert has gone too far in "poo pooing" hydrogen he will find it difficult to start proclaiming them as the future, as they undoubtedly are. This is the trouble when setting out one's stall without allowing some wriggle room in which to effect a "u" turn which is credible or believable. When people set out their stall on a public platform they must expect to be challenged ... in the same way as yourself.
Its really a product for a problem that doesnt exist. It you get hail damage or a squirrel chews the cable you have expensive replacement costs just because somebody has glued a micro inverter to the back of it. Also will these be available in 10+ years time when you need a replacement, judging by the past you will be searching eBay in a hope of picking up a secondhand one. So what does it really offer you over over separate items. I suspect nothing. It will save the installer time which increases their profit margin but you see no benefit.
Connecting solar panels in series is a tad silly as in when one is occluded they're all occluded. Plenty of info online. Plus having inverters on the roof is daft. Having mains voltage is perhaps not a good idea when safer low volt circuits are to be preferred. Again, info online. How do you repair or replace them? Might work when array is in a garden, say, and panels easy to get to. Why Imogen and Robert? Just why? Robert, these episodes tell us more about your tech team than the subject matter. For example it might have been useful if we knew the overall efficiency of these panels if only for a contextual comparison. Any claims over 20% would not be believed. Unless the panels were part of a laboratory exercise that is.
First of all you won't be doing that on asbestos panels roof. So changing roof and having solar is double the cost. If your neighbors or your pet supply can have it, you stuck with never having the funds. 9:50 😄 good luck, with that - Ignitis does everything you wished playing it in your smartphone, but you don't have that roof at your home. Your every video possibly is a solar panel and you have it on your roof. Unique to you is you have those videos and that Laravel form validation would be you are testing your power grid with another channel because you wish to make everybody in your organization to do it change the social network roofs or whatever.
No panel on the market is making a whole array of panels fail because of one panel fail. "If one fail - all fail" is a MYTH! Every panel have a bypass diode in them so all panels that still work will continue produce their power.
@@Pottery4Life The suggestion that AC is much safer than DC is simply wrong. Having that many inverters also increases the chance of failure - I've had 2 inverters fail on me in the last 3 years and having them on the roof means scaffolding to fix - not cheap! More cabling with micro inverters, limited choice of battery storage and less efficient storage as you have to do AC/DC/AC when charging/discharging so lots of transfer losses. if the concern is solar production due to shading then solar optimisers are a far more cost effective solution at 30GBP per panel rather than 160GBP for an enphase micro inverter. I could come up with more misinformation if you'd like?
I don't have a problem with heatables offering but independent advice is what consumers need and it seems heatable have paid a few channels to get their product advertised on RUclips, without any independent critique.
The best part of this is , the MicroInverter costs nearly as much as the solar panel itself if not a little more down our side..... so If you use microinverters you just end up more than doubling your cost. Another crazy thing is , with 20 Panels you use 20 microinverters so now you have 20 panels that can fail plus 20 inverters that can fail, which will need to be replaced individually everytime and you need to get onto that roof to get it done.... but with the string inverter you have 20 panels as points of failure and just one additional inverter as a point of failure and the moment that fails it can be immediately replaced at the cost of just 2 microinverters , the shading and partial covering is not that much of an issue these days with monoperc halfcut topcon n-type bifacials and by the way bifacial panels are never stuck onto a roof.... you have to have a minimum mounting height equivalent to the length of the panel to make atleast most of what the bifacial has to offer , and those thin transparent lines between the cells.... won't allow enough sunlight through to even light up a half watt bulb with all those panels connected.
Don’t have the bifacial panels, but do have Canadian solar panels rated at 440w connected to an Enphase system. 6.6kw in total.
Here in Melbourne, Aus, it started generating this morning at 6:20am and stopped at 6:15pm.
35.5kWh today.
Alright mate, don't rub it in.🤣
Nice.
That’s cool. I’m in the UK and have pretty standard panels with a pretty standard string inverter.
It started generating at 6:50 this morning with sunrise at 7:01.
@@jesseb4me
That's nothing!
I get 0.1V off the moon!
Mind you no current to speak of.
@@t1n4444 Amusingly, our home battery inverter keeps indicating up to about 10 Watts coming from our nonexistent array. Yay! Free energy!! ⚡😀⚡ (jk)
My feeling is that these and similar systems are premium offerings that are basically upselling solar systems to increase the margins of the installer. I don't think the majority of people will see enough benefit to warrant the extra cost. Solar panels are much better at dealing with shade and low light than they used to be owing to having half cut cells and three bypass diodes meaning the panel still produces power in partial shade (as it is divided into sections).
I'd rather have a well installed system without all the extra inverters on the roof. I would imagine that a solar panel is more durable and reliable than an inverter so you are adding multiple extra points of failure (panels + inverters vs just panels). Probably the most important source of failure is water ingress in connectors so having fewer of them on the roof has to be a better option and with carefull installation (drip loops and sheilding them from rain), you can minimise the chance of failure.
The thing that wasn't clear to me from the video is, now the output from the solar install is AC rather than DC, so it will have to be converted back to DC again somewhere if I want a battery storage solution.
Does that mean an additional box to somewhere to manage the batteries and power conversion?
What are the overall losses like in this double conversion vs a "standard PV install"?
How much additional power will be needed to run the box doing the power conversion?
What powers the micro-inverters? If the electricity grid goes offline, do the panels turn into expensive roof tiles and the house loses power, or can they still generate and run the house?
"I would imagine that a solar panel is more durable and reliable than an inverter so you are adding multiple extra points of failure (panels + inverters vs just panels)."
They give you a 25-year warranty on these panels, including the micro inverters and cables, compared to the typical 10-year warranty on larger inverters. In my view, this system is much better.
@@chrisdixon5241 panels with micro-inverters are not advisable if you plan to have a battery storage solution. It depends on the country you live in. In the UK, given that there's not much sunlight, having a battery storage unit might not make sense, therefore panels with micro-inverters are a good option (micro inverters have a warranty of 25years while normal inverters don't go over 10-15years).
If you live somewhere with plenty of sunshine, you could get panels with power optimizers on them (so you can still see what they are doing individually), a battery and one inverter. And if the electricity grid goes offline your panels will not generate power, no matter what system you install.
