The energy metering system is an important component in our solar system, because it tells us how much electricity our solar system generates, how much electricity our electrical appliances and equipment are using and the amount of electricity we are still buying for the power utility or export to the power utility after connecting our solar system to the power grid.
There are many different solar photo-voltaic monitoring systems in the market, and the basic element which doing such monitoring is the solar inverter itself. So, the solar inverter usually comes with some monitoring levels starting from simple convenient level to sophisticated level.
The solar inverter is the main crucial part of our solar photovoltaic system, so we have to take care about all details related to it, like mainly choosing the high quality brand when purchasing, and proper technical installation, etc. One of the important details is: Should we install it inside or outside the home? Where we should install it in our home? And what is the best place?
In grid tie solar photovoltaic system in which the solar inverter output is connected to the AC power grid, there are 2 ways of electrical energy metering scheme: gross metering and net metering. And here we shall discuss the difference in between.
The solar panel efficiency is the ability of the panel to convert sunlight power to usable electrical power, for example, if the solar panel efficiency is 16%, that means only 16% of the sun light hits the panel will be converted to usable electricity. Actually in the market, the average solar panels efficiency ratings vary in the range 15% up to 20%.
There are many advantages of micro inverter over central inverter, the first advantage is that micro inverter is performing much better in case of shading, as if there will be a partial shading on a part of our solar system due to chimneys or trees, the overall output power of the string will not be affected, but only the shaded solar panel output power will be affected, while in central inverter the overall output power of the string will be affected, and there will be much power loss. The second advantage is the capability of micro inverter to track maximum power point for each connected solar panel, resulting in high efficiency and output power from the solar system.
Monitoring the solar Photo-Voltaic system is a very important matter because it shows you how much electricity saving you got from your solar system, in addition, it assists you knowing if the system is running properly producing its rated power or it may have a fault, so you can take a rapid troubleshooting action.
Most of people know about different components of solar photovoltaic system, like solar panels, solar inverters and mounting systems. But many of them do not have much details about how to set up and install the whole rooftop solar photovoltaic plant, especially the mounting system, to extent that they may have a concern of damaging their roof in case of installing this mounting system on it.
Solar Inverter is like any electronic device, it is built and sold based on its low price or high quality performance (high price), so the customer can take purchasing decision based on his requirements or budget. Generally, if you are not an electronic engineer, it will be difficult to know the solar inverter internal components efficiency which is the cornerstone for inverter quality and lifetime expectancy. Here, we shall provide two guides for you to indicate the good quality solar inverter even you are not a specialist in solar system inverters industry.
PV inverter or Solar inverter is one of the most critical components of the solar power system and is often referred to as the heart of a solar PV system. It converts DC (like 12V/ 24V/ 48V) electricity from solar panel into AC (like 120V/ 230V/ 240V) power required to run your applicance. Photo-Voltaic power generation system is mainly composed of solar panels (components), controllers and inverters. They are mainly composed of electronic components, but do not involve mechanical components.
After taking the decision to install your solar system, you select the most suited solar company to design the system, get the approval on solar system capacity from your electric utility, then installation is done finally. Actually it takes approx. 3 weeks in average to install your solar photo-voltaic on your roof depending on the system size, and weather conditions.
It's really an important matter to monitor the generation of the solar system, and zthe market nowadays doing such task and providing you the balance between the 2 amount of electrical energies. Monitoring equipment nowadays not only providing energy measurements, but you will be able to control both circuits as well. Also, the monitoring equipment will help you understanding your system well, so can maintain the solar photovoltaic system, and reduce your electricity consumption. The solar systems installers become offering smart monitoring system, which can do many tasks related monitoring and control. Moreover, the monitoring equipment became coming with email alert function, so can inform you when the fault happened, so you can take rapid corrective action accordingly.
The solar panels have a point on their performance curve in which they generate maximum power under a set of circumstances, and this point called (Maximum Power Point), and on the other side, the solar inverter has maximum power point tracking feature "MPPT", so it continuously searches and hunts this point to maximize the generated energy/power from your solar system. Inverter.com offers this feature for each Micro Inverter.
