Best Solar Inverters In Australia? Here’s What Installers Trust In 2021

There are a lot of solar inverter brands on the Australian market in 2021. But which ones are the best?

That’s a tough question to answer. So we asked installers we trust what they thought.

As we did when gauging what they considered the best solar panels in 2021, we asked all the installers in our network two questions and counted the votes.

SolarQuotes Installers’ Choice Awards For Inverters: 2021

To try and tease out which solar inverters installers consider the absolute best in terms of performance, features and build quality compared to the best value for money, we asked 2 separate questions:

1. What solar inverter brand would you put on your own house if money was no object?
2. What solar inverter brand would you put on your own house if money was tight?

The results are a good way to help the average person understand which inverter brands installers rate highly when only the best will do – and just as importantly – which inverter brands they trust to last well past the warranty period when funds are tight.

Note: Choosing good brands is very important when buying solar for your home or business. But of equal importance is ensuring the system is well installed. The difference between a good and crap solar installation is night and day. Please – never skimp on the installation. 

Best High-End Solar Inverters in Australia (Money No Object):

We asked the installers:

What solar inverter brand would you put on your own house if money was no object?

Here’s what they told us their favourite ‘high-end’ inverters are:

First Place: Fronius (28.85% of votes)

This would be no surprise to anyone in the Australian solar industry. Over the last decade, Fronius has stormed the Australian solar market and become a firm favourite of homeowners and installers alike. Fronius had a rough start in Australia as some of their IG series inverters had a high failure rate many years ago. But to their credit, Fronius engineers found the weak point in those inverters and replaced any failed cards that popped with a more reliable design.

But it was the introduction of their bulletproof and cleverly designed ‘SnapINverter’ range that took them from almost zero to hero in the Australian market, and they haven’t looked back since. Their latest inverter is the ‘GEN24‘ (which is not the 24th generation – but is a hybrid inverter for ’24 hours of sun’).

Fronius has just revealed this new inverter range will soon be available to buy at a discount – with the hybrid features disabled. If you want to add a battery, you pay a fee, and Fronius unlocks the hybrid function.

One disadvantage of Fronius inverters: they can be noisy. Fronius insists on active cooling as its engineers believe this is essential to longevity. Unfortunately, this means a fan that can get really noisy when the inverter is working hard. The ‘GEN24’ inverters are quieter but may still be too noisy for some.

Second Place: SolarEdge (27.88% of votes)

SolarEdge only lost to Fronius by one vote. So, it seems they are well-loved by Australian installers. One thing that I can’t deny is SolarEdge is a very polarising brand in Australia. Installers seem to either love them or hate them.

SolarEdge inverters must be used with an optimiser on every panel. This optimiser gives each solar panel its own multi power point tracker (MPPT), which is useful where there is shade on some panels or if the roof is complicated. SolarEdge also has some clever hybrid inverter designs and was the first inverter manufacturer I know of to integrate an EV charger.

Third Place: Enphase (20.19% of votes)

Enphase is unique in that they are the only microinverter manufacturer of note who sells in Australia. Their systems have many advantages over string systems, such as safer voltages and fault tolerance.

Their big disadvantage: they cost a motza. Many years ago, Enphase promised they’d get microinverters as small as an iPhone and lower cost per watt than string inverters. That never happened. But they are still highly regarded for their flexibility and reliability, with some installers so enthralled, they are refusing to sell anything else.

Here’s how all the votes were cast:

Best Budget Solar Inverters in Australia (Every Dollar Counts):

We asked installers:

What solar inverter brand would you put on your own house if money was tight – and every dollar counts?

Here’s what they told us their favourite budget inverters are:

First Place: Sungrow (35.79% of votes)

Sungrow absolutely thumped the competition for best budget inverter, winning by 19 votes. And they deserve to. Their 5 kW inverter wholesales for almost half the price of a Fronius, and the Sungrow is well built, has excellent Australian tech support and some great features such as integration with Solar Analytics.

Second Place: Fronius (14.74% of votes)

This is a weird one because Fronius don’t make budget inverters. So what’s going on? I’ll tell you! Many installers in Australia do not agree with the concept of a budget inverter. Here’s one example comment we got back with the survey:

“If money was tight I wouldn’t be fussy about the panel brand. But I wouldn’t compromise on the inverter.”

It seems many installers recommend a Fronius no matter what your budget.

Joint Third Place: Goodwe, SolarEdge and SMA (10.53% of votes)

Goodwe is a budget inverter brand with a good reputation for reliability and features. But what are premium brands SolarEdge and SMA doing here? This comment from an installer helps explain SolarEdge also appearing in the budget category:

“If shading was a problem I would use Enphase IQ7A as my premium choice and SolarEdge as my less expensive option.”

The other reason is SolarEdge and SMA have a solid following in Australia and some installers can’t bring themselves to install anything else.

Here’s how all the votes tallied:

So there we have the best solar inverters in Australia in 2021, as voted by installers. Here on SolarQuotes, you can also check out thousands of solar inverter reviews from Australian customers.

Next week: Installers vote for their favourite solar battery brands.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/best-solar-inverters-2021/