electrofelon
Senior Member
- Location
- Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
I have worked on quite a few 500k to 2 meg systems the last several years. My role has only been installer and I have nothing to do with design and pricing. I always have a significant eye toward improvements in design to cut costs and installation time. In contrast, the people who design these systems presumably havent worked in the field much, or at all, so are often mostly clueless on what goes in to installing these things. My question is on the use of string vs central inverters and if anyone has compared them in price, either just flat cost or also taking into account labor differences. I have actually never worked on a system with a central inverter. I see a huge time savings using fewer larger inverters. Granted the number of DC connections will not be less, but considering the mechanics of having to mount dozens of inverters, AC conduit and connections, communications conduit and connections, I would really like to see a cost breakdown for larger inverters. We are starting a system Monday that has like 40 inverters - Ughhh. I talked to a designer for one company we have done several systems for, and he said that string inverters were just way cheaper because they are a "commodity" item, but again I dont think he realized the potential labor savings. Just curious if anyone has weighed the numbers on this.