Inverter input voltage

[bearmarm]

I have 16 Abound panels rated from 62 watts to 70 watts. I would love to throw them up on the roof. The voltage numbers for inverters don't seem to jive. When I measure voltage on these I get around 55 volts each. If these are in series that would be 880. The inverters are 12, 24, or 48. What am I missing here? I couldn't even do an inverter per panel. I have tried to find this information but feel free to scold me anyway.

[Vern Faulkner]

I have 16 Abound panels rated from 62 watts to 70 watts. I would love to throw them up on the roof. The voltage numbers for inverters don't seem to jive. When I measure voltage on these I get around 55 volts each. If these are in series that would be 880. The inverters are 12, 24, or 48. What am I missing here? I couldn't even do an inverter per panel. I have tried to find this information but feel free to scold me anyway.

Your panels need to feed into a charge controller, which feeds batteries. Inverters will not typically run directly off solar panels.

[bearmarm]

Do I need a charge controller even if I am not using batteries?

[Naptown]

Do I need a charge controller even if I am not using batteries?

Without batteries you will be using a grid tie inverter. You are still over the max voltage even for that so you would need to create 2 strings to lower the voltage.

[bearmarm]

Don't people usually end up over 48 volts in a string? I'm breaking that with one panel and they aren't even silicon panels. I am definitely missing something here.

[Sunking]

What am I missing here? .

You do not know the difference between a Grid Tied Inverter (GTI) and Battery Inverter. Panels come in two basic designs. One is for battery systems and are usually 18 volts for each 12 volts of battery. The other is Grid Tied panels are much higher voltages to work with GTI's input of 300 to 600 volts.

It is possible to use th epanels you have on a battery system but you would have to install them in parallel or in a series/parallel configuration to stay withing spec of a MPPT Charge Controller.

[bearmarm]

I'm seeing many inverters that are called "Grid Tie Inverter" and their input voltages are 12, 24, or 48. That is not possible. What solar panel puts out 48 volts or less let alone a whole string of panels in series? Moreover, why are the grid tie inverters marketed by wattage? Their wattage rating is never a problem, It's the input voltage.

[bonaire]

Solar PV is about power.
Power = Wattage.
You buy an inverter based on the wattage output. They all (just about) produce 240V output.

An inverter converts DC Watts to AC watts. Watt = Volts * Amp.

So, you get a 2000 W grid tie inverter.

It's maximum output power is just about 2000 W or 240V * 8.3A.
The input power range is probably 200V to 350V. You would take say 7 37V 250W modules (totalling 1750W) and make an input series wire of 259V. The output from the inverter will be a maximum of something like 1650W due to efficiencies.

In this scenario, though - a good spec is to have more wattage of solar modules than inverter max output power. So, if you have 1750W modules, a 1500W grid tie inverter seems appropriate. Usually slightly cheaper than 2000W inverter and will run more efficiently near it's max power point. Modules rarely produce near their power maximum, so the inverter hooked up to a 1750W array will be well under 1500W most of the time. My personal 3600W inverters state that their max AC output amperage is 16A * 240V or roughly 3850 Watts. I use just over 4000W of modules per inverter.

[bearmarm]

Good information and that simplifies things greatly. I'm still worried about the input voltage ratings though because I and just about anybody would be exceeding them when setting up in series.

[Sunking]

Good information and that simplifies things greatly. I'm still worried about the input voltage ratings though because I and just about anybody would be exceeding them when setting up in series.

If you are talking about Grid Tied inverter that operate up to 600 volts DC

[inetdog]

If you are talking about Grid Tied inverter that operate up to 600 volts DC

Except for "plug-in" inverters which may have much lower input voltage limits (in addition to being illegal and not delivering rated output)
Can anyone think of a short name for these Grid Tied Inverters analogous to HarborFright and FleaBay? And no, POS is not specific enough.

[Naptown]

Except for "plug-in" inverters which may have much lower input voltage limits (in addition to being illegal and not delivering rated output)
Can anyone think of a short name for these Grid Tied Inverters analogous to HarborFright and FleaBay? And no, POS is not specific enough.

How about dangerous rip off POS

[inetdog]

How about dangerous rip off POS

That's close! Maybe dangerous rip-off POS GTI, or POS-GTI for short?

[Sunking]

SBEM seems to work.

Sucker Born Every Minute.