Enphase Microinverters are cleverly designed such that each solar panel brings its energy production to a consolidation point in parallel. This avoids common performance issues commonly experienced by ordinary solar systems.

This design reduces the occurrence of single-point failures. It also enhances the ability to monitor and control individual solar panels. As such, system performance and reliability improves.

The Enphase Microinverter makes use of advanced digital technology to condition and control the power from each PV panel. This leads to great improvement in the overall power output. It also adds a dimension of intelligence to your PV system.

Each microinverter is networked to the Envoy Communications Gateway. This component transmits performance data and presents the consolidated information to the Internet with the help of proprietary software.

This allows your solar panels to work together as an intelligent network. It also enables you to know what is going on within the system on a whole new level. Even if you are not at home, you can connect to the Internet to know the status of your PV system if you want to.

Coping with environmental factors

Solar power output is constantly influenced by external factors such as weather, shade, dust and debris. With traditional PV panels, the lowest performing panel determines the effectiveness of your solar power system. As soon as shading occurs on just one panel, your entire solar power production attenuates considerably.

This does not happen with the Enphase Microinverter system. If any particular solar panel is shaded by leaves, the parallel energy delivery system enables full power from other panels to reach its destination. The affected PV panel drops in performance without influencing other modules.

There is yet another problem that traditional inverter systems experience. During low-light conditions such as the morning or evenings (or during thick cloud or fog cover), solar power systems effectively shut down. They require a minimum amount of power to operate efficiently. If this threshold is not reached, there is no electrical output even though your solar panels are illuminated.

Enphase microinverters circumvent this limitation with its “Burst Mode” solution. During low-light condition, each microinverter stores up trickles of energy output from the PV panel. Energy is accumulated to the point where it exceeds the minimum operating threshold before it is released to the power grid or the charge controllers.

With this, your solar panels continue to produce electricity even during low-light conditions. As a result, the efficiency of your solar energy system improves.

Quality control and reliability

Each Enphase Microinverter is manufactured based on the principles and philosophy of the Six Sigma Quality Process. Every new design and improvement is also subject to both in-house and third-party evaluations.

Each product goes through rigorous testing in the factory before they are deployed. Because of its design, each inverter’s performance can continue to be tracked even after deployment.

Industry-standard evaluations ensure us that Enphase Microinverters have a service life beyond 25 years (with over 99.7% reliability).

The 215-Series Microinverter is protected with a 25-year limited warranty while the previous generations of Enphase microinverters (like the M175, M190, M200, M210 and D380) are covered by a 15-year limited warranty. On top of that, Enphase also has a 100% Uptime Guarantee and a Rapid Replacement program that consumers can take advantage of.

Maintenance

With typical solar installations, inverter failure can result in the shutdown of the entire system. With Enphase microinverters, only the affected solar module shuts off. The impact to the solar power generator is minimal in comparison. As such, failed inverters do not necessarily require emergency repairs. Instead, they can even be replaced during the next regular maintenance.

Enphase Microinverters can be replaced with basic hand tools. Thus you do not need specialized personnel or equipment. This helps you save maintenance cost in the long run.

Continue Reading:

1. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
2. Important Facts And Properties of A Solar (PV) Panel You Must Know About (Part 1 of 3)
3. Homemade Solar Panels — Common Mistakes to Take Note Of When Building And Installing Photovoltaic (PV) Panels

Solar Panel Installation

Solar panel installation may be a daunting task for most people — it requires you to know where and how to site your solar panels. Moreover installation on roofs exposes you to the danger of falling. You are also at risk of electrocution while wiring your inverters.

But we do not have to be discouraged. Knowing what to do can help us tremendously and keep us away from danger. Some important installation know-how can make your job much safer and easier. Here are some points to consider before you install your solar panel…

In the northern hemisphere, we’d like our solar panels to tilt towards to south so that it can receive the most sunlight throughout the year. If we have a south-facing roof, all we need to do is line the solar panels along the surface of the roof. Otherwise we’ll need additional brackets to tilt the photovoltaic panels toward the south.

The roof is usually the best place to site your solar panels, but there are exceptions. Therefore you have to do a thorough survey to know where is the best place to locate your panels.

