SolarEdge P300 v P400 / v P600 etc.

[Willaby]

My 4.5 kw Solaredge/LG280 system has been running nicely for 3 months now. One of the things I'd noticed is that the installer used P400 optimizers instead of the P300 spec'd in my contract. Nice to have the up-rating, but likely won't mean anything to me. I also see SolarEdge has other Pxxx versions, including a P600 which I haven't seen come up here on the forums. I absolutely would favor pairing up my 16 panels with only 8 optimizers. Not really for cost savings (~$200 in my case), but half the points of failure and monitoring pairs of panels instead of singles would be fine. I'd even consider monitoring 3 or 4 panels to get the number of optimizers down, say if there was a P1000 (there is a P700).

Anyone thought about this? Definitely worth asking about. I didn't miss that they are noted as "commercial" and "three-phase" on SolarEdge's site, but I see they are advertised as cost effective solutions for larger "residential" and commercial on other sites.

[ButchDeal]

My 4.5 kw Solaredge/LG280 system has been running nicely for 3 months now. One of the things I'd noticed is that the installer used P400 optimizers instead of the P300 spec'd in my contract. Nice to have the up-rating, but likely won't mean anything to me. I also see SolarEdge has other Pxxx versions, including a P600 which I haven't seen come up here on the forums. I absolutely would favor pairing up my 16 panels with only 8 optimizers. Not really for cost savings (~$200 in my case), but half the points of failure and monitoring pairs of panels instead of singles would be fine. I'd even consider monitoring 3 or 4 panels to get the number of optimizers down, say if there was a P1000 (there is a P700).

Anyone thought about this? Definitely worth asking about. I didn't miss that they are noted as "commercial" and "three-phase" on SolarEdge's site, but I see they are advertised as cost effective solutions for larger "residential" and commercial on other sites.

There would be no savings as the p600 is roughly double the cost of the p300. There would be a reduction in performance with commercial ( double ) optimizers over single ( residential ) as well as well as reduction in monitoring.
The p700 is for dual 72 cell modules where the p600 is for dual 60 cell. Using p600 vs p300 would give less points of failure but take out two modules in performance with one failure instead of just one. Also shadows would effect two module output rather than just one.

[Ben25]

The P600 and P700 are ony for 3 phase inverters.

[Willaby]

There would be no savings as the p600 is roughly double the cost of the p300. There would be a reduction in performance with commercial ( double ) optimizers over single ( residential ) as well as well as reduction in monitoring.
The p700 is for dual 72 cell modules where the p600 is for dual 60 cell. Using p600 vs p300 would give less points of failure but take out two modules in performance with one failure instead of just one. Also shadows would effect two module output rather than just one.

Not exactly - the P600 cost is ~50% more than the P300, that's $1k savings on a 30 panel system. No reduction in performance or monitoring. If one panel fails of the pair, that would be obvious, even if one of a 3 panel group failed it would be quite noticeable. And taking out two modules in the case of a failure cost would be very negligible over time. It might be two bucks worth of kwh if it took you a week to fix.

More so, the biggest complaints about Optimizers and Micros are "not wanting electronics on the roof" and "what if the manufacture goes bankrupt" and pairing up the panels reduces these concerns by half.

I don't think I've seen a single residential thread where pairing has been applied, or even offered or quoted.

[Willaby]

The P600 and P700 are ony for 3 phase inverters.

I made note of that, but I'm fairly ignorant. Does my home, or other residential, typically have three phase?

[ButchDeal]

The P600 and P700 are ony for 3 phase inverters.

No very rarely do residential have 3 phase

[Ben25]

I made note of that, but I'm fairly ignorant. Does my home, or other residential, typically have three phase?

I browsed right past that part...