Help me compare quotes/systems SMA vs Solaredge

[eah123]

I'm in Westchester County, NY. I've narrowed down my choices to 2 high quality local installers

1. Panel - LG 280N x 27 = 7.56 kW
Inverter SolarEdge SE w/ optimizers, extended warranty included
Mount: Unirac Solarmount
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.80
Labor warranty 10y
PVWatts annual output 9267 kWh

2. Panel - LG 315 x 26 = 8.19 kW
Inverter SMA SB7700TL-US-22
Mount: Quick Mount PV
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.90
Labor Warranty 20y
PVWatts annual output 10039 kWh

My estimated annual usage is about 9000 kWh

thanks for your help

[J.P.M.]

I'm in Westchester County, NY. I've narrowed down my choices to 2 high quality local installers

1. Panel - LG 280N x 27 = 7.56 kW
Inverter SolarEdge SE w/ optimizers, extended warranty included
Mount: Unirac Solarmount
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.80
Labor warranty 10y
PVWatts annual output 9267 kWh

2. Panel - LG 315 x 26 = 8.19 kW
Inverter SMA SB7700TL-US-22
Mount: Quick Mount PV
Cost/watt before incentives: $3.90
Labor Warranty 20y
PVWatts annual output 10039 kWh

My estimated annual usage is about 9000 kWh

thanks for your help

If you're looking for opinion: Pricing seems high, but I'm ignorant of your local price situation other then NYSERDA incentives etc. can jack up vendor pricing. The oversizing of the array aside, if it was me, and I had no major shade problems, I'd probably pay the slight premium for SMA, but it wouldn't be a strong preference. Unless that's your own PVWatts result, I'd run PVWatts myself and confirm the annual output on the trust but verify basis.

[solarix]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

[ulrich]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

One thing worth mentioning is that certain SolarEdge Inverters will be upgradeable (at some cost) to their StorEdge unit. This would allow you to install a Tesla Powerwall.

SolarEdge is planning to release exact part numbers of which units are upgradeable sometime soon (per a support rep I traded emails with).

If a real battery backup/load-shifting mechanism is not of interest to you, then this would not be a factor.

[eah123]

Unless you have shading issues or really want monitoring of individual panels, I'd stay with the SMA string inverter as being more reliable.

I do have some partial shading of 6 panels to the south due to birch trees. Does that give Solaredge enough of an advantage?

[J.P.M.]

I do have some partial shading of 6 panels to the south due to birch trees. Does that give Solaredge enough of an advantage?

Probably some in the annual production dept., but hard to quantify without a shade analysis.

[ndabunka]

One thing worth mentioning is that certain SolarEdge Inverters will be upgradeable (at some cost) to their StorEdge unit. This would allow you to install a Tesla Powerwall.

SolarEdge is planning to release exact part numbers of which units are upgradeable sometime soon (per a support rep I traded emails with).

If a real battery backup/load-shifting mechanism is not of interest to you, then this would not be a factor.

My rep has CONFIRMED this and this is why we are ONLY considering he SolarEdge Inverter. Price is not an issue here. We are more than willing to pay more for the flexiblity of running DC DIRECTLY into the Tesla Wall unit without ANY inverter loss (which would occur with the SMAs if even possible)

[J.P.M.]

My rep has CONFIRMED this and this is why we are ONLY considering he SolarEdge Inverter. Price is not an issue here. We are more than willing to pay more for the flexiblity of running DC DIRECTLY into the Tesla Wall unit without ANY inverter loss (which would occur with the SMAs if even possible)

I always believe everything a sales rep tells me.

[ndabunka]

I always believe everything a sales rep tells me.

Well, this IS about future capability and seeing as they are one of the largest installers of the product and will be the first to get them and ...bottom line is that the COMPANY is reputable. The sales rep won't be getting anything out of it for a while so he's not really "hard selling" the SolarEdge/Solartor products. There is no difference in cost between an SMA & the SolarEdge .... from them anyway

[J.P.M.]