@@chrisdixon5241 ... However If you want a DC battery ""later on", you need a hybrid inverter up front (or a changeover cost will occur). If you put in an AC grid coupled inverter up front and want a battery later, the cheapest route is an AC coupled battery with its own secondary inverter supplying a "backed up circuit" - or with automatic switching (ATS) of a selected circuit over to the battery when the power goes out or the sun stops shining (choose your own poison) - NB. it also needs to switch back to the grid under normal conditions when the battery is depleted - preferably while the battery is above 20% - voltage sag and other negatives occur when Lithium batteries are depleted further under high power conditions.
@@денисбаженов-щ1б not sure if you are for or against. What's more likely to fail, something with 20 points of failure or something with 40-50? More complexity never results in more reliability.
I'm being a bit picky, but photons and electrons can't be converted from one to another, they are different animals, photons transfer their energy to electrons is a more accurate description.
If you're going to criticise someone's inaccurate use of language to simplify an idea to a general audience, you probably shouldn't also call photons and electrons "animals" in the same improperly constructed and improperly punctuated sentence.
Not being picky, good point. The way I understand it, a photon from the sun strikes an electron in the silicon wafer to break its bond thus freeing the electron. Is this sort of accurate? P.S. Don’t mind Mr. no one
she's beautiful so she is right, get over it mate
She also conflates starting voltage with range. None of her supposed science makes any sense.
@@luc_libv_verhaegen Leave her alone satan
I keep hearing this marketing-speak about startup voltage. It's not a important as they make it out to be. An inverter may startup earlier in low-light conditions, but that's when energy available is less anyway. So you might get 50% earlier startup, at a time where 2% of the day's energy is available. So I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
totally agreed. In a sense these videos just confuse people who get caught up in the nitty gritty. these single inverters massively increase the cost per panel for minimal benefit.
Startup voltage can be an issue but most modern inverters have no problems with it at all. Also the voltage is here as soon as the light is, current is the problem.
@@Piperman They are pushing this because it's Australian may a cheaper deal because we are out of the E.U.They say bullshit baffles brain.
As long has you have the right number of panels on your inverter it's fine. Heatable is in the volume game they just want to sell the same parts to 10,000 homes hence the micro-inverter thing. What they're selling to you as a benefit is actually a benefit to their business model.
@@edc1569 my thoughts exactly. Plus you can charge a premium and your mark-up on the equipment earns more because it's a percentage. The cost of good quality solar equipment has come right down and yet installers find a way to keep the price for an installation the same or higher. It's like whenever there is a government subsidy, the total price seems to increase at least as much as the subsidy saved you!
Thanks EES Team for another top video on sustainable energy. These panels seem suited to certain circumstances but need to crunch the numbers on return on investment. It might be best bang for buck to go the standard panel/inverter mix (if you have the roof space) and just spend the extra $ on more panels.
I am an energy engineer. Microinverters aren’t used in order to get better efficiency on cloudy days, or extend production to early morning or late evening. This is just wrong. We use microinverters on systems with complex shading conditions. That’s their main advantage. They also come with a number of their own issues.
Thank you for this comment. It appears this heatable guy is hell bent on misleading his customers and the general public about what micro inverters are meant for. I left a comment similar to the one you wrote here on his channel but he is here again repeating the same lies and the presenter is helping him to promote his falsehoods. Perhaps this whole presentation is a paid ad.
All we need is honesty and low cost.The Chinese in my opinion will cover that.To expensive we won't buy.
@@adon8672 yeah I feel like if these were legitimately taking off, people would be using them directly solar generators, and they aren't, so, why not. seems suspicious to me.
If a micro inverter can start producing at 20v, not 150v like my system, I am all ears; it can be hard to get shorter strings going otherwise. Agree that microinverters mitigate part shade of panels, but as the product shows, they can also maximise productivity periods (as was very well explained by the presenter, gg).
Would add that well designed cheaper dc systems can also do a good enough job on cloudy days, for those on a tighter budget.
This is exactly right, micro, inverters, help optimize when there’s different voltages coming out of the different panels.
With a single inverter, it’s a kind of lowest common denominator output, so the worst outputting panel limits the other panels.
This can happen if one panel is shaded, but the others and Sun like you said, but it can be for other reasons one panel might just be worse than the other ones.
Regardless, it has to little to do with overcast days…
Micro inverters or optimisers are a great solution to a shading problem…if there’s no shading, don’t fit them. One string inverter is far less likely to fail compared to 14? Micros or optimisers operating in harsh weather conditions. As for efficiency, they are worse, by approx 2%. That super 20 year warranty is great but it won’t pay for the scaffolding which could 10x the cost of the micro! The voltage on panels in series is multiplied by the number of panels, so there’s no issue with start up. Trying to replace a panel with a built in micro in a few years could be a real head ache. Don’t pay extra for a problem you may not have. No substantial shading = No to micros or optimisers 100%.
Also if it does fail it's in you loft /garage and you can just swap it with no drama.
People are so concerned about a minuscule efficiency difference and then they leave all kinds of lights and appliances on when not home 😂
As an installer we have to argue with customers about this quite a bit. Too many people obsess about chasing negligible benefits, thus adding complexity at greater cost and lower reliability. When simple works, it's the way to go.
@@MustangGlos actually string inverted is the part most likely to fail on solar system which is why they only have 10yr warranty, compared with micro-inverters matching panels at 25yr warranty.
@@Lawrence7of9 even if the micro inverters were twice as reliable, if you were to have, say 14 of them, you are still 7x more likely to experience a failure. Plus the expense of scaffolding which could be around £800. Having installed upwards 40k of solar panels, I have the data to back that up.
Microinverters are such a scam... "If one fails, all will fail". Well, perhaps he haven't learned yet about bypass diodes. 200V for string inverter to start vs 20V for single panel? Well, guess what - string of 10 panels, each generating 20V gets you to 200V already. And most string inverters can start with 120-150V, btw.
Put on top the fact that the microinverter operates directly at the hot solar panel on the roof, in rain, freezing temperatures, hot temperatures, ... while the string inverter is somewhere in a garage or at least shielded space...
