Solar Inverter Comparison Chart

Note: this table is out of date – see our shiny new inverter comparison table here.

When comparing inverters, one of the most important things to consider is the inverter efficiency.

Unlike solar panel efficiency, which, somewhat counter intuitively, does not directly affect the amount of electricity your solar system will produce (you can read why here), solar inverter efficiency is critical to your solar system performance.

All the power from every solar panel goes through your inverter, so the amount of energy that your solar system generates is totally dependent of your inverters efficiency. The higher the inverter efficiency, the more power you’ll get and the more money you’ll save.

To help you compare inverters, I’ve created the tool on this page which uses inverter efficiency data from the California Energy Commission and applies it to inverters that are approved in Australia.

The efficiencies listed in this table are known as the “Californian Efficiency” and I use these numbers because they are independently measured, which I think is a lot better than relying on the manufacturers’ own measurements, who may be a little optimistic when measuring their own inverters don’t ya think?

Please note: not every inverter available in Australia is in this list because I only use inverters that have been tested by our Californian friends!

Note: efficiency isn’t everything! Also critical is reliability. The inverter is the item most likely to fail in the first 10 years of your solar system, so my advice is always get a 10 year inverter warranty.

One of the best ways to judge an inverter’s reliability is to check out our solar inverter reviews where I’ve asked thousands of solar system owners who’ve had their system for more than 12 months how reliable their inverter has been.