Solar Optimizer

A solar power optimizer is the best way to ensure that the hard-earned money you’ve spent on your solar array doesn’t go to waste — thanks to the optimum power utilization features that they provide. In short, they make your entire array run more effectively than it ever has before.

Today’s article is all about making you aware of the many benefits that installing a high-quality optimizer product will provide you. Once you realize just how much extra “juice” you’re going to be able to squeeze out of your array with one in place, you’ll never look back!

What Is a Solar Power Optimizer?

A solar panel optimizer is designed to make your solar cell array more effective by closely monitoring how well each individual cell is operating and providing them with a platform to be able to upscale their energy production, without you having to spend more money in the process.

Of course, there is an upfront outlay for an optimizer but this really pales in comparison to the long-term benefits that a unit like this is going to provide you with. When you consider how much you’re paying for the panel installation alone, the additional optimizer cost becomes a drop in the ocean.

Some installers will actually fit an optimizer product like this into your array as standard, so it’s worth comparison shopping before you make a final purchase decision on an array. Regardless of the stage that one is introduced, it’s going to pay its costs back and more.

Solar cells are designed to be as efficient as possible. Using an optimizer simply takes that efficiency and massively amplifies it to ensure that you’re getting constant, maximum power output regardless of the time of day, or the location of your panels.

How Solar Optimizers Help to Get More Energy from Solar Projects?

Though the two are often confused with one another, it’s important to understand (as we’ll soon discuss in greater detail) that solar optimizers are not inverters. Rather, they have to connect to inverters in order to be able to work successfully. Once in place, they directly “read” the amount of DC current being channeled through an inverter and work to amplify it to increase the amount of electricity being fed into the circuit before it is then converted into AC.

AC is then used to directly power your household after the successful conversion process has taken place. This means that an optimizer works to improve the front-end electrical feed process by increasing the amount of power going into the overall circuit. As a result, the output is then increased meaning that you’re constantly getting an optimum amount of usable power at all times, regardless of the location of your array of panels.

Why Optimizers Are Important for Solar Systems?

Fundamentally, a solar optimizer will quite literally allow you to get more power out of your solar cell array. Considering that you’re using solar panels solely for the purpose of drawing power in the first place there’s no way that using one doesn’t make a world of sense. While it’s true that you can get up to date monitoring software and even invest in the best inverter models on the market. None of these components can precisely replicate the action that an optimizer carries out.

High-quality components will always lead to excellent power output with the most premium of solar power options, but it’s through introducing a market-leading optimizer that you can actually harness more from the combined outputs of these individual components. View an optimizer as being the cherry on the cake. You’ve got all of the base layers of a panel working together to produce electricity but it’s through adding the finishing touch that you’re able to squeeze out that last extra ounce of impact that really serves to make the entire system optimal.

This could be said if you’re using a completely normal system too. But what if your solar panel isn’t south-facing or some of the cells are covered in shade more often than they aren’t? This is where optimizers become crucial. Not everyone is going to be able to use solar power in the same manner as others depending on their location in the world and the available space in their residence. This sadly means that using solar becomes a less ideal power solution for some than others.

However, the positive long term economic and environmental impact will still always make solar desirable regardless of where you live. In these instances, an optimizer is quite literally going to be the only way that you can get the most out of your cells. Whether you want to make an already fully functional array more effective by squeezing out extra power or you need direct intervention to make your solar panels function at a “normal” capacity. There’s never a bad reason to introduce a solar power optimizer.

Microinverters vs Power Optimizers

People often get confused when comparing a solar optimizer to a microinverter, with many often believing that they’re the same thing. As previously mentioned, though they’re completely separate components altogether. An inverter is directly responsible for converting DC power into AC power so that it can then be redistributed and used to power anything electrical of your choosing. However, an optimizer directly works with an inverter to amplify that power.

Inverters read the current going into an inverter and then give it a boost so that the overall current at the other end increases to produce more power, albeit without having to add more solar cells into the mix. This essentially means that you’re getting more out of your inverter to be able to get more out of your panel. An inverter exists independently of an optimizer and doesn’t need one in order to be able to function, but an optimizer needs an inverter to function.

Hopefully now, after reading through the different roles performed by each component you now feel like you understand them and how they’re entirely independent of one another despite having a close working relationship with each other.

Conclusion

Though they might not be the first thing you think about when setting up a solar array, the truth is that a high-quality optimizer can be the difference between solar power being viable in your area or not at all, or it can be a great way to enhance your overall long term cost savings.

Solar technology is rapidly growing in popularity due to the no-brain combination of long-term money savings and the zero negative impact on the ozone layer it offers. Equally, optimizers serve as the perfect companion piece to any solar array due to them fitting so effectively into the entire solar ethos.

Solar optimizers simply serve to take everything that makes solar so great and make it even greater. From the cheap financial outlay they require prior to installation compared to the numerous benefits they offer they’re a complete no brain addition to any solar owner’s cell system.