And many people found out about the problems with warranty - you will get replacement of the microinverter, sure. But is it still compatible with the old ones you have? Or do you have to suddenly replace all of them due to one faulty? And if your installer went out of business and you don't have the same code to connect them all together?
And then add the price and we are done.
Yeah. Quite a lot of bollocks in this piece. We must have reasonably good stats on the relative lifetimes of microinverters and string inverters by now as they've been going on roofs for more than a decade. Bifacial panels do seem like a good idea though, as all you do is miss out the plastic backing. Is there a downside?
I've had micro inverters on a previous house (installed by a company that we engaged) and we have a dual string inverter on our current house.
The first thing that happened was that the micro inverter company went bust and the 20 year warranty went with it. Luckily, in the ten years or so of ownership none of the inverters died and the system performed well. We had some shading and the MI were ideal for that scenario.
In our current house the string inverter died last year and we had it replaced at a cost of about £600. The new inverter has performed very well so far and where I thought that the poor performance was due to trees causing shade previously, no such issues with the new inverter. This is on a ten year old system. The panels are working fine.
If I was starting out again with a fresh install, and assuming that there is no major shading, I'd go with a string inverter. Why? It costs less in hardware and, if unlucky enough to have an inverter die, it's a one hour job to replace it and there is no need for scaffolding or engineers trying to balance on roof ladders to change a panel cheaply.
Do micro inverters fail? Well, we were lucky in that none did. A neighbour who also had the same brand of inverter has seen half of his die gradually over the past twelve years. Yes, they may be under warranty, but the warranty "may" only cover the hardware costs, the installer being responsible for the cost of installation and, if he has closed the company down the cost for the scaffolding and the labour may fall upon the customer - if he can find somebody willing to change the hardware.
Bang on! It's like with harddrives and RAID array, the MTBF (mean-time-before-failure) of individual units divided by the number of units is the MTBF of the whole system.
I've always wondered if, in the future, homes should just have an AC and a DC line.
Because I bought one of those sockets that also have USB ports on them. And it just struck me as odd to, you know, capture DC with a solar panel, store it DC in a battery, convert it to AC with an inverter, it travels a few meters, then it's converted back to DC again to go into, say, a DC battery (like a phone or laptop).
There's, like, some needless conversions there. And I was thinking, instead, a battery-equipped house could run an AC line to traditional 3-pin sockets, but then also there's a DC line that runs to a bunch of USB C ports around the house.
Low-power devices can skip the AC conversion. Just plug them into the USB port with a direct DC connection to the battery.
Efficiency!
It's going to be fun frying your 5V DC USB devices with the 500V+ from solar... You will need all kind of voltage conversion on that DC line anyway, even if it is more efficient there will still be losses.
I have a 2kwh ugreen battery that does what you described, using in a van so could be an issue scaling to a house. 4 full wattage AC plugs and loads of usb DC outputs, native solar input connections too
For the amount of energy saved, it's likely never going to offset the initial setup cost, the additional complexity of having two sets of wires running through your house and the maintenance of that wiring.
DC >40V gets super sketchy. I've worked on rail projects that used 750VDC, the breakers for dealing with DC faults were the size of home refrigerators, the AC breakers of equivalent capacity were the the size of a toaster. You can do lots of clever stuff with DC, but ultimately you need big mechanical systems to deal with DC faults when all the smarts arc out.
@@klaxoncow half my property is wired with 24VDC
Hats off to the production team for the very clear audio from Imogen, and the iv.
Great product! Almost makes me want to buy a home. It’s crazy that more villages and towns don’t have a community investment fund to build community solar with things like this around. It’s so easy to finance something like this.
What about DC battery storage with this microinverter system? Presumably it would not work and an AC-coupled battery is needed which might be more expensive or bulky.
You'd need to convert back from AC to DC again to charge the batteries, which would result in more losses and basically negate the benefits of the microinverters. Any AC coupled battery is still doing an AC to DC conversion, as a battery doesn't charge with AC current. So the most efficient solution is likely to be DC panels going straight into DC batteries, as there's only one conversion, that's when discharging the batteries.
@@mentality-monsterload of rubbish every little is lost from AC back to DC.
People are so concerned about a minuscule efficiency difference and then they leave all kinds of lights and appliances on when not home 😂
Hi, would EverythingElectric consider doing a roundup of the most recent solar panels available in the UK? Panels like Astronergy N7s, Phono Solar Draco & Aiko Neostar, specifically testing the cloudy day performance. This would be very valuable information.
The sales hype around micro-inverters is mis-representation, and not persuasive. And 20% bi-facial gain is a real thing, especially with ground-mount. But installed tight against black asphalt shingles? Nope. That is another mis-representation. Does not inspire trust.
Enphase is great quality, fantastic warranty and customer service 😊.
Heatable fitted REA bifacial panels (6.3kw) & 10kw battery storage. We have trees around our property too, but system has been excellent - along with Heatable - just completed 1st year installed. We have since added ASHP & run an EV but our electric bill (no gas now) is less than before. Alot less, 4cast use under £500 a year, feed in about £300, so our annual energy/car fuel bill £200. 😂 brilliant.
let us know in 15 years.
How much did you pay? And how much would it have cost with normal panels and string inverters?
Someone asked but can’t reply direct (google error) of 3 recommended estimates Heatable was cheapest, £16k. A less advanced panel same size & string inverter (10yr warranty) was more expensive. 25yr warranty on micro-inverters won! Then later discovered bifacial panels way more advanced.
@@Lawrence7of9 I did not anticipate that. Could it be that this was quoted at the height of the energy crunch and that only overly expensive charlatans actually had the capacity to provide sensible quotes, whereas all others were inundated with requests and unable to answer them all?
@@luc_libv_verhaegen the same company later offered me their latest panels/string for slightly less, but still inferior kit, and I’d already gone with Heatable. So pointless & they lost sale.
Investment wise the added value to property makes solar/battery a no-brainer option, the free clean/energy is the bonus!
Yes, but, you're presuming the kit is working 100% for the sale.
The word "investment' seems at times to be a tad optimistic.
@ investment means added value you would not otherwise have, it’s a great investment.
@@Lawrence7of9
Not really.
All depends on one's locale.
