Solar Inverters

In a basic solar system without a grid connection you will have a solar array of panels on the roof, a solar controller, a battery bank and an inverter. That is what I have at my home and my system is small with only 1kW of solar panels. My panels produce about 36VDC which comes down to an MPPT controller and gets stepped down to 13.8VDC for my battery bank. My simple inverter changes the 13.8VDC into 120VAC to power part of my house.

The simple, basic inverter changes a DC voltage from a battery bank into an AC voltage for use in the house.

When the system gets bigger things change. If you have hundreds of solar panels and you try to put it together using the above method you will need dozens of controllers and inverters to get higher powers.

So the inverter manufacturers began offering large inverters with built in solar controllers which can operate at high DC voltages from the solar array. This reduces components and when you come down from the solar array at high voltages, say around 400VDC you save costs on cabling etc. These inverters would, in my opinion, be called solar inverters while my inverter would be simply called an inverter.

This is a very simplified explanation as many variations exist. I hope this answers your question or at least opens the door to further details if you would like them.

Regards

John