Enphase Micro Inverters
Image: Enphase
The unsung heroes of solar are the Enphase micro inverters, the foundation beneath every solar panel – no matter how great they are. Each panel has its own energy conversion unit that takes the raw Direct Current (DC) from the panel and converts it into usable Alternating Current (AC), for use in your home, office or factory.
The options when looking for a solar system are many. Learning about what each one has to offer is a time-consuming task. The search for the best has been narrowed down to the Enphase microinverter. It’s a next-level solution that answers all your questions and ticks all the boxes, you might have and be wanting in a residential or commercial solar power system.
How Enphase micro inverters started and where do they go?
The Enphase story began in the USA, in 2006 and took the solar industry into a new, versatile direction, with each new version, greater advances have been made in production, reliability and importantly, safety. Enphase microinverters can be found around the world connected to almost every type of solar panel ever made. Now, Enphase offers a full spectrum solar power energy system, that’s designed around our highly engineered and scalable clean energy battery systems.
Enphase owners have the very best that the clean energy world has to offer right in their hands, utilising the market leading Enphase energy monitoring app for both Apple and Android phones. Know where, when and how much power your system is producing and its revenue value to at your fingertips.
With over 2 million installations around the globe, there's a very good chance that almost any home you look at with solar panels, is using an advanced solar energy system crafted by Enphase. That’s over 45 million individual microinverters sold in more than 135 countries around the world. Enphase is unparalleled in microinverter technology.
Microinverters VS String Inverters
What are micro inverters?
In brief, a microinverter is exactly that – an inverter that is scaled down to a size small enough to fit snugly behind a solar panel. Microinverters or ‘micros’ are an alternative to the traditional solar string inverter option. An Enphase solar energy system does cost more than the conventional path but it’s a route worth taking as will be detailed further.
With microinverters, it’s like every solar panel has its own inverter rather than feeding its raw DC power collectively with the other solar panels, to a standard string inverter that’s usually positioned on a wall some distance away from the panel installation on the roof. When all the panels are connected like this, to just one central inverter, the DC cable that carries the raw, unconditioned DC power is of very high voltage. This is one of the disadvantages of the conventional string inverter set up.
Using microinverters means that these dangerously high voltages are avoided. Some solar panels are now actually made with microinverters already integrated into the panel; we call these AC solar modules like Sumpower Maxeon 5AC and 6AC.
Micro Inverter Vs String Inverter - Compare the Pair!
Enphase microinverter System
Max energy harvest!
Only one panel affected
String Inverter System
50% System Power
Performs at level of weakest panel
Early beginnings leading to today’s Enphase IQ7+ Microinverter
The first Enphase micro was the M175 that made its debut in 2008, it set the stage for the M190 that powered large sales that has been the case for Enphase products ever since. Enphase microinverters are found in nearly half of all solar installations in the USA and North America in general. This dominance is catching on in other regions such as Australia and Europe now too, as the benefits and sheer quality of the Enphase solution becomes known.
IQ7 Microinverter
How does the Enphase Microinverter Energy System operate?
What the Enphase Microinverter System does, is transform the DC energy produced by the solar panels of your system into AC electricity, that is then capable of being used by the appliances in and around your home. The system also is capable of sending important information about your system’s operation via the Internet, to the Enphase servers so that you can immediately monitor exactly what your system is doing at any particular time.
Here are the 3 main aspects of an Enphase Microinverter Energy System:
- Enphase Microinverters are fitted under each solar panel and transform DC power to AC electricity. Every microinverter transmits AC electricity to the Site Load Centre, that’s usually near your power meter box. It then sends the system performance statistics to the System’s Envoy ‘box’, via the home’s existing electrical wiring
- The job of the Enphase Envoy Communications Gateway is to then send on via the Internet, the performance data to the Enphase Enlighten facility.
- Enphase Enlighten® software lets you monitor your system’s performance online and provides diagnostic tools for your solar professional.
How does enphase microinverter works?
Enphase Enlighten