Splendid option for the hazy sunlit uplands perhaps but not necessarily for all areas in dear old Blighty.
Which is why area storage batteries may be a better option as said batteries can charge off the grid.
It is becoming ever more clear that electricity is not necessarily a "one size fits all" solution.
In any event it looks as if private buyers of battery EVs in UK are declining in numbers.
We see evermore desperation in the motor trade to sell used BEVs to an "audience" who has moved on, or back, to fossil.fuel cars.
What with Rachel finding ever more cunning ways of abstracting taxes from.the general population then will she leave enough cash in people's wallets and purses simply to get whatever car one owns serviced let alone buy another vehicle.
I dont like the idea of having micro inverters since if you have say 16 panels then that's 16x more chances to have to replace 1 if one fails, if you have one large inverter its statically more resilient, although if it goes wrong you stop generation entirely but you don't have to get onto the roof to replace it. I also bet that 16x micro inverters cost more than 1 large inverter on average
Exactly and the 25 year guarantee, nice but that's just the product, the installer coming over is the expensive part not the product.
@@JonasHenn And the scaffolding to get them up there!
@@JonasHenn installer will be long gone.
The microinverters are about 130-150EUR each, whereas panels are like 75-100EUR each these days. If you really have a shading issue, and want to compensate for the lost production, then you are much better off installing more panels than to go for micro-inverters.
Conversely when the string inverter fails you get no power! Micro inverters or string inverter do your research before buying as each have their pros and cons.
In the end the inverter has an output of 230/400 V so if you feed it with 250 - 900 V DC it's way more efficient than using 20 V DC and converting that to 230V
Then you have electrics on your roof minus 10° in winter and plus 60° in sommer because it's directly mounted on the back on the Panel. Which is also really not a great idea because of heat. And that should last for 25 years I doubt it. Which brings us to the guarantee very nice, but it's just the micro inverter which is about 100£ or even less but how much is the installer coming by and replacing the thing?
As an installer I would very rarely go for a microinverter solution. If an installer goes for it on all his installations he probably just has no idea an looks for the one fits all option, which in my opinion dose not exist.
- however "most" DC coupled batteries aren't really running at 400V - or whatever the nominal coupling voltage is - that would necessitate over 100 cells in series and most of the offerings are merely running 7-15 Series ( depending on the cell chemistry LMN or LFP - and the desired low voltage level - 24 through to 52 VDC).. To take it up to the voltages needed for bidirectional coupling (rectification and inversion) to 240 or 120 VAC etc. DC (up to 339VDC) level shifting has to occur..
@@kadmow I almost exclusively install high voltage batteries BYD HVS or HVM.
In Ontario Canada just installed some Bifacial panels, in a vertical East facing direction. Intended to catch morning and evening sun and low winter sun from both sides. Also since they are vertical they will not collect winter snow.
Use a central inverter, looked into micro inverters, did not want the added complexity, cost and low reliability by being installed in the weather, plus how far in the future will replacements be available. Wires on solar panels are simple therefore far more reliable then complex micro inverters.
THE FUTURE IS GETTING BRIGHTER 🌞 ALL THE TIME 🔋🔋🔋
They didn't put anti pigeon mesh under panels
The best ROI is on a small 1000-watt system with a microinverter that can handle 2 panels that are grid-tied. Especially when you can install yourself on a shed, 400 quid should do. Energy generated should be consumed, so working from home helps as running dishwashers, and dryers and watching machines during the day. Payback time is just over a year. The ROI increases when we start oversizing and overcomplicating things and adding batteries. A 25-year warranty means nothing in a cutthroat industry like solar with plenty of companies going bust.
Doesn’t putting the micro-inverter over the backside cells of the panel reduce the overall output?
@@OffgridApartment yes, in various ways
The suggestion that DC only strings are not safe is fundamentally wrong! If the concern is the need for rapid shutdown then put in solar optimisers such as Tigo's, which are MUCH cheaper than having separate microinverters for each panel. Adding enphase is an easy way to triple the cost of a solar array for limited benefit.
Why triple ??
@@stephenbrickwood1602 I buy 450w panels for 65GBP an Enphase microinverter is 160GBP add in the extra wiring and spark/scaffold time you'll easily triple the cost. Plus I can't use much cheaper 48v LifePo4 batteries without doing AC/DC/AC conversions whereas a regular solar DC inverter will do the much more efficient DC/DC conversion.
Spot on.
Im researching for large-scale production of roofing sheets printed with PV cells, the micro inverter is a very good addition
I have been enjoyed, so thank you for sharing.
My concern with the integrated inverter is what happens if it fails?
You then have to replace the whole solar panel.
no, only the micro inverter would need replacing
with AC coming directly from each panel does this then mean you need another invertor to convert excess power back to DC for battery storage?
Wonder if you'd want to paint the roof under the panels white to reflect more of the light on the back of the panels. Would it matter or could you get a bit more produciton out of it? Was thinking they were going to touch upon the technology that has micro prisms or reflectors in a sheet layer that concentrates the light in low light conditions.
Many solar panels fitted to homes have a white layer behind the PV modules to give the light an extra ‘chance’ of generating as it is bounced back up through the PV.
A transparent back is helpful if there’s additional light to gather from behind the panels - think ground mount systems elevated above sand or snow.
But mounted a few inches above a roof, there’s not much room for that extra light to enter the rear face of the panels.
@@jesseb4me But if you have panels like this where there are slots between the cells, and since they're double sided, you'd think having that white background would help generate a little bit more than not having it. Or is it really negligible?
I was wondering the same thing if painting the roof white would help with bifacial panels. Would at the very least help cool the roof being white. I am not a fan of the new trend of black roofs. The government tried to ban it in Australia but there was too much push back.
@@lavectech forget painting the roof - it’ll be shaded by the panels themselves. My loft space is cooler now as I have a roof full of solar to shade it, and the air gap behind the panels lets it circulate.
Forget this attempt to market something different - just buy standard solar that has that white/reflective rear layer.
Having the back of the panel transparent isn’t helpful - it’ll just mean more light passes through and hits your roof!
Would a backing sheet not help generate more. Gloss white or even a mirror finish?
The enphase system does AC all the way it seems.
