[amsat-bb] Solar panel inverters--radio noise? (optimizers)

[Robert Bruninga]

➢ Bob, one person looking at my place quoted panels
>  with optimizers going to a string inverter.  That does
> not seem to make sense since the roof these panels
> would be on is totally unshaded and all facing the same direction.

Absolutely.  Yours is perfect for simple DC sting inverter.

The optimizers are a disaster.  RF WISE!

Also salesmen are Full of smoke and mirrors to convince people to pay more
for all kinds of “benefits” of microinverters and optimizer, none of which
pertain to a clear roof with good sky.

The only thing you don’t get with a series string is fancy internet graphics
showing you the actual output of each and every single panel…   But what
they don’t say about why you need that kind of detail is because their
optimizers and microinverters fail so much under the hot sun under the
panels, that they need this diagnostic every time they come back out to
“repair” their lousy system.   it is extremely rare that the panel that
fails, because it is always the Optimizers or microinverters.

Most people WITH Microninverters for several years have reported they have
ALL had to be replaced over time.  Because they Just cannot survive the
extremes under those panels.  A string inverter sits in the basement or in
the shade near the ground and lasts forever…

And if a salesman tries to tell you that microinverters or optimizers are
better because a single cell shade in a string array will take out the whole
panel or array, they simply do not understand a series circuit with every 10
volt section of every panel bypassed with a diode!    Even an optimizer or
microinverter is still connected to each panel, but each panel is still a
string of three 10v segments.

Each segment is bypassed by a bypass diode.  So a shade on a cell takes out
ONE ten-volt section no matter what kind of system it is in.  This is true
in a string array, in a microinverter panel and in an optimizer panel.

I am probably being too exaggerating, and probably they have better quality
microinverters, but they don’t really care about RFI because only one in
every 500 complains (hams)...

Bob, WB4APR
Author:  http://aprs.org/Energy-Choices.html

-------- original -------
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Solar panel inverters--radio noise?

Bob, one person looking at my place quoted panels with optimizers going to a
string inverter.  That does not seem to make sense since the roof these
panels would be on is totally unshaded and all facing the same direction.
So I wonder if you can get a string inverter without the optimizer, given
that my situation may be a bit unusual.

Thanks again for all the info!  Looking forward to your book!

73