DC to AC Electricity Inverters

Solar modules produce electricity in what is known as Direct Current form, or DC; that's same form of electricity that batteries -- from flashlights to cars - produce. Since your home or business (as well as the utility electric grid) is wired to use electricity in the form known as Alternating Current, or AC (typically at 120 or 240 Volts), this DC power coming from the modules must be converted into AC before it can be used within your own circuits or exported into the grid using net metering.

Inverters perform the work of converting DC power into AC electricity, and today's solid state electronic inverters are quite efficient, quiet and reliable, yet rugged enough to be installed outdoors if needed due to the site requirements.

The inverters we use for grid-connected applications (aka Net Metering) are considered to be the best in the industry - SMA and Fronius - and currently come in several sizes to satisfy a wide range of configurations:

• SMA Sunny Boy 3800U
• SMA Sunny Boy 6000U
• Fronius IG3000
• Fronius IG4000
• Fronius IG5100

One more thing: Because we're so confident about our projected power estimates for the systems we design and install, we insist on providing you inverters with a readable display for measuring ongoing kWh output by day. Why is this important? Without a display, you have no way to see what your power bills savings will really be until your first annual (required for Net Metering) power bill shows up in the mail, and by then it may be too late to avoid a nasty surprise from a system that produces far less than what you were told by the sales person at the time you signed the contract. Insist on a written estimate of expected power production in kWh per month from whomever you purchase your system from as well as a readable display of actual output so that you can "inspect what you expect" - it just makes good pocketbook sense.

For more technical information about the SMA and Fronius inverters, visit our Downloads section and view .pdfs on their specification sheets.