This means that for batteries to work, they have to be AC coupled. So for any electrons to go into the batteries, the AC current has to be transformed to the DC that the battery accepts, and then to use battery power, you have to invert it back to AC.
This is shown in the data for one of their IQ batteries (the 3.3kWh one): the battery itself claims to have a 96% roundtrip efficiency, but the AC inverter that has to be included has a 89% roundtrip efficiency. For an equivalent DC system, you only do the AC conversion once, so logically and simplistically we can take the efficiency of the micro-inverter(s) and the efficiency of the battery itself as the efficiency of the whole DC system. Then we are still left with the 89% of the extra 2 inversions that the Enphase battery system has to do.
As soon as you add storage to this system, all supposed advantages of the enphase system go up in smoke... Well, heat actually...
This video seems out to throw anything at the viewer and blind viewers with half truths. More truthful presentation please
Do you earth the solar panels ? incase of lightning strikes. As there have been a number of storms here in the uk. And increasing. As this is the number 1 cause of catastrophic failure. This would be my concern of having solar panels. Thanks.
How will these panels compare to the new Perovskite panels which might be available soon? Is it worth waiting for the newer technology if the panels might be cheaper and and more efficient?
I have a 13 panel array with micro-inverters. As the house is an old Victorian Farmhouse the roof could be described as all over the place. There are 6 South East facing panels with at least one shaded by a dormer window in the early morning. There are seven South West facing panels with a large chimney stack shading one or more sometime in the afternoon. Today was a poor day for the array but I can tell the output for each panel and the best panel produced twice as much as the worst.
Very interesting 👍
Even if the panels have lower voltage they might start producing at about the same time with a microinverter as with string inverter. As for the string inverter all voltages from the panels get added up anyway. Also Enphase microinverters are shit for most panels over 400W, they just can't get the most of such panels. I'd rather get Hoymiles microinverters. Also no use pretending Enphase is special, what he describes are microinverter advantages in general.... This is a commercial...
Can’t wait to see these on more and more roofs. We have a south facing rear roof and i mean perfection sun rises in the East and Sets in the West over a ark over our house. Prices are coming down and new innovations is always welcome. Is it worth the 10% premium time will tell.
Feasibility in lower light, does this mean that if a roof has a greater than optimal pitch angle, it will also function in a similar way?
What about painting the roof white under the panels before you fit. Would this increase the power output?
Just be reflective under each panel. The whole roof doesn't need to be painted.
Love the show and Fully Charged, love the clear, as this video, explanations of technological advancements and the bow wave of incontrovertible information to counter the greedy fossil fuel lobby's frenzied campaign of misinformation ! We also desperately need some consideration for flat owners. Can we install electric boilers and have some discrete but effective solar panels on minimal "real estate" ? What's out there for us if we want to kick our gas combi into touch and get some of the financial benefits of solar !??
You sent the crims to Australia - now it looks like some are coming back, lol.
Microinverter systems also allow staged roll out of solar to meet needs / wallet - even adding different panels later down the line - as technology changes - string inverters are only suitable for the whole "adequately sized" installation.
(NSW central coast - patchy rain today - Spring, solar faces NW - topography reasons - 24kWh produced - 18kWh exported between 6am and 5:45pm - SE string inverter with optimisers.)
Power companies are fighting back hard to reign in the ca$h drain to residential solar owners - governments are facilitating the clawback (fortunately my household has been well into the cash positive territory with solar over the last 6 years, while power ($$) rates have increased at least 50% - of course it took a capital investment, 6 years ago savings was paying negative rates and the stockmarket was going sideways - I see it as a great investment..)
Is there anyway you can store or use electricity as soon as its being generated from your PV panels (ie no minimum or very low voltage 10volts)? Such as storing it in a DC battery, using a hybrid battery or charging your EV?
If there is a way, could you please describe it. As we're looking to install a large East/West solar array and have an Ioniq 5 too
Using bi-facial panels so close to the roof tiles is just pointless. Micro inverters are more inefficient than normal DC strings. Disappointing video Imogen.
Very disappointing indeed. I suspect the heatable guy paid for this presentation.
The bifaciality gives about 5% extra apparently, if installed on a roof. It'd give quite a bit more if installed on a ground-mount or vertically. Regarding microinverters, I don't know about more inefficient, I think it's about the same as a typical string inverter, but I struggle to see their value if there isn't significant shading to deal with. Perhaps if there is a chimney or similar, put them on the nearest panels to the chimney, but I don't see the point of putting them on all the panels.
This is far from the worst of it. One of the worst fully charged videos ever.
But the bifacials are not bad, depending on how much of a premium Heatable charges for bifacials. Bifacials these days are almost on parity with standard panels for some solar panel manufacturers, so you get the advantage of having your silicon sandwiched between two glass layers instead of one glass and one aluminium with coating for the same price. But i seriously doubt that these snake oil salesmen are charging the real prices here.
- putting bicacials on tilts (or stand-offs) - can allow a bit more ambient back scatter collection- somewhat better cloudy day performance - probably better with a metal roof rather than tile.
They were too close to the roof tiles to achieve any gain.
Assuming that the current from these panels gets fed directly into you home's electrical system, how is the 50 hertz from the panel inverter(s) synced up with the 50 hertz coming out of the grid power coming in from the electrical utility.
Imogen. Awesome.
I wonder if a zinc roof would enhance the benefit of these, since light typically reflects better of metal than tile.
Why aren’t optimisers mentioned for normal PV arrays where you only have one inverter? The guy in the video makes it sound like a micro-inverter per panel is the only way to be able to monitor the performance of each panel and also manage shading issues, which just isn’t true … I thought EE would have picked up on that?
I have two arrays, one with 11 panels, the other with 10 panels, so assuming the inverters I’ve got have a 200V startup voltage, then there doesn’t seem to be any benefit of the micro-inverters over the optimisers I’m using?
I like the idea of generating power on the back of the panel … although I’d be surprised (and am a bit dubious) that the rear of the panel can generate 20% extra power just by the tiny about of light that creeps through the cracks between each solar cell … given that the cells on the back will only be generating by the light that’s reflected off the roof tiles? 🤔
Does anyone know why, if you have panels collecting light from both sides, you wouldn't put some kind of reflective coating or board between the panel and the roof?