Well, this IS about future capability and seeing as they are one of the largest installers of the product and will be the first to get them and ...bottom line is that the COMPANY is reputable. The sales rep won't be getting anything out of it for a while so he's not really "hard selling" the SolarEdge/Solartor products. There is no difference in cost between an SMA & the SolarEdge .... from them anyway

I'm not sure size correlates positively with knowledge or veracity. Don't know who what co. your referring to, but as an example only, SolarCity's a pretty large installer, and based on what I think I've personally seen and heard, particularly from their sales force (or, IMO only, sales farce), I'd not let them on my property much less believe most anything they say.

Take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.

[eah123]

my choice

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I decided to go with the Solaredge system. The deciding factors were 1) more confidence in the installer (only one that climbed the roof for SunEye measurements and roof measurements), and 2) seemed to me that the Solaredge system was the better solution because my arrays would be divided among 4 different roofs with varying shade, angles, and direction. Even though the arrays could be divided into parallel strings and 2 MPPT inputs for a single SMA inverter, it sounded like this would result in significant loss of efficiency.

[wrysys]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I decided to go with the Solaredge system. The deciding factors were 1) more confidence in the installer (only one that climbed the roof for SunEye measurements and roof measurements), and 2) seemed to me that the Solaredge system was the better solution because my arrays would be divided among 4 different roofs with varying shade, angles, and direction. Even though the arrays could be divided into parallel strings and 2 MPPT inputs for a single SMA inverter, it sounded like this would result in significant loss of efficiency.

ulrich - you mentioned the storege inverter from solaredge which they advertise to be battery compatible. any more info on this? one installer mentioned it and wanted to get more real world info . how different is it from the other inverters and does anyone own them?. i'm interested in the battery concept but my feeling is that this is still early technology and hard to say how things will look in a few years and is it too early to commit to something like this? i'm just looking at a smallish system of about 4 kw for the house. thanks

[ndabunka]

ulrich - you mentioned the storege inverter from solaredge which they advertise to be battery compatible. any more info on this? one installer mentioned it and wanted to get more real world info . how different is it from the other inverters and does anyone own them?. i'm interested in the battery concept but my feeling is that this is still early technology and hard to say how things will look in a few years and is it too early to commit to something like this? i'm just looking at a smallish system of about 4 kw for the house. thanks

Only one SolerEdge interver (the SE7600A) works with the battery. The smaller current SolarEdge inverters will not accomodate it. The only challenge you may have is the size of your planned system (4K) may not be adequate enough to run a SE7600A effectively. I wonder if a Solar Edge expert on here might be able to tell us how many kW's are REQUIRED to run the SE7600A

[ButchDeal]

Only one SolerEdge interver (the SE7600A) works with the battery. The smaller current SolarEdge inverters will not accomodate it. The only challenge you may have is the size of your planned system (4K) may not be adequate enough to run a SE7600A effectively. I wonder if a Solar Edge expert on here might be able to tell us how many kW's are REQUIRED to run the SE7600A

As long as you have the recommended 8 modules ( bare minimum of 6 ) it will work.
Also it isn't just the small inverters that are not compatible, the larger ones are not as well.

The concern with putting the 7600 in in place of the SE3000 or SE3800 is that the 7600 requires a larger breaker and thus might be a problem with some MSPs.

[ndabunka]

As long as you have the recommended 8 modules ( bare minimum of 6 ) it will work.
Also it isn't just the small inverters that are not compatible, the larger ones are not as well.

The concern with putting the 7600 in in place of the SE3000 or SE3800 is that the 7600 requires a larger breaker and thus might be a problem with some MSPs.

Thanks & this explains why my installation is not a problem (5.36kWh using 16 SunPower panels). The 7600 only needs a 40a circuit so not certain why there would be an issue there. No, the MUCH larger inverter's might require significant changes but those issues shouldn't be co-mingled with the considerations for the 7600 IMHO.