Inverter Warranty

[puddy]

Pricing job this week up against national company who are promoting inverters with 20 year warranty. Anyone know of inverters out there that have a warranty of 20 years??

But will the company be around in 5 10 or 15 years time?

 

[BruceB]

Your inverter is not destined to pack up after 10 years. Most of what I hear is that the life of the inverter is probably around 20 years - and judging by the low price of a warranty extension, it seems that the manufacturers are putting their money where their mouth is.

But they might after 20yrs. My recollection of sma warranty pricing is that it rises steadily until 20 years, but if you want it to what was the full 25 years of the fit then there was a significant hike in costs. I inferred they knew where the edge of their bathtub was!

 

[SibertSolar]

Most mainstream manufacturers I speak tend to take the stance that if the unit is matched to the panels correctly, and that it is installed according to recommended practices, and it doesn't fail in the first month, then it should be ok for between 15 & 20 yrs. 10yr warranties are pretty standard now, extensions to 20yrs were historically rather expensive but have come down a lot in cost recently. Bear in mind that inverter prices are continuing to fall also, so you can't always just assume that the extended warranties being provided are just "factored in" to the unit cost - it's more about market forces driving the requirement forward, imo...

 

[Vegelen]

Inverters: How To Pick A Good One | Solar Quotes | Power, Panels, Rebate, Installers

 

[SibertSolar]

Not a bad blog Vegelen, a little bit out of date perhaps but good advice all the same. His blog about efficiency curves is worth a read too - too much focus often put on peak efficiency and not enough on EU efficiency in my opinion. The smaller the % difference between peak and EU efficiency, the better - shows that the inverter is still operating in it's "sweet spot" even at very low power/irradiance levels, which they invariably are in the average UK climate...

 

[Vegelen]

Dont be seduced by solar inverter manufacturers offering the longest warranties.

Quality of internal components / overall build quality, inverter IP rating (quality of inverter seals), ventilation, operational thermal heat characteristics, inverter efficiency under different operational loads etc differentiate quality inverters from their inferior competitors.

Not all Solar Inverters Are Made Equal Video:

Not All Solar Inverters Are Equal - Energy Matters - YouTube!