{"id":6765,"date":"2016-08-09T16:02:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T06:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2024-04-08T10:18:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T00:48:05","slug":"oversizing-solar-arrays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/oversizing-solar-arrays\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oversizing Solar Panel Arrays Is A Smart Move"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"house

Did you know you can add panels up to 133% of your inverter capacity? Read on to discover why oversizing solar\u00a0is a smart move (as long as your roof is big enough – unlike this guy’s).<\/p><\/div>\n

Installing rooftop solar systems with a total panel capacity greater than the\u00a0inverter capacity is usually\u00a0a very good idea. \u00a0It will certainly save you money, but it\u00a0can also help get around the restrictions many Australians face on the size of inverter<\/a> they can connect to the grid.<\/p>\n

If you want to work out the total panel capacity of a rooftop solar system it is very simple.\u00a0 Just multiply the number of panels by a single panel’s rated capacity in watts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding the total capacity of an inverter is even easier.\u00a0 It will be written on it somewhere.\u00a0 On a 4,000 watt inverter you’ll find something along the lines of, “P AC norm 4000W”.\u00a0 Or you could just look it up online.<\/p>\n

It is very common in Australia for the total capacity of solar panels in an array to be the same as the capacity of the inverter.\u00a0 This has the advantage that energy will never, or almost never, be lost because of the panels producing more power than the inverter can use.\u00a0 But this is not much of an advantage.<\/p>\n

Because panels rarely produce as much power as their rated capacity<\/a> it is possible to add extra panels with very little power being lost.\u00a0 And the extra panel capacity can help the inverter to run at a higher average efficiency which can almost entirely make up for what is lost.<\/p>\n

When the total capacity of the solar panels is greater than that of the inverter the panels are usually said to be “oversized” or the inverter “overclocked”.\u00a0 But because I think it makes a lot of sense, I tend to think of it as “right sized”.<\/p>\n

Oversizing your solar panels can save you a modest amount of money. \u00a0But the real advantage lies in increasing your energy production when your local grid operator limits the inverter size you can install.\u00a0 For example, in some locations people with single phase power are limited to installing inverters of under 5 kilowatts, many people in rural areas can only install inverters of 5 kilowatts or less unless they pay for export limiting equipment or an export limiting inverter, and in Queensland inverters larger than 3 kilowatts can only be installed if they have reactive power control<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can ‘overclock’ your inverter by up to 133%\u00a0and still receive financial assistance in the form of Small-scale Technology Certificates, or STCs, as part of the Solar Rebate<\/a>. But if you go even 1 Watt over the 133% limit, your application for STCs can be refused.<\/p>\n

The solar rebate can cover up to half the cost of your system, so it is vitally important not to go over this limit if you like money.<\/p>\n

Your Inverter Determines The Maximum Panel Capacity<\/h2>\n

The size of the rebate (i.e. the number of STCs) received depends upon the number of solar panels you install,\u00a0and that is determined by the size of the inverter.\u00a0 According to section 9.4 of of the Clean Energy Council’s Grid-Connected Solar PV Systems Design Guidelines<\/a> the total panel capacity cannot exceed the total inverter capacity by more than one-third.\u00a0 So if you have a 3 kilowatt inverter you cannot have more than 4 kilowatts of solar panels and still receive the rebate\/STCs.<\/p>\n

This appears to be a cast-iron rule. You may quite reasonably think that if you have a system where the panels exceeded the size of the inverter by more than one-third you could claim STCs for the panels that are below the limit, but this is apparently not the case and will result in you receiving no STCs at all. I don’t know why they felt the need to stop people paying for extra solar panels out of their own pocket, but after I die I’ll be sure to find their particular circle of hell and ask them.<\/p>\n

Your Inverter Can Handle The Extra Panel Capacity<\/h2>\n

Any inverter you can buy in Australia should be able to handle a total panel capacity one-third larger than its own without problem. \u00a0 Provided the system is properly designed, they have no problems greatly exceeding this limit safely.<\/p>\n