During the survey, you’ll have to take into consideration shading from plants and nearby structures. Shading has an adverse effect on solar energy production. The amount of electricity generated by photovoltaic cells reduces by a significant percentage with slight shading.

Through different seasons of the year, the position of the sun changes. So you’ll have to take this into consideration. An easy way to find the location that receives the most sunlight throughout the year is to use a Solar Pathfinder. This instrument shows you at a glance where shadows will be at different times of the day and different seasons of the year.

If the ideal location is on your rooftop, you’ll have to find out the maximum loading your roof can withstand. If the solar panels are too heavy, you will need to provide additional reinforcement to the roof structure before installation.

After the location is finalized, actual work can begin. You’ll have to get the correct solar panel mount to fix them at the ideal place — there are pole mounts, roof-ground mounts and flush mounts.

When installing on roofs, we frequently use flush mounts. This is the cheapest and easiest way to mount small solar panels. These are metal brackets that support both ends of a solar panel. It elevates the solar panels a few inches away from the roof to form a gap in between. This allows air to flow through, cooling the solar panels. It is vital to moderate the solar panel temperature so as to maintain the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

Roof-ground mounts are grid-like structures that are used primarily for large solar panels. They can be installed on the ground or on roofs. A pole mount is used mainly for supporting a small, single solar panel.

After the solar panels are fixed, you’ll have to run and connect the electrical cables. The actual connections depend on whether you want a grid-tied or off-grid system.

With proper solar panel installation, each panel will be able to withstand strong winds and work efficiently for decades. You can also expect your property to increase in value with a solar energy system installed.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?
2. Installing Solar Water Heaters
3. Solar Panel Efficiency

During cloudy days and when there’s fog or haze, sunlight becomes diffused and arrives at your solar panels from many different directions. Therefore the facing of your PV panels is not as important during these times for maximum power production.

Even during cloudy days, you can expect to receive about 50% of your original power output. When the sky is completely overcast, you should still receive about 30% of the solar electricity.

Even though light intensity drops during cloudy days, the reduced ambient temperature causes your solar panel efficiency to increase. Therefore the reduction on solar energy production is offset by the increase in photovoltaic efficiency. This is especially true during winter.

There are a few ways to get more solar power during times of low light intensity. Here is a summary for your reading pleasure:

1. Use high efficiency solar panels

Many different types of solar panels are available in the market. If your PV panels have high yield, they’ll naturally be able to perform better in any light condition.

Home solar panels are broadly classified into 3 categories: polycrystalline panels, monocrystalline panels and ribbon panels.

Polycrystalline panels are the best buy. Even though they are not the most efficient, they can yield as much power as monocrystalline cells per square feet due to their physical shape.

They are also not as expensive as monocrystalline solar cells. During low light conditions, they can provide as much electricity for you.

Each polycrystalline solar cell is made from molten silicon that is carefully cooled and solidified. Its manufacturing process makes it less expensive to produce than single crystal silicon cells.

Monocrystalline solar cells are made by cutting thin layers of silicon from cylindrical ingots using the Czochralski process. They yield more electricity than polycrystalline cells but are more expensive. Also, because they are round, they leave gaps at all four corners. This reduces the potential power output of each monocrystalline solar panel.

Ribbon silicon is formed by drawing thin films from molten silicon. This process facilitates a multicystalline structure in the final product. Although its manufacturing process is cheap and there is less silicon waste, solar cell efficiency is compromised.

Among these 3 types of solar cells, polycrystalline is most widely used for obvious reasons.

2. Use reflectors

Even though light is diffused by clouds and fog, they have a certain general direction. As such, you can use reflectors to get more light onto your PV panels. This method, however, makes your roof a little unsightly if the reflectors are not installed (or chosen) with good taste.

With this in mind, you can site your reflector some distance away from your house. As long as more sunlight falls on your PV panel, you can generate a little more electricity.

3. Clean your solar panels

Dirt, dust and leaf can block sunlight from reaching your solar cells. This can reduce your power output by more than 30%. Simply by cleaning your solar panels, you can have more electricity during winter and on cloudy days.

Cleaning your PV panels doesn’t take much time. All you need to do is spray water on it generously to loosen the dirt and wash off the dust and leaf. This will help your energy output by a huge margin.

