Help me compare quotes/systems SMA vs Solaredge

[J.P.M.]

Well, this IS about future capability and seeing as they are one of the largest installers of the product and will be the first to get them and ...bottom line is that the COMPANY is reputable. The sales rep won't be getting anything out of it for a while so he's not really "hard selling" the SolarEdge/Solartor products. There is no difference in cost between an SMA & the SolarEdge .... from them anyway

I'm not sure size correlates positively with knowledge or veracity. Don't know who what co. your referring to, but as an example only, SolarCity's a pretty large installer, and based on what I think I've personally seen and heard, particularly from their sales force (or, IMO only, sales farce), I'd not let them on my property much less believe most anything they say.

Take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.

[ndabunka]

I always believe everything a sales rep tells me.

Well, this IS about future capability and seeing as they are one of the largest installers of the product and will be the first to get them and ...bottom line is that the COMPANY is reputable. The sales rep won't be getting anything out of it for a while so he's not really "hard selling" the SolarEdge/Solartor products. There is no difference in cost between an SMA & the SolarEdge .... from them anyway

[J.P.M.]

My rep has CONFIRMED this and this is why we are ONLY considering he SolarEdge Inverter. Price is not an issue here. We are more than willing to pay more for the flexiblity of running DC DIRECTLY into the Tesla Wall unit without ANY inverter loss (which would occur with the SMAs if even possible)

I always believe everything a sales rep tells me.

[ndabunka]

One thing worth mentioning is that certain SolarEdge Inverters will be upgradeable (at some cost) to their StorEdge unit. This would allow you to install a Tesla Powerwall.

SolarEdge is planning to release exact part numbers of which units are upgradeable sometime soon (per a support rep I traded emails with).

If a real battery backup/load-shifting mechanism is not of interest to you, then this would not be a factor.

My rep has CONFIRMED this and this is why we are ONLY considering he SolarEdge Inverter. Price is not an issue here. We are more than willing to pay more for the flexiblity of running DC DIRECTLY into the Tesla Wall unit without ANY inverter loss (which would occur with the SMAs if even possible)

[J.P.M.]

I do have some partial shading of 6 panels to the south due to birch trees. Does that give Solaredge enough of an advantage?

Probably some in the annual production dept., but hard to quantify without a shade analysis.

[eah123]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

I do have some partial shading of 6 panels to the south due to birch trees. Does that give Solaredge enough of an advantage?

[ulrich]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

One thing worth mentioning is that certain SolarEdge Inverters will be upgradeable (at some cost) to their StorEdge unit. This would allow you to install a Tesla Powerwall.

SolarEdge is planning to release exact part numbers of which units are upgradeable sometime soon (per a support rep I traded emails with).

If a real battery backup/load-shifting mechanism is not of interest to you, then this would not be a factor.

[solarix]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

[J.P.M.]

I'm in Westchester County, NY. I've narrowed down my choices to 2 high quality local installers

1. Panel - LG 280N x 27 = 7.56 kW
Inverter SolarEdge SE w/ optimizers, extended warranty included
Mount: Unirac Solarmount
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.80
Labor warranty 10y
PVWatts annual output 9267 kWh

2. Panel - LG 315 x 26 = 8.19 kW
Inverter SMA SB7700TL-US-22
Mount: Quick Mount PV
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.90
Labor Warranty 20y
PVWatts annual output 10039 kWh

My estimated annual usage is about 9000 kWh

thanks for your help

If you're looking for opinion: Pricing seems high, but I'm ignorant of your local price situation other then NYSERDA incentives etc. can jack up vendor pricing. The oversizing of the array aside, if it was me, and I had no major shade problems, I'd probably pay the slight premium for SMA, but it wouldn't be a strong preference. Unless that's your own PVWatts result, I'd run PVWatts myself and confirm the annual output on the trust but verify basis.

[eah123]

I'm in Westchester County, NY. I've narrowed down my choices to 2 high quality local installers

1. Panel - LG 280N x 27 = 7.56 kW
Inverter SolarEdge SE w/ optimizers, extended warranty included
Mount: Unirac Solarmount
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.80
Labor warranty 10y
PVWatts annual output 9267 kWh

2. Panel - LG 315 x 26 = 8.19 kW
Inverter SMA SB7700TL-US-22
Mount: Quick Mount PV
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.90
Labor Warranty 20y
PVWatts annual output 10039 kWh

My estimated annual usage is about 9000 kWh

thanks for your help