Good thinking.
Why would anyone in their right mind spend 75-100EUR per solar panel, and then add another 130-150EUR for a micro-inverter per panel!
The bifaciality here is just useless this close to a dark grey shingled roof, the only good thing is that these days bifacial panels are on price parity with normal panels, so it should cost nothing more for panels sandwiched between two layers of glass.
Loads of useless nonsense here, i hope Heatable paid the fully charged crew well for this "infomercial", with surprisingly bad info in it.
Thank you for this comment. It appears this heatable guy is hell bent on misleading his customers and the general public about what micro inverters are meant for. I left a comment similar to the one you wrote here on his channel but he is here again repeating the same lies and the presenter is helping him to promote his falsehoods. Perhaps this whole presentation is a paid ad.
If you wish to stay off the grid as much as possible, to avoid higher energy costs (and reduce system payback time) then, low voltage start up would be desirable to many people. Especially in grey ol' UK.
@@benbocc1549 low voltage start up is even easier to achieve on some string/hybrid inverters than these micro inverters. The Goodwe ES G2 for example has a startup voltage of 58V and an mppt range of 60 to 600V. With several panels in series, this hybrid inverter will achieve 58 and 60V faster than a micro inverter can achieve 20V on a single panel. Micro inverters have their places, especially in installations with extreme shading problems. Why this heatable guy is desperately advertising them for what they are not meant for is most likely a matter of pure greed and selfishness.
@@adon8672 yes its a paid ad
@@benbocc1549 I am not sure low startup voltage is that useful really. This is just a carrot to sell more microinverters.
You want high string voltages to keep the amps down to reduce friction losses. You also want high string voltages for more efficient inverters. Take a look at the victron inverters for 12V, 24V and 48V systems. Notice the price difference between the respective voltages for the same power output. They are more priced per Amp as per Watt between these 3 voltage standards.
Panels have an inherent voltage even when not generating meaningful current or power, this depends on the number of cells (shortcircuit voltage). Once they get insolated they start generating power, but how much power and at what exact voltage (and thus amperage) varies on many factors. Therefor every modern solar inverter or charger has one or more MPPTs built in. These trackers constantly adjust the voltage to be able to get the maximum power out of your panels. Inverters and chargers come in different shapes and sizes and different MPPT ranges.
Imogen claims to give us a science lesson and then states that some hypothetical big string inverter has a starting voltage of 200V whereas these microinverters have starting voltage of 20V, and then claims that the lower starting voltage means a bigger "range". Total nonsense. She is talking about completely different things. You can have a big string inverter with a starting voltage of 200V and a maximum voltage of 450. And you can have a single panel inverter with a starting voltage of 20V going to 60V. The big inverter then has a way bigger range (250V), and the smaller inverter has a range of 40V. So nothing of what she claims to be "Science" makes any sense.
The advantage of having one micro-inverter per panel is that you have one MPPT per panel, and can track the maximum power point on a per panel basis. And that is the only advantage. Everything else is a big disadvantage, from price, complexity of installation (and with increased complexity comes increased failure rates) and efficiency of the whole system. You might get some more power out of some panels from time to time though, but this is not true for this installation here as there seems little in the way of shading.
This whole film is paid for nonsense fluff. Almost no-one needs a big solar array with micro-inverters and enphase only has a business because of low knowledge customers with too much money to burn. As soon as enough people catch on, enphase will go out of business unless they can actually scale their company down to serving only a few niche installations.
One thing i didn’t hear asked not answered was if the inverter goes out but the panel’s still good can you swap out the inverter itself and not the panel or does it even matter bc they’ll just swap out the whole panel with inverter under warranty?
There are still cables from the panel to the inverter, so you could unplug them from the integrated inverter and plug them into a replacement.
@@robinbennett5994 Except:
"This is the iqa uh HC
ACM and that's the cradle that it sits
in so this is a different version than
you would normally get with n phase"
- 3:30 ish
How much you want to bet that you can't buy them separately?
Something tells me that this microinverter is going to be bonded to the panel... With a glue that can endure multiple 80+C cycles a day for 25 years. You can buy them separately but good luck prying this thing off.
So, if I had a patio, thirty feet from the batteries, If I used micro grid inverts for the roof, the sunlight hitting the concreate pad and the ambient light would add to the total.
Yes, but normal DC bifacials would also work, feeding into a small string inverter just for the patio (cheaper than the microinverters + envoy unit).
@@WyndStryke Cheaper is not necessarily better. The issue is voltage drop. Depending upon wire gauge, over greater distances AC has less voltage drop, as T. Edison learned. To be clear, I do not know the answer.
@@chrisconklin2981 For a short distance like 30 feet, there's not much voltage drop (on either AC or DC) given a reasonable wire gauge. You should be able to use 4mm DC cable without any issue. If you were going longer than that, then 6mm. At 90 feet then you might need to transition to 10mm cable if you wanted to keep under the 1% voltage drop benchmark. Even with 10mm cable, it'd still be significantly cheaper than using microinverters ... and there's no reason to be using DC cable in that situation anyway, you can put the small string inverter in the patio, and just run A/C from the patio back to the consumer unit (what's what I'd be doing). The reason I'd run A/C is not the voltage drop, it's that A/C joints are more tolerant and don't arc in the same way.
20 volts startup voltage from one panel or 200 volts from a string of 10 panels is effectively exactly the same so claiming a lower startup voltage is very misleading.
Would definitely love to install solar on my roof but got rejected twice by our utility here in Slovenia 😢😢.
They said that grid can't support it till they make updates to the transformer stations
It's been 14 years since I installed our solar, which paid for itself years ago. What concerns me is that the temperatures are getting so hot in the summer that my array can no longer keep up. I fear I'll have to swap some of the original panels for newer ones that are much more efficient.
not sure why black is a preferable colour than blue. just make them the best colour possible regardless. make em pink if that's the best.
Black is the best colour from a light absorption viewpoint. Why throw away the blue wavelength light unnecessarily?