Continue Reading:

1. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
2. Solar Panel Efficiency — How Does Dirt on Your Solar Panels Affect The Amount Of Electricity Produced?
3. Important Facts And Properties of A Solar (PV) Panel You Must Know About (Part 1 of 3)

Overcome Hurdles

Despite many benefits solar panels give us, there are sometimes obstacles that prevent them from being installed on your property.

We’ll discuss 3 of them in particular and attempt to shed light on how to solve each type of problem.

Challenge #1: High Upfront Cost

This is a common one. There are a few ways you can still install solar panels without burning a hole in your pocket.

You can get a loan. There are many ways the bank can structure this loan. Often, your supplier can help you apply for it. Sometimes the supplier can even lend you the money.

Ultimately, loan repayment spread over many years. You have to pay a monthly installment to offset the loan. Your aggregate savings will not be as much as when you do without a loan (due to payment of interest).

But you’re better off this way, financially. Your solar panels help you save on energy bills. By having solar panels earlier rather than later, you can enjoy free electricity sooner.

Another way to go around this challenge is to install a small system that can be scaled up later when you have the money.

Or you can opt for used or refurbished solar panels. These may not be as efficient as new ones. Yet when you do your calculations, you can often get your money working harder for you with this option.

(Tip: Calculate how much power you can get in total for every dollar you spend.)

Challenge #2: Timing of Electrical Supply

PV panels produce electricity when the sun is shining. Often, your family use electricity only in the morning (before going to work) and in the evening (after coming back from work).

This means solar panels produce electricity when you’re not at home. Thus there must be some way of storing the energy so we can use it at our convenience.

One solution is to use large rechargeable batteries to store the entire day’s energy production. This is especially useful for homes that are located in remote parts of the country where it is too expensive to run transmission cables (just for a few families).

With batteries, the acquisition cost of your solar power system increases. Thus many people opt for a grid-tied solar power system.

This design allows you to channel unused electricity back into the power grid. For your power contribution, the utility company pays you at a rate known as the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs).

At night, when your family returns home, electricity is drawn from the grid. Thus you are really using the power grid as an energy storage. And this is good for you as much as it is for the power company.

Challenge #3: Red Tapes

If you want to mount PV panels on roofs (or the building structure), you have to adhere to building codes. This is for your safety. When these restrictions are not adhered to, you risk damage and injury if you overload the building structure such as roofs.

However building codes are sometimes a pain in the neck. It’s not that we can’t solve this problem. But it gets irritating when you have to make many calls to government agencies just to solve simple issues at times.

The best way to tackle this problem is to share your concern with your contractor. He’ll likely be able to solve the problem better than you. This is because he would have encountered many of such issues and also solved them. Very likely, he’ll know who are those guys handling this stuff and may even know then personally.

Apart from different obstacles, there are also cautions that you must know about when handling solar panels. This are especially important if you are installing your own panels or repairing them yourself.

1. Danger of electrocution. PV panels supply your house with electricity. They are capable of generating a lot of energy. If you have to handle them, please use precaution. Remember to wear thick safety gloves and put on safety boots. If you need to climb onto your roof, remember your safety harness as well.

2. Risk of PV panel damage. If you have to handle your PV panels yourself, please make sure you have the necessary qualifications or knowledge. You may render your warranty void if you open or dismantle certain parts of your solar panel. You may also damage different components if you wire electrical connections in the wrong orientation.

When you meet with challenges, the best action you can take is to pick up the phone and call your contractor or an expert…or a friend who had prior experiences with solar panels.

Continue Reading:

1. Why Are Solar Panels The Best Investment For Your Home?
2. 7 Different Ways of Using Solar Energy At Home and In Your Office
3. Creating An Energy Efficient House – A Primer On Why You Should Do It and How

With this, you can also get a good feel on how sunlight intensity changes through the seasons…

A sun chart helps you estimate the sunlight and its intensity over the course of a day in an intuitive, graphical form. It helps you determine if skyline effects are of concern to you. Different objects like trees, buildings, mountains, towers, et cetera affects your skyline. (These details should be included in your sun chart)

If there is a mountain at your skyline, you’ll perhaps experience sunshine only at 7:30am instead of 7:00am. This affects the energy production of your solar panels. Knowing this, you can consider another location where you can get sunlight earlier instead.