The sun radiation intensity varies along the day, and the solar array output varies accordingly, so the first regulation job of the inverter is to accept and regulate such change in DC electricity, trying maximize the DC energy harvest as described in aforementioned second job. Also, grid parameters like voltage, and frequency change with grid loads variation, so the second regulation job of the inverter is to regulate and synchronize all these variables, so the solar system can be connected to the grid safely within power quality specs, and with No disconnection in case of grid tie solar photo-voltaic systems. Another regulation job of the solar inverter is monitoring, and protection for both DC voltage, and AC voltage sides parameters, so it disconnects in case of faults or for safety reasons.
Solar panels are the main part in the solar system with a job to convert sun lights to DC electricity, and their costs represent a relatively considerable amount of the whole solar system price. The price of the solar panels continuously changes from year to year based on three factors.
The micro grid inverter is a small plug and play device which is usually connected to one solar panel/module to convert DC to AC electricity, and that is its mainly difference from other solar string and central inverters which can be connected to multiple solar panels. In addition, the output from several micro-inverters are always connected together to electrically feed one electrical grid panel.
Solar electricity generation system has a huge environmental benefits in avoiding carbon dioxide gas (CO2) emission, which represents significant amount releases in other conventional electricity generation source. In industrial countries, and to generate one kilo watt hour electricity from conventional energy source, an average amount of 1kg of CO2 will be released, so tones of CO2 will be emitted yearly in only one country, but in fact the actual CO2 released amount differ from one country to another and from one fuel/generation technology to another. You can imagine what will be total released amount for the whole world! And how much you save if CO2 free technology of solar electricity generation is used, it’s really great environmental benefit.
Mainly in 2 cases the solar micro inverter exhibits unique benefits; The first is when there is shading across our solar panels array, and the second is when we need our solar panels to face different directions due to our roof design. As micro solar inverter will allow every solar panel to run on its own, so if one or more solar panels are affected by shading, this will not affect the output power of our whole solar array, because other panels subjected to sunlight will still produce its maximum power capacity and will not affected by shading solar panels.
The inverter is considered as the brain of the solar system. And although there are different types of the solar inverters, but they all have the main components, let us see what are they and what are their functions as following:
1. Capacitor: It is used to filter ripples on the DC bus originated from semi-conductors switching, keep stable voltage on the DC bus, and reduce losses between the solar array and the solar inverter.
2. Monitoring Software: It used to monitor the solar system, providing the status of solar system to installer & owner, and alert them in case of faults. This software is running on inverter internal controller/processor.
3. Solid State Devices: Mainly we intend IGBTs, MOSFETs and transistor, they are used to do the inverter main job which is converting DC current to AC current.
4. Magnetic components: They include transformer and inductor to filter and smooth the AC wave shape for electrical grid connection, also they provide isolation between the DC circuit and the AC grid.
On grid inverter or grid tie inverter from Inverter.com, can convert direct current into alternating current. Its AC output can synchronize with the frequency and phase of mains supply. On grid inverters are commonly used in applications where direct current voltage sources are connected to the grid, such as solar panels and small wind turbines. The output voltage frequency of the solar grid tie inverter needs to be same as the grid frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz). A MPU in the grid tie inverter can sense the AC waveform of the power grid and generate voltage back to the power grid based on the waveform.
Solar companies have some trading skills that you must understand when purchasing solar systems. Let's take a look at them
1. Buy today or the biggest tomorrow and you'll get a very high special discount. This is a famous saying in the tactics of solar energy company. In this case, if you think it's a good deal, then you have to study the offer very carefully, ask the solar company a time, don't sign before you are completely sure.
2. Another tricky sentence is: the big rebate will end next week, which is almost incorrect, because in the past, the rebate was changed regularly, but now it doesn't happen anymore, because the rebate is in the form of solar energy certificate, which has become a consistent plan.
When installing solar photo-voltaic (pv) system on the roof of your new home, you need to be careful about shading.