How much light passes through those small gaps and bounces off a dark slate or tile roof really? It's like 5% of the area bouncing off something with 90% absorption. OK you'll get some light coming round the edges, but still. Unless I hear otherwise I'll assume that 20% from the rear face is relevant to frame mounting on the ground or a flat roof, and the benefits of bifacial on a pitched roof are negligible. As an installer I'd also recommend not to have micro-inverters up on the roof when you could have a string inverter in your garage or loft, unless there's significant shading issues.
See my recent comment. Also, if 20% is gathered after 20% first gathered, how does that work? Is it an extra fifth of the fifth, or is it a fifth of the four fifths that wasn't gathered? Lies; damn lies; and statistics?
Problem with micro inverter from Enphase panels are now 430-480w and enphase biggest micro inverter maximum output in 380w so potentially losing 100 W per panel. Better off with string system with optimisers can get most of the same advantages as micro inverter.
Not really, each panel is rated at 100 percent lab conditions. The uk generally has sun irradiance of between 650 to 750 out of a 1000. Meaning a 440w panel will only produce between 285 to 350w anyways.
Hmm perhaps bifacial might have benefit for small roofs such as tiny homes where it's not possible to have a large array?
All those inverters and connectors = a lot of failure points.
Especially exposed to the sun like that.
The problems are 'software', I'm sorry, the inverters crash and don't self recover, how is that ok. I think micro-inverters are great if you have a roof that is accessible at a reasonable cost and is complex in layout or has complex shading issues, or you don't trust the electricians installing it to know how to crimp an MC4 connector and not set fire to your house. Otherwise I'd choose simplicity.
As for properties value, for the first time ever I had to declare if I had solar PV when I did my most recent home insurance quote, I'm not sure it was to offer me a discount!
What's with all the negativity here? The guy is just highlighting some of the selling points as would anyone else promoting their product on this show.
It's true microinverters may only boost the overall output by a small margin unless shading is a huge issue, and while I accept there are plenty of more budget friendly solutions which offer better output per £, there is nothing wrong with offering premium products which offer the best tech available today. The size of your roof isn't going to change over time so if max generation is the goal this package seems competitive. Even more so where non optimal orientations are concerned.
besides being a pain for the average consumer to purchase one.. what's stopping someone from buying one and plugging it into their bluetti or whatever, if it already has a micro inverter on it?
Love Heatable, love the REA panels, but at this point Everything Electric is just an advertising channel. Shame, it has so much promise!
Whats rhe point of bifacial if the other side is flat on the roof
I can't really see that any advantage that micro inverters have, is outweighed by the upfrobt cost, the increased risk of failure and the difficulty and disruption of changing them. Just add a couple more panels instead and where possible don't put Bifacial panels on the roof to get the best out of them.
I don't see anti pigeon mesh below panels
Still no idea how much a panel costs without having to jump through hoops, just tell us in the video.
These panels look excellent for dunkelflaute!
From a physics viewpoint I would suspect that the dark side of the panel might receive orders of magnitude less light energy than the front. The illumination of the back side will always be in direct proportion to that of the front side. This is not different on a sunny day to a cloudy day. It will not suddenly make them work better on cloudy days. If there is actual well founded scientific data plus a believable cost benefit analysis compared with the newest standard panels then I might be convinced. Not persuaded by salesman's talk sorry.
There is the idea that on cloudy days the light is less direct it comes from all around, so if you have a bifacial panel on an open field installation it might produce a bit more, on a dark roof like in the video I doubt it.
Why bond the inverter to the panel? You've now linked them in failure domain and made it harder to fix? Is it a silly ask for me to want to place the micro inverters in the attic? I don't want disparate components bonded for some reason? I want a panel on my roof and a micro inverter connected to it. With as much as possible accessible from within my attic. I think this is an obvious request. Also how can software be that bad? At the moment it feels the industry is not behaving in an innovative way. This feels like yet another mess like the EV charger situation. If any component of my house has some weird requirement on cloud or some other weird software connection the solution is not sufficient.
Mmm, no battery storage then ?
I still dont get why PV's are not rated per watt pike square meter.
You are presenting old news as if it was new; microinverters were available since 2008. The panel backing is the only new part, but then you omit the most important effect - increased power draw. A panel is around 21% efficient, so what has that risen to with this new backing? Is it now 22% or approaching 30%? All the other guff about seeing your problem areas are available on most systems.
Excellent presentation for the lay person people that don’t know the Highlander and please remember kindness is always free😊
So erm, at around the 6:50 mark, the seller claims that you need micro-inverters so you can know exactly which panel is not producing... ...But then he goes on to claim that 99% of the issues are software.
Pray tell what software do these solar panels run on their silicon?
Oh wait, it's going to be a software issue with the oodles of micro-inverters you needlessly installed!
Is there anything in this video that cannot be debunked?
Not so quick to get micro inverters!
I am not convinced by your 20v startup per panel.
I have a SolarEdge system, and I have 14 panels.
I can see start-up at ~ 150v, for the complete string that's about 11 Volts per panel.
Why get micro inverters?
I thought wiring panels in series (straight line) opens up a significant failure point when one of the panels goes bad. Or has that been solved?
@@Pottery4Life This is true but the cost of microinverters! not cheap.
Microinverters can be better if some panels are likely to get shaded while others are in full sun.
Microinverters give you no high voltage DC cables on your roof. Much safer and also easier to add new panels as you don’t have to buy a new big inverter of the right size🔥
@@jamesphillips2285 SolarEdge does the same
🙋♂️IMOGEN,THANKS FOR HELPING EDUCATE US 🧐💚💚💚
"Designed to harvest any energy in the atmosphere", the co founder can't even describe how they work. So will they harvest heat on a hot night, would they not work in space as its without an atmosphere. This honestly feels like a video sponsored by snake oil salesmen.
That heatable guy is rather sleezy when it comes to micro inverters. I won't be surprised if he claims micro inverters can cure cancer.
Yea, I lost it at that section. Pretty disingenuous.
What is a worry is that the platform seems to make a habit of having as guests all sorts of guests who ate not quite the thing.
Apart from that young Yasmin lady (chemist engineer by profession) who had a fair bit of experience in the industry working for various government outfits.
Other guests it seems are chosen for their ability to instantly do the confirmation bias thing for Robert's views.
As is now known sales of BEVs are now in decline.
