Setting up a renewable energy generation system in your home can be costly. Quite a popular option among homerenewable energy enthusiasts is to sell some of the excess electricity they generate back to the grid, helping to pay backthe cost of their renewable energy generation system and potentially make a profit! Doing this yourself requires theinstallation of an electrical inverter to convert the power generated by your home renewable energy generators intoelectricity compatible with the grid. Inverter selection can be confusing at times with many options on the market anddifferent compatibility between certain systems creating issues and headaches. These could range from how to connectyour inverter to which sources of renewables are compatible with your system.
To navigate this tricky problem, TESUP thought it would be helpful to publish a run down of some of the most importantpoints when purchasing or considering an inverter, which inverters on the market are compatible with TESUP turbinesand useful information. To start, let's go over what an inverter does. Your plugs at home and the grid at large generallyuses AC power to operate. This means the electricity forms a wave shape. If you store electricity in batteries, however, the power is DC which means the electricity stays constant and takes a line form instead.
For the AC grid connection type, a single-phase inverter should be used.
To export electricity to the grid, the electricity must be in an AC form. Therefore any electricity you generate at home, bethat through wind turbines or solar panels, and then store in a battery must be converted from the storage DC form to thegrid compatible AC form to be sold to the grid. This is what an inverter does, it converts the DC electricity into gridcompatible AC electricity at the correct grid frequency. So now we know what an inverter does, are inverters universaland can they be used for different energy sources?
It is a common practice to integrate multiple renewable energy generators, in other words: the hybrid systems. Thisusually takes the form of using both solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity. That way, it is possible to takeadvantage of many kinds of weather to generate power for the home. The inverter with 2 MPPTs makes it possible toconnect both your Wind Turbine and Flexible Solar Panels.
Most solar inverters which have 2 MPPTs can be used together with solar and wind renewable products: solar panels andwind turbines. The precaution about Hybrid Inverters from the experience of TESUP product users is that some hybridInverters can damage your Wind Turbine. You can learn more about this type of inverter from this article in the blog section.
The Inverter data-sheet can provide you with the information about:
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What type the inverter is
Usually, there are 3 types of inverters:
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String inverter
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Hybrid inverter
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Micro inverter
On TESUP WebStore you will find One-Phase, String, Pure Sine Wave 1 MMPT Hybrid Inverter
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Start up voltage
Your inverter can have a 35-550V voltage range
Compatibility with your existing inverter
If you already have an inverter connected to a group of solar panels, and your device has a free MPPT input, you can connect your Tesup Wind Turbine plus Charge Controller to your system. This can happen in two ways:
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If your existing inverter has a start voltage of up to 80V:
In this case, your Tesup Wind Turbine will greatly generate energy full-time!
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If your existing inverter has a start voltage higher than 80V:
In this case, your solar panel will be start your inverter, and the wind turbine will be freely generating energy contributing to your system. You can keep your system like this, or you can adopt a simple solution: add a new inverter only for the Wind Turbine, in parallel to your existing one, so you will be able to generate energy day and night with your Tesup Wind Generator.
Connection
Wind turbine > charge controller> inverter
All products are compatible with each other.
The output voltage of the inverter is 220V.
Solar panels tend to generate a very smooth and predictable power output as irradiation of the panels by the sun is fairlyconstant. Solar panel inverters can therefore be easily tuned to the particular power level that the solar panels produce.Wind turbines on the other hand, have a very inconsistent source of power: gusty and turbulent wind. This leads to thepower generation of wind turbines varying significantly over their operation. Inverters with large operating ranges aretherefore required to encapsulate and take advantage of the greater, time dependent peaks generated by wind power.
It is possible to purchase an inverter that covers both of these ranges, however, to operate properly, these systems usecomplex switching electronics. Generally, the most efficient way to handle multiple sources of home renewable energygeneration, to get the most electricity out of them, is to use dedicated inverters. Attempting to squeeze two differentsystems into a single box commonly leads to high operating temperatures and low operating life. So how should you goabout choosing the best inverter for your system? What different considerations should you make?
When selecting your inverter, one of the most important things to consider is the start up voltage. For solar panels, thisminimum voltage is not a must, because the PV systems are normally composed of many solar panels connected in series,which gives a high voltage. On the other side, for wind turbines, the connection cannot be made in series, it should bemade in parallel, resulting in a low start voltage. For this reason, the lower the voltage of your inverter, the better thecompatibility with wind turbines.
Also, it is important to look at the rated power of the inverter. This should exceed the maximum power output of yourrenewable energy generation system, allowing your inverter to handle the maximum amount of electricity possible in yoursystem to prevent issues. You should also consider the warranty provided by the manufacturer to cover you for anypotential issues.
There are many good inverters on the market, giving a good pool of options most suited to your renewable energygeneration needs. The inverter that is best for you is highly dependent on what system you have and its requirements. Ofcourse, TESUP also provides wind turbine inverters, when purchasing a TESUP wind turbine you can choose to add aninverter directly to your order.