Interestingly, each location at your property has a different skyline. But your best chance for maximum sunlight is usually on your roof, where elevation is highest.

The best instrument that can help you plot a sun chart is a Solar Pathfinder. It is quite expensive, but you can rent it for a week for a reasonable fee. So grab hold of one of these, because it helps you in many ways.

A Solar Pathfinder

You can bring your solar pathfinder to the place where you believe it’s best for PV panel installation. Then look into the dome to find out where those obstacles (shading) may be.

Usually, for most of us, there is only so much space on the roof. Thus we can’t really shift the solar panels much further. But if you have a really big, flat roof, you should be walking to different spots just to find out which one is the best.

To use this instrument, all you have to do is point the instrument southward and level it. There is a compass provided for you to point it in the correct direction. It also comes with a bubble level so you can level it without too much hassle.

Looking into the dome glass, you can see the reflection of all the objects that will shade your solar panel and the time it occurs. This reflection is superimposed onto a chart marked with the hours of the day and months of the year.

With this instrument, you can easily find out the shade information at any particular location. This information is certainly crucial for proper solar panels installation.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Solar Pathfinder – What Does It Do For You?

Trying to build a photovoltaic panel without basic skills is akin to a man who tries to be a painter without knowing the basic techniques of handling a brush…or toddler trying to cycle without developing a sense of balance. It is bound to be difficult — at least initially.

There are 3 essential skills necessary to build your own DIY solar panels. They are (1) handling of tools, (2) soldering & (3) a practical knowledge of electrical circuits.

Knowing how to handle materials is important. Whether you build solar panels using wood or metal, you have to understand how to manipulate the materials to shape them into the design you want.

This implies you have to know how to handle simple hand (or power) tools. Then you can cut the material or bend them. You’ll also need to finish (polish) the surface and edges so the burrs and jagged edges can be removed.

Inside solar panels are row after rows of electrical connections that have to be made by soldering. Therefore you also need to learn how to use a soldering iron to bond metallic joints. Bad solder joints can cause unnecessary resistance in the electrical circuit, lowering the effectiveness of your energy production. Fortunately this is a skill that can be acquired easily – often within 15 minutes or less.

Having a good working knowledge of how electronics work can be helpful. You do not necesssarily need to design your solar panel from scratch, but you will need to know how to implement the circuit design recorded on paper. It will also be useful to know some elementary electronics formula so you can size your solar panel system. Again, this knowledge is easily acquired if you take some time to read up.

Basic formulae that are needed for building electronic circuits can be easily found on the Internet or in your local library. Moreover there are also many books on homemade solar panels in bookstores that can help you with these basics.

Equiped with the above DIY skills, you can be assured that building DIY solar panels can become a rewarding hobby.

Continue Reading:

1. Insider Solar Power Generator Review: 3 Most Common Mistakes Hobbyists Make on Their First DIY Solar Panel Project
2. Used Solar Panels – How To Use Them To Build Cheap DIY Solar Panels
3. Homemade Solar Panels

Compared to building materials, solar panels are expensive. This makes the entire building project very costly.

Homebuilders are usually very reluctant to suggest this idea to client unless they ask. They are afraid clients will go elsewhere. Homeowners are pretty ignorant about building integrated photovoltaics as well.

This doesn’t improve solar panel adoption rates at all. Thus solar panels are not commonly integrated into building structures.

Even though the energy yield of PV panels is not as high as separately-installed PV panels, their aesthetics are superior. Each building integrated PV panel’s energy output depends on its orientation, location, daily weather and season.

During summer, your PV panels can yield as much as 5 times the amount of electricity produced in winter. For example, your solar panels may be able to generate 500 watt-hours of energy in summer. However it only produces 100 watt-hours of energy in winter. Therefore preparation must be made for such trends.

A solar professional will be able to do a site analysis and let you know the energy output of the solar panels on your building through the seasons.

If you need to increase your energy production but are unable to due to space constraint, you can consider using solar trackers. These devices find out where the sun is and tilts the PV panels towards it.

