Frequently Asked Questions about Inverters
As a rule of thumb you should divide the connected capacity by 10 for 12 volt and by 20 for 24 volt. This also includes all the power losses in the cables, fuses and the inverter.
It's important to note what this means: In order for an inverter to put out the rated amount of power, it will need to have a power input that exceeds the output. For example, an inverter with a rated output power of 5,000 W and a peak efficiency of 95% requires an input power of 5,263 W to operate at full power.
Excessive oversizing can negatively affect the inverter's power production. Inverters are designed to generate AC output power up to a defined maximum which cannot be exceeded. The inverter limits or clips the power output when the actual produced DC power is higher than the inverter's allowed maximum output.
PV inverters are designed so that the generated module output power does not exceed the rated maximum inverter AC power. Oversizing implies having more DC power than AC power. This increases power output in low light conditions. You can install a smaller inverter for a given DC array size, or you can install more PV modules for a given inverter.
The values of „maximum inverter power“ have always positive sign. Therefore they only limit the charging values for grid setpoint. They cannot limit the negative values for grid feed in. Using Grid feed-in → Limit system feed-in instead, also cannot solve this problem.
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