Once in off-grid mode, if the sun is still shining, the solar panels will send their power directly to the house. But, if the power goes out because of, say, a huge storm, the panels wouldn't be producing anyway, and the building would need to have a battery system to maintain power. In essence, it can operate as part of a grid-integrated system or part of a microgrid. In this mode, the microinverters ignore the grid and direct any power to the building they're attached to. Each one contains a chip that-when the main power grid suffers a power failure-switches from an on-grid to an off-grid mode. We didn't actually ask about that.) OK, how does it power my house when the grid’s down?Ī collection of these microinverters on a house can act as a microgrid. That's why its name includes "IQ." Because it's smart. Further, the microinverters are all linked to software that, among other things, uses a mathematical model to predict power usage in whatever structure they're attached to. "The reason you get better performance is because the output of one panel is not dictated by the output of another solar panel, unlike in a centralized case." AdvertisementĪnother advantage is that there is no single point of failure each panel and inverter acts as an independent energy producer. "The advantage is that, when you do power conversion at the panel itself-when you convert from DC to AC-you get better performance," he told Ars. This approach of having a distributed architecture has proven to work well in other applications, such as in computers and data centers, he said. A microinverter is just a small version of it. According to Enphase co-founder and Chief Products Officer Raghu Belur, microinverters function while attached to each solar panel instead of having many panels all fed into a larger inverter. Inverters convert direct current (DC) produced by solar panels to the alternating current (AC) supplied by the grid. To increase the number of exceptions, Enphase created the IQ8 Microinverter. The other exception is structures that have battery systems hooked up, though these can cost a lot-around $14,000 to install in some cases.) The first is off-grid buildings that are set up to generate electricity from solar panels. That's because the microinverters are part of an integrated system that includes the grid, power meter, and other associated hardware. The outage doesn't stop them from producing power the power just can't be used in the absence of a functioning grid. Solar panels affixed to homes (and other structures) that are connected to the power grid will also go kaput during power outages. Shouldn’t solar panels work during an outage? However, a company called Enphase says it has created a product that can let your house run directly off its solar panels if they're producing, though it comes with some caveats. ![]() Currently, the primary options for avoiding this fate are batteries and backup generators. ![]() The report noted that this was the highest number seen since 2013 when the organization began collecting this data.ĭuring huge storms or massive oppressive heatwaves, the power can go out, and many of the amenities-TV, the Internet, fridges, etc.-Americans enjoy simply go kaput. In 2020, the average United States resident experienced a little more than eight hours of electricity blackouts, according to stats from the Energy Information Administration.
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