2 x 8 vs 1 x 16

[PhilT]

My new installation went in on Friday. I was told it would be one 6kW inverter connected to 16 panels, but they actually installed 2 inverters connected separately to 8 panels each. Will this compromise my ability in the future to have only one charger (or only one of any device) being able to make use of the full power from all 16 panels?

[George]

What sort of charger? So long as the cable is big enough from the twin inverters back to the consumer unit it shouldn't make any difference. That is where the power gets 'used' by other devices on different circuits. 

[PhilT]

Thanks George. No charger yet - waiting for bi-directional to be available at a reasonable price (could be a while!). Hopefully it shouldn't matter as a charger would work directly from the mains, indirectly supplemented by the sum of my 2 banks of 8 panels into 2 inverters. My concern would be if Solaredge made their own bi-directional charger offering, which they suggest possibly 2023, conditional on having only one inverter covering all 16 panels in order to make use of the full 16 panel output AND the full functionality of a bi-directional charging system for which, no doubt, they would have a very clever monitoring software application like they do for the PVs.

 

Anyway, at last I got connected today and with a nice bit of pure blue sky sunshine for a couple of hours around mid-day my 16 panels maxed out at around 1.6kW per inverter. It's a good feeling when it finally happens!

[Ronski]

I think you may be confusing terminology/poor understanding of things, not quite sure what you mean by bi-directional? If referring to batteries, well all solar storage batteries are bi-directional, they charge and they discharge.

 

If adding batteries later it would have been a more simple system to use a single hybrid inverter, with a hybrid inverter the batteries are connected directly to the inverter by DC. Using two hybrid inverters each with its own battery complicates things, but depending on the system it could work perfectly well, and may even have benefits.

 

It sounds like your later going to add an AC connected battery, this has its own inverter/charger, it will monitor what you are drawing from the grid, and will either charge or discharge the battery depending on that. One complication is you'd need to check with DNO, as AC connected batteries add to the theoretical maximum export.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Ronski

[PhilT]

Wallbox offer a bi-directional charger and Solaredge say they will have one next year. I won't be getting batteries as I hope to get an EV and use it's battery via a bi-directional charger for V2H/V2G when available

https://www.smappee.com/blog/v2g-v2h/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAnNacBhDvARIsABnDa6-PTUyTj50TGYtZst-uK5hTieeuFdNlp54XJMfpMhjMMdLk1fNrt4oaAvMdEALw_wcB

 

[Ronski]

Ah that makes sense now, bi-directional car charger (presuming the car supports that) - forgot about that one (no mention of cars in this thread). 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Ronski