It was an experiment which failed, mainly because the general car buying public didn't appreciate the initial costs, time to recharge and dismal residuals.
And of course the possibility of self ignition with some lithium tech.
Doubtless this will provoke arguments but the only viable technology left for reducing the carbon in our atmosphere is hydrogen.
We read scathing comments apropos the suitability of hydrogen as a fuel from those who simply don't keep up and post history lessons.
This is despite car manufacturers developing hydrogen powered cars using "off the shelf" fuel cells almost, deemed to be perfectly acceptable to power cars.
Granted the hydrogen fuel distribution system is pants but that was more of a governmental thing which is now being rectified albeit not before time.
Come on Robert!
Bite the bullet and include hydrogen info, hydrogen produces electricity which comes under the EV heading.
@@t1n4444 You have a problem with lithium to self ignite? And promote hydrogen? Ah, so you wanna see bigger booms then, quite understandable.
FYI: a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has a battery pack in it due to the fact the fuel cell can not provide enough power for acceleration.
@@Sekir80
😂😂😂
What on earth are you droning on about?
Clearly you don't quite grasp the technology so allow me:
hydrogen gas has to mix with air at a certain ratio before the mix becomes explosive. The ratios can be found online to save me cribbing out the info here.
However, hydrogen gas, being the lightest element in the Periodic Table, has the property of being the fastest rising gas of all.
This means that an escape of hydrogen gas into the atmosphere will rise up so fast in the air ocean it won't have time to mix into an explosive so to speak, unless confined of course.
If you were to research the Hindenburg airship disaster you will find there was no huge explosion. The airship burned but did not explode.
The fire was a result of the dope covered outer sheath burning in air.
The hydrogen gas had risen so quickly it no longer posed a risk of explosion.
Ergo you have little understanding of hydrogen science. You would have been wise to research all this prior to posting.
Now, hydrogen cars requiring a buffer battery to allow for acceleration from stationary ... so what?
The fuel cell will be charging the battery as the battery discharges through acceleration.
Again, so what?
Hydrogen fuel cell cars have been working for over a decade, as in the Marai. Recently fuel cell cars and buses were to be seen in Paris providing logistical support as in transporting competitors and official to the various venues.
In short the French wished to parade their "green credentials" to the world at large.
The hydrogen used was reduced by green energy to. underline their attempts to be as green as possible.
Again you could have found this out for yourself prior to posting if only you had applied yourself, but you failed miserably.
BEVs are now in decline and unless such a BEV can be "invented" which is "cheap", can be charged in minutes to provide similar "performance of operability" to a petrol/diesel car then they are destined to be a mere footnote on history.
What Robert will find in seminars yet to be is that increasing numbers of people will be asking about hydrogen fuel cell cars.
It may be Robert has gone too far in "poo pooing" hydrogen he will find it difficult to start proclaiming them as the future, as they undoubtedly are.
This is the trouble when setting out one's stall without allowing some wriggle room in which to effect a "u" turn which is credible or believable.
When people set out their stall on a public platform they must expect to be challenged ... in the same way as yourself.
Imogen, thank you for another excellent and informative video.
Did you understand the supposed science bit at all? Because she clearly didn't ;)
This video is a nonsense sales pitch
From a content creator with very low ethics.
Its really a product for a problem that doesnt exist.
It you get hail damage or a squirrel chews the cable you have expensive replacement costs just because somebody has glued a micro inverter to the back of it.
Also will these be available in 10+ years time when you need a replacement, judging by the past you will be searching eBay in a hope of picking up a secondhand one.
So what does it really offer you over over separate items. I suspect nothing. It will save the installer time which increases their profit margin but you see no benefit.
The main problem is finding a company that offers enphase microinverters.
Could you use a 20v battery to kick-start the inverter to make work more efficiently even when the sun is not so bright.
When you buy a solar system as every house and personal requirements are different. So do your own research. Don't just listen to the salesman.
It’ look like Heckert Zeus panel
Connecting solar panels in series is a tad silly as in when one is occluded they're all occluded.
Plenty of info online.
Plus having inverters on the roof is daft.
Having mains voltage is perhaps not a good idea when safer low volt circuits are to be preferred.
Again, info online.
How do you repair or replace them?
Might work when array is in a garden, say, and panels easy to get to.
Why Imogen and Robert?
Just why?
Robert, these episodes tell us more about your tech team than the subject matter.
For example it might have been useful if we knew the overall efficiency of these panels if only for a contextual comparison.
Any claims over 20% would not be believed.
Unless the panels were part of a laboratory exercise that is.
First of all you won't be doing that on asbestos panels roof. So changing roof and having solar is double the cost. If your neighbors or your pet supply can have it, you stuck with never having the funds. 9:50 😄 good luck, with that - Ignitis does everything you wished playing it in your smartphone, but you don't have that roof at your home. Your every video possibly is a solar panel and you have it on your roof. Unique to you is you have those videos and that Laravel form validation would be you are testing your power grid with another channel because you wish to make everybody in your organization to do it change the social network roofs or whatever.
Everything Electric selling their soul, swapping their reputation for sponsorship deals and unnecessarily confusing people with poor technology advice
Thanks
Simply not true. Cloudy days you will produce 1/10th or less your strings rating.
No panel on the market is making a whole array of panels fail because of one panel fail.
"If one fail - all fail" is a MYTH!
Every panel have a bypass diode in them so all panels that still work will continue produce their power.
installing bifacial panels on a black roof 😅
Another advert long gone are the day on impartial advice there're just chasing the money now.
An awful video about an awful product. Lots of misinformation on this video.
OK. Let's hear it.
@@Pottery4Life The suggestion that AC is much safer than DC is simply wrong. Having that many inverters also increases the chance of failure - I've had 2 inverters fail on me in the last 3 years and having them on the roof means scaffolding to fix - not cheap! More cabling with micro inverters, limited choice of battery storage and less efficient storage as you have to do AC/DC/AC when charging/discharging so lots of transfer losses. if the concern is solar production due to shading then solar optimisers are a far more cost effective solution at 30GBP per panel rather than 160GBP for an enphase micro inverter. I could come up with more misinformation if you'd like?
@@biker_rich_71 It has nothing to do with what I like.
Hello girlfriend!!