What inverter manufacturers care about is that the voltage and current entering the inverter never at any point exceed their specified limits.\u00a0 Because it is not good when that happens.\u00a0 But when properly installed an inverter attached to panels with one-third greater capacity will never exceed these limits and so inverter manufacturers are fine with it.<\/p>\n

If you want to see what you can get away with you can go to the Sunny Design Site<\/a> for SMA Inverters, click on “New Project”, and fool around with different panel configurations and inverters and see what it takes before it indicates you have created an overload.<\/p>\n

Overclocking your Inverter Can Improve Average Inverter Efficiency<\/h2>\n

Modern inverters usually operate at a high and fairly constant efficiency level.\u00a0 However, when solar panels are supplying less than around 25% of an inverter’s capacity their efficiency takes a hit.\u00a0 This is demonstrated below by the SMA Sunny Boy inverter efficiency curve graph that I stole, I mean, that I am paying homage to, below:<\/p>\n

\"Graph

This graph shows how inverter efficiency can fall when solar panels aren’t providing much power. (Image credit SMA.<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, when panels are supplying more than 30% of an inverter’s capacity its output is fairly constant.\u00a0 But when input power falls below this, and especially when it falls below 15%, an inverter’s efficiency declines. \u00a0When panels are oversized the inverter will spend less time operating at lower efficiency in weak sunlight and this improved average efficiency helps compensate for electricity lost when the panel array\u00a0output exceeds the inverter’s capacity.<\/p>\n

Warning: A \u201c5000\u201d Inverter May Not Be A 5,000 Watt Inverter<\/h2>\n

Some inverter manufacturers appear to have real problems counting\u00a0higher than 4,000.<\/p>\n

For example, SMA<\/a>, despite making what may be the best inverters you can buy, has a real problem.\u00a0 Their Sunny Boy 3000TL is a 3,000 watt inverter and their Sunny Boy 4000TL is a 4,000 watt inverter, but their Sunny Boy 5000TL is a 4,600 watt inverter. This is really quite a pity because they were doing so well matching the names of their inverters to their capacity up till then.<\/p>\n

Growatt also has a similar problem, as the Growatt 5000MTL is also a 4,600 watt inverter. In this case they say it can be a 5,000 watts as an \u201coption\u201d. So I guess it all depends on if the employee who can count that high happens to be working on that particular day.<\/p>\n

And also be aware that the “5” in Sungrow’s SG 5KTL-M inverter doesn’t stand for 5 kilowatts.\u00a0 It’s a 4,600 watt inverter too.<\/p>\n

So always be sure to check what the nominal AC output power is on their datasheet.\u00a0 You can find the datasheet on the internet.\u00a0 Or if you can’t find it that is the internet’s way of telling you to choose another inverter.<\/p>\n

What Determines Total Panel Capacity<\/h2>\n

The total capacity of your solar panels is their nameplate capacity multiplied by how many of them you have. And when I say nameplate, their capacity in watts is usually in their name. For example, the capacity of the Phono Solar PS260P-20\/U<\/a> panel is 260 watts as that is what the first three digits refer to.<\/p>\n

So if you have one dozen PS260P-20\/U panels the total solar panel capacity would be 3,120 watts.\u00a0 This will often be referred to as 3.12 kilowatts.<\/p>\n

Panel Size Affects How Much You Can Oversize<\/h2>\n

You may decide you want to oversize your panels as much as you can and still receive STCs and make their total capacity exactly 133% larger than your inverter.\u00a0 But in practice this will often be hard to achieve because the capacity of individual solar panels is a fixed number.\u00a0 For example, if you have a 3 kilowatt inverter and you want to oversize your panels by 133% to 4 kilowatts and you are using 270 watt panels, the closest you will be able to get is 14 panels totaling 3.78 kilowatts.\u00a0 You can’t get any closer as adding one more panel will take you over the 133% limit.<\/p>\n

