Enphase MicroInverter – DIY project
Enphase MicroInverter – DIY project
Hello,
I am looking at installing this as DIY project and have initiated my process to get the Town approval although I have many questions which I would appreciate your input on.
- Signature solar does not sell Enphase. Do you have any good reliable recommendations where to buy this.
- I am looking at ground mount and can only fit 16 panels in 4×4 layout. So to maximize my input I am looking at Aptos 440 W bifacial. How much panels can be combined together max? I was thinking about 8 and then have two strings going to the combiner box.
- I am only interested in grid tie because the battery is very expensive. So I do not see the need to go for IQ8 but then the IQ7 is not rated for 440 bifacial. I see there is IQ7x but that is more expensive than iQ8A. any recommendations here?
- If I get IQ8 then do I need to get the new boxes and other gadgets that are expensive or can I just get the combiner box if I am not interested in battery backup option.
Thanks,
Dinesh
Hi Dinesh, I would highly recommend the Aptos Solar 440w panels. I have 31 of them in my shop waiting to be installed on my new system that I am working on. I have tested the 370w, 400w and 440w versions of those. So that is a recommendation that I will be using for my new system as well.
The issue I have with my Enphase microinverters is that they can not come close to producing the 440w output of the bifacial panels. I have tested 400w bifacial panels that are producing 420w. Of course, these are the ones I have mounted on temporary EG4 Brightmounts in my videos.
With that said, I plan on moving away from Enphase and exploring the Hoymiles microinverters that have models that can produce an output of 500w each. The best that any Enphase microinverter can do right now is 384w. So that is a major difference. Plus Hoymiles has single microinverters, dual microinverters and quad microinverters.
