SolarEdge - Inverter Reviews

About SolarEdge

SolarEdge Customer Service: 1800 465 567

SolarEdge is an Israeli inverter and energy storage company with a unique approach to solar inverters. Normally, power optimisers can be placed on solar panels if desired, but most installations do entirely without them. SolarEdge inverters are different, as they require a SolarEdge optimiser on every panel.

Putting optimisers on each panel provides some advantages:

• It gives installers flexibility with positioning panel arrays.
• The output of individual panels can be monitored, rather than only the system as a whole.
• Dirt or shade on one panel can be prevented from affecting the output of other panels.
• Panels can be rapidly shut down in emergencies.
• It potentially provides more energy generation over the system's lifetime.
• SolarEdge inverters can be smaller because a lot of its work -- such as the Multi Power Point Tracking (MPPT) -- is done by the optimisers.

While their approach is different, SolarEdge inverters currently have a good reputation for reliability and efficiency. They're also backed up with one of the longest inverter warranties around.

SolarEdge Is A Large Company

SolarEdge was founded in 2006 and began producing solar inverters with optimizers in 2010. While not the largest solar inverter manufacturer in the world, SolarEdge isn't a small company. At the start of 2023 they claimed to have shipped:

• Over 40 gigawatts of inverters.
• Around 4.5 million individual inverters. (Making their average inverter size around 8.9 kW).
• Around 107.6 million power optimisers.

They also claim to have:

• Over 3.1 million separate PV systems connected to their internet monitoring platform.

Manufacturing Locations

While SolarEdge is an Israeli company, they manufacture their products around the world. I believe most of their manufacturing is done in China, but for some of their inverters they give the manufacturing locations as, "China/Vietnam/Hungry". I'm not sure if that means parts are produced in each of those countries or if the inverter could have been assembled in any one of them.

Safety

Safety is a major selling point for SolarEdge. While all solar inverters sold in Australia must have a high level of safety, SolarEdge boasts they have an edge over others.

When most inverters are shut down, the cables on the roof can still have dangerously high voltage if sunlight is falling on the panels. SolarEdge's "SafeDC" feature will reduce the voltage in the cables to just 1 volt. Additionally, if a power optimiser is unable to communicate with the inverter it will automatically reduce the output from its solar panel to 1 volt.

SolarEdge also claims their inverters are good at detecting arc faults, but it's not clear if they have an advantage over other quality inverters. An arc fault can occur when cables connected to solar panels are damaged and have the potential to start fires. When detected, inverters will shut down to prevent this possibility.

Efficiency

The efficiency of SolarEdge inverters is excellent, with most having an average efficiency of 99%. But this isn't the full story, as their power optimisers also have an efficiency rating of around 98.8%. Combining these two figures gives an average system efficiency of 97.8%. This is similar to many inverters on the market today.

Whether or not SolarEdge optimisers on panels will increase overall energy output will depend on its location and situation. If a solar system is mostly unshaded there may be no noticeable benefit. The greatest benefit is likely to be seen for solar systems with substantial shading. But even in these cases, the overall benefit is likely to be small compared to modern inverters without optimisers.

Low Nighttime Energy Consumption

At night SolarEdge inverters draw under 2.5 watts. While the benefit of this low energy consumption when the sun isn't shining is small, it still helps.

Monitoring

One advantage of having an optimiser on every panel is it lets you see exactly what is going on with your system, down to the level of individual panel output. Using the mySolarEdge app will let you see...

• The amount of power each panel is producing.
• Total solar output.
• Your home's solar power consumption.
• How much power your home is importing from the grid or exporting for a solar feed-in tariff.

As far as these things go, the mySolarEdge monitoring app is relatively easy to use. It also lets you see if all the optimisers on your roof are working, so helps avoid the problem of people not knowing if something is wrong with their system.

Hybrid Inverters For Batteries

SolarEdge produces hybrid inverters for use with batteries and sells their own battery called the StorEdge. One advantage of SolarEdge hybrid inverters is that when installed with a battery, the solar panel capacity can be up to 200% of the inverter's capacity. This is very helpful for installing a large solar system.

SolarEdge makes both single-phase and three-phase hybrid inverters. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, their 3-phase ones are unable to provide backup power during blackouts. This problem is due to Australian wiring rules, as they can provide it in other countries. Hopefully, this will be resolved in the future.

SolarEdge Hot Water Diverter

If you have a SolarEdge inverter and monitoring, you can install their hot water diverter they call the SolarEdge Hot Water Controller. This sends surplus solar energy that would normally be exported to the grid to your hot water system, provided it's a conventional electric resistance hot water system. Unlike some diverters, it will work with large 4.8kW heating elements. It only has a 5 year warranty but at the moment that's good for a diverter.

You can find its details on our Hot Water PV Diverter Comparison Table.

SolarEdge EV Charger

SolarEdge also makes a home charger for electric vehicles. It has a 3-year warranty and you can check out its details on our EV Charger Comparison Table.

SolarEdge Warranty

SolarEdge have one of the best standard inverter warranties in the industry at 12 years. If you like, you can pay to have it extended to 20 or 25 years. The optimisers have 25-year warranties.

The weak point of the SolarEdge warranty is a number of products normally required for installation only have a 5-year warranty. These include wireless communication devices and energy meters.

SolarEdge's Australian office is based in East Melbourne and they have field technicians across the country. This means they should be able to respond to any warranty issues that occur rapidly. But note that the first person you should contact if there is a warranty is the original installer. While some installation businesses -- ones we do not recommend -- may try to dodge their responsibility, they are obligated to address warranty issues.

If the original installer has disappeared, SolarEdge advises customers to contact their Australian office on the number listed at the top of this description. Alternatively, you can email them at: [email protected] They will then arrange an installer in their network to fix the problem.

Reliability

We consider SolarEdge's current inverters to be reliable and are happy to recommend them -- despite the company earning a reputation for being prickly when it comes to well-intentioned criticism.

While we consider them dependable now, in the past SolarEdge inverters had some problems. At one point their power optimisers suffered a high failure rate. Some suggested high temperatures and humidity contributed to this, while others suggested poor installation. Whatever the reason, SolarEdge lived up to their responsibility to replace them under warranty. Any company can make mistakes, but good ones fix them. And so do good prickly ones.

Installer Vote Of Confidence

In SolarQuotes' Installers' Choice Awards for 2023, SolarEdge attained third place in the best inverter category.

Additional Info

You can find technical and estimated pricing information for the company's products on our solar inverter comparison page. SolarEdge is currently listed as a SolarQuotes recommended inverter brand.

If you have a SolarEdge inverter installed, please feel free to share your experience with us by hitting the "Leave a review" button above.