It is never a good idea to try to fill in a gap by using one small panel or cutting a larger panel in half.<\/p>\n

It would be possible to get closer to the limit by using 260 watt panels and installing 15 of them.\u00a0 Or the same result could be achieved by using 300 watt panels and installing 13 of them.\u00a0 Or you could hit the target exactly by using 250 watt panels.<\/p>\n

In practice you are probably far better off just selecting a high quality panel and not worrying if you can’t quite max out your panel capacity as much as you’d like.<\/p>\n

The Pros And Cons Of Oversizing Panel Capacity<\/h2>\n

Under good conditions when the sky is clear, the sun is shining directly onto the panels, and it is not too hot<\/a>, oversized solar panel arrays will produce more DC power than their inverter can turn into AC power and this results in the excess power being lost.<\/p>\n

When this occurs it is often said the inverter output is “clipped”.\u00a0 What this can look like is shown by the graphic below which I “acquired” from an SMA inverter brochure.<\/p>\n

\"A

The “clipped” output of a solar system with oversized panels.\u00a0 (Image credit SMA)<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, a 9 kilowatt inverter is unable to supply more than 9 kilowatts of AC power and the excess is “clipped” off, causing the AC output to plateau.\u00a0 But this is an extreme example as the panels are 166.7% the size of the inverter.\u00a0 Unless you want to pay through the nose, or possibly some other orifice, you can’t go over 133% and still receive STCs.<\/p>\n

While it is unfortunate that some power goes to waste, oversizing the system has a number of advantages.\u00a0 When conditions aren’t good the system will produce more power than it otherwise would making its output more consistent.\u00a0 This can help increase self consumption of solar electricity which is an important consideration now that high feed-in tariffs<\/a> are a thing of the past for most Australians.\u00a0 As mentioned earlier, it can result in the inverter operating at a higher average efficiency and using a smaller inverter can potentially save money.<\/p>\n

Inverter Lifespan<\/h2>\n

An inverter in a system with oversized panels will on average spend more time operating at its full capacity, which means it will spend more time operating at a high temperature and heat is bad for electronic devices.\u00a0 On the other hand, its temperature should be more constant which will reduce expansion and contraction from thermal cycling which is also bad for electronics.\u00a0 Overall I would expect inverters with oversized panels to have their average lifespan slightly reduced.\u00a0 But I don’t think the loss of life would be very significant and inverter manufacturers don’t seem very worried about it.\u00a0 For example I’ve never known one to base the cost of their extended warranty on whether or not the inverter is part of a system with oversized panels.<\/p>\n

Performance Comparison Using PVwatts<\/h2>\n

I used the PVwatts site<\/a> to compare the performance of solar power systems with oversized panels with systems where panel and inverter capacity are equal.\u00a0 I find PVwatts gives results that are fairly accurate for Australia.\u00a0 This makes it a useful tool and it is very nice of the United States to let us use it for free.\u00a0 And that whole stopping Imperial Japan thing is also appreciated.<\/p>\n

Earlier I mentioned the existence of 4.6 kilowatt inverters when I described how some inverter manufacturers have trouble counting to high numbers.\u00a0 If one of these inverters has its panels oversized by 130.44% it will have 6 kilowatts of panels.\u00a0 And if I assume 250 or 300 watt panels are used it can hit that amount exactly.<\/p>\n

Pwatts<\/a> told me how many kilowatt-hours the following systems would produce in a year when installed on a north facing roof in Sydney:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"graph\"

Overclocking your inverter loses almost no energy production over 1 year<\/p><\/div>\n

According to PVwatts a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels produces 29.9% more electricity than a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 4.6 kilowatts of panels.\u00a0 That is very good result given it only has 30.44% more solar panel capacity.<\/p>\n

What is very impressive is a 6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels will only produce around 0.4% more electricity over a year than a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels.<\/p>\n