Some manufacturers claim that solar trackers can almost double the power output of a solar array. However this is achieved only with increased cost and complexity.

You, the consumer, must make sure that your solar tracker purchase makes sense financially. And since mechanical parts are involved, there may be regular maintenance required. You must also be prepared to roll up your sleeves or get someone to do this.

As with all types of solar panels systems, a form of energy storage is required. If you’re using building integrated solar panels to serve as an off-grid power resource, then deep-cycle rechargeable batteries are a must.

Otherwise the lifespan of your batteries (which are not cheap) can be compromised. If you have a grid-tied (or intertie) PV system, shallow-cycle batteries may be acceptable although using deep-cycle batteries is still preferable.

Photovoltaic is still a relatively new technology. When they were just commercialized, solar panels were so expensive only NASA (and other large corporations) could afford them. But scientists have made significant efforts to lower its cost and increase its efficiency.

In the near future, we may see high quality solar panels that are as cheap as $1 per watt. When this is realized, building integrated solar panels will be a common sight.

Continue Reading:

1. Sizing Your Solar Energy Panels – Part 3
2. Creating An Energy Efficient House – A Primer On Why You Should Do It and How
3. How To Make A Solar Powered Air Conditioner

A Solar Pathfinder

The Solar Pathfinder is a standard shade analysis tool. You can use it to find out exactly where the shadows will be at particular times of the day or year. The data is in graphical form, so you can make sense of it at one glance.

Another popular tool is the Solmetric Suneye. This instrument is rather user friendly, but is much more expensive than the Solar Pathfinder. This will set you back by at least $1,500…yet there is a cheaper option.

Why Do We Need To Use A Solar Pathfinder?

A proper instrument like a Solar Pathfinder can save you lots of time and guesswork. Moreover it is reasonably easy to use and is affordable.

If we do not have any instrument to predict shadow positions, we’ll have to sit up from dawn to dusk to observe how they move. This is a waste of time! Moreover, these positions shift (slightly) through different seasons because of how the earth rotates around the sun.

But why do we care so much about the extent of shading? You may not realize this, but the effect of shading is devastating to solar energy production. Even if your solar panel is slightly covered under a shadow, the power output can drop drastically.

Consider this…if you shade only one solar cell out of the entire solar panel, your energy production is likely to drop by a third. If you shade a row of photovoltaic cells, your electricity output reduces by about 90%. This means your solar panels have virtually stopped working!

Therefore when installing your solar panels, shading is your first and most important concern.

But is it worthwhile to use a solar pathfinder? Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we could determine shadow positions without the use of a scientific instrument… In fact, the additional electricity you’ll be able to generate quickly covers the cost of the Solar Pathfinder. This is especially true for larger systems.

After all, you’ve invested money and effort on your solar cells, batteries and inverters… Are you going to sacrifice a potentially significant part of its energy output just to save a few bucks? I hope not!

In case you are thinking of installing solar panels without a Solar Pathfinder, drop the idea as soon as possible. Because guesswork will eventually cost you dearly! You may be concerned about the cost…or you may be worried about the complexity of the instrument. The fact is this instrument only costs $249 and you’ll probably take only 15 minutes to learn how to use it.

Whatever it is, if you’re without a Solar Pathfinder, I’m confident of this — you cannot even begin your installation… Without this instrument, you’ll be lost!

To use a Solar Pathfinder, you simply have to bring it to the spot you feel is most suitable for installation. Then you’ll need to level the instrument and point it to the right direction with the help of an in-built compass. The plastic dome will show you a paranomic view of the entire area together with the regions affected by shading over different times of the day or year.

To record your readings, you can use a wax pencil (or grease pen) to outline the shadow or simply use your digital camera to take a snap shot. (I prefer the second approach – it’s instantaneous!)

The effects of shading are exceedingly damaging to solar energy production. Therefore you need to eliminate the guesswork — which can end up costing you a lot — and adopt a scientific approach to install your solar panels. Among all known techniques, the easiest and cheapest way is to use a Solar Pathfinder.

Continue Reading:

1. Solar Panel Installation
2. Do-It-Yourself Solar Panels – Electricity Conversion From Sunlight
3. Used Solar Panels – How To Use Them To Build Cheap DIY Solar Panels