Delta M Servies Inveter Question

[rsunny2012]

Hello,

i have ordered 8.16KW system with 2 powerwalls. i stay in townhome and i want to install inverter outside my home ( near the electric panels)
During my initial layout, Tesla mentioned 2 powerwalls with Solar edge inverter
After they had a site inspection, they have lowered my solar panels to 6.8 KW ( due to some obstacles on my roof)
during my recent layout changes, i see 6.8 KW system with 2 powerwalls and Delta inverter
I had to accept the layout as i want the installation before end of this year

When i approached my advisor, they have mentioned since my property does not have any shading issues.
what does this mean ?
since i planned to install the inverter outside my house, i see sun shines near my electrical panel for about few hours during the day
will it impact the inverter and is Delta M series better then Solar edge HD inverter ?

what are my options here

 

[jjrandorin]

They tend to use the solar edge with optimizers and delta without. This has nothing to do with where the sun is shining on the inverter or not. Both of them will be fine on the outside of the house, and if you dont have optimizers (because you dont have shading issues) then the delta should be fine.

 

[albertm3]

Hello,

i have ordered 8.16KW system with 2 powerwalls. i stay in townhome and i want to install inverter outside my home ( near the electric panels)
During my initial layout, Tesla mentioned 2 powerwalls with Solar edge inverter
After they had a site inspection, they have lowered my solar panels to 6.8 KW ( due to some obstacles on my roof)
during my recent layout changes, i see 6.8 KW system with 2 powerwalls and Delta inverter
I had to accept the layout as i want the installation before end of this year

When i approached my advisor, they have mentioned since my property does not have any shading issues.
what does this mean ?
since i planned to install the inverter outside my house, i see sun shines near my electrical panel for about few hours during the day
will it impact the inverter and is Delta M series better then Solar edge HD inverter ?

what are my options here

Looks like you're not very familiar with solar. The location of the inverter is mainly base on where your main panel is. It doesn't matter whether your inverter has 8 hours of sunlight or 0 hours. It won't affect anything.

The important part of sharing is where your solar panels are located. It's somewhere on your roof. If you have sharing on your roof like a tree or building, then it will affect your solar production. It can be significant production loss.

If they're going to use Delta inverter, they won't have optimizer to reduce the production loss due of sharing. Only Solaredge has optimizer.

If you don't have sharing problem at all in where your solar panel is. You can go ahead with Delta. It's basically a string inverter. A string inverter chain up multiple panels together. If one panel get shared, the entire string will reduce in production.

Solaredge due with sharing by optimizing each panel separately. So if you have sharing, you should go with Solaredge.

Don't worry about get it done before the end of the year, the different can only be couple hundreds.

If you rush, and put in a wrong system, you production loss over 20 years is much greater than couple hundreds.

One thing to know is Solaredge has 12 year warranty, and can be extended with ~$200 to get 20-25 years warranty.

DeltaM is only 10 years. Tesla doesn't offer extended warranty.

 

[jjrandorin]

Looks like you're not very familiar with solar. The location of the inverter is mainly base on where your main panel is. It doesn't matter whether your inverter has 8 hours of sunlight or 0 hours. It won't affect anything.

The important part of sharing is where your solar panels are located. It's somewhere on your roof. If you have sharing on your roof like a tree or building, then it will affect your solar production. It can be significant production loss.

If they're going to use Delta inverter, they won't have optimizer to reduce the production loss due of sharing. Only Solaredge has optimizer.

If you don't have sharing problem at all in where your solar panel is. You can go ahead with Delta. It's basically a string inverter. A string inverter chain up multiple panels together. If one panel get shared, the entire string will reduce in production.

Solaredge due with sharing by optimizing each panel separately. So if you have sharing, you should go with Solaredge.

Don't worry about get it done before the end of the year, the different can only be couple hundreds.

If you rush, and put in a wrong system, you production loss over 20 years is much greater than couple hundreds.

One thing to know is Solaredge has 12 year warranty, and can be extended with ~$200 to get 20-25 years warranty.

DeltaM is only 10 years. Tesla doesn't offer extended warranty.

OP, in the post above, Its likely that every instance of the word "sharing" is likely supposed to say "shading". Not trying to put words in @albertm3 's proverbial pen, but reading the post, its fairly apparent that is what he means.

 

[rsunny2012]

I dont know whether tesla will change the inverter at this point.
I dont have any trees near my roof. My question is, if i have less sunshine will it impact all thr panels ?
Will i get access to the delta inverter where i can monitor each pabel of how much power is generating ?

 

[jboy210]

I dont know whether tesla will change the inverter at this point.
I dont have any trees near my roof. My question is, if i have less sunshine will it impact all thr panels ?
Will i get access to the delta inverter where i can monitor each pabel of how much power is generating ?

If you had shading or other issues (ex. orientation) that cause the panel output to vary, the optimizers that work with certain inverters can be added to minimize the loss of generation. As I understand it, without optimizers, and unequal output from panels, the output of the string of panels wired is gated by the lowest output panel. With optimizers, the string output is less affected by a low output panel.

But, if you don't have any shading and your panels will get equal amounts of sunshine I don't see the need to have optimizers and inverters that support optimizers, and associated extra costs. Some please correct me if I am incorrect.

 

[albertm3]

If you had shading or other issues (ex. orientation) that cause the panel output to vary, the optimizers that work with certain inverters can be added to minimize the loss of generation. As I understand it, without optimizers, and unequal output from panels, the output of the string of panels wired is gated by the lowest output panel. With optimizers, the string output is less affected by a low output panel.

But, if you don't have any shading and your panels will get equal amounts of sunshine I don't see the need to have optimizers and inverters that support optimizers, and associated extra costs. Some please correct me if I am incorrect.

As far as I know, only solaredge offers per panel production monitoring, Delta doesn't have that.

For the optimizer cost, it's very interesting with Tesla. They won't charge you more for having optimizer. I assume they just eat the extra hardware cost.

If your panel has no shading at all, without optimizer is OK.
If you have some sharing with some panels, it's possible the entire string will shut off. Because it has to have meet the minimum voltage per string to operate.

Another different view is safety, each optimizer connected to only one panel. If there's an arc-fault at anytime, all optimizer will shut off to prevent fire. IMO, this is my biggest reason to go with optimizer. DC voltage is much much more dangerous than AC.

In earlier year of solar, I have seem housing get burn down due to solar system fire, which haunt me.

 

[rsunny2012]

My only concern with delta inverter is what if one of my solar panel has any issue or generating less production, will it impact other panels too ?