For panels that are facing east or west in Sydney PVwatts indicates there is almost no difference in output between a 4.6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels and a 6 kilowatt inverter with 6 kilowatts of panels.<\/p>\n

The table below shows the output of solr power systems in Australian capitals with panels that are oversized by 130.44% as a percentage of the output they would produce if they were not oversized.\u00a0 The results for both north facing and west facing systems are shown and are rounded to the nearest percentage point.<\/p>\n

[wpdtable id=”7023″]<\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see the output is almost the same in every city.<\/p>\n

While I knew oversizing panels made sense, these results are actually better than I expected, so I checked the results with an Australian made program, PVsell<\/a>, and got almost exactly the same result.<\/p>\n

Reducing Your Inverter Size\u00a0Won’t Save Too Much Money<\/h2>\n

Because systems with oversized panels perform so well with next to no loss of performance, this means households could save money by using a smaller and less expensive inverter and still produce almost the same amount of electricity.\u00a0 Unfortunately, with current inverter prices, this isn’t likely to save you much money.<\/p>\n

From an installer’s point of view, providing a customer with a 4.6 kilowatt inverter and oversizing it with 6 kilowatts of panels takes exactly as much effort as installing a 6 kilowatt inverter and 6 kilowatts of panels. The only thing they are doing differently is installing a smaller inverter and that doesn’t save them any work at all.\u00a0 Sure, it might weigh a little less and be easier to lift, but solar installers tend to be mighty so they are not going to consider that worthy of a discount.<\/p>\n

Because the effort is the same the only money saved will be on the cost of the inverter and these days that is not likely to be much.\u00a0 The difference in price between an inverter and one that is around a third larger is usually very small.\u00a0 For an installer the difference between what they pay for a 3,000 watt inverter and a 4,000 watt one can be as little as $100.\u00a0 That will reduce the cost of most installations by less than 1.5%.<\/p>\n

But Oversizing Panels Does\u00a0Get Around Restrictions On Inverter Size<\/h2>\n

In many places in Australia there are restrictions that effectively limit the size of solar inverters that can be installed.\u00a0 Why there are so many restrictions is hard for me to understand because here in South Australia we can normally install inverters of up to 10 kilowatts without any problem.<\/p>\n

Actually, it’s not really true that I don’t understand why there are restrictions.\u00a0 I think I actually understand very well.\u00a0 But because I’ve resolved to do less swearing in these articles I won’t go into the reasons why they exist.<\/p>\n

To give just some examples, unless they want to pay extra for special inverters or equipment, many people in rural areas are limited to installing a 5 kilowatt inverter.\u00a0 People with single phase power in the Ausgrid network area, such as in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, can only install inverters that are under 5 kilowatts.\u00a0 And in Queensland Energex makes it difficult to install inverters that are larger than 3 kilowatts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But by oversizing solar panels a home with a 3 kilowatt inverter can have 4 kilowatts of panels, a 4.6 kilowatt inverter can have 6.13 kilowatts of panels, and a 5 kilowatt inverter can have 6.66 kilowatts of panels, and still produce practically the same amount of electricity as if the inverter had the same capacity as the solar panels.<\/p>\n

While potentially saving a little money on your inverter\u00a0is nice, getting around restrictions on inverter size is where oversizing solar panels is really useful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Installing rooftop solar systems with a total panel capacity greater than the\u00a0inverter capacity is usually\u00a0a very good idea. \u00a0It will certainly save you money, but it\u00a0can also help get around the restrictions many Australians face on the size of inverter they can connect to the grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,46],"tags":[112,33],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-inverters","category-solar-panels-2","tag-buyers-guide","tag-solar-rebates","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Oversizing Solar Panel Arrays Is A Smart Move<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know that adding solar panels, above your inverter capacity is a smart and legitimate way to save money and get around grid connection rules?\" \/>\n<meta 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