Photovoltaic Solar Project

5 out of 5 Sun Rating This review has been updated as of February 1, 2009, now that I have had one year of history and performance information to judge. An inverter is the heart and workhorse of a PV solar plant.  If it goes out, you lose solar energy production for that inverter and all the modules connected to it.  Typically these devices last 15 years before replacement is needed.  Warranties are usually for 5 years or 10 years.  SMA is at the top of my list for a choice of inverters.  To put things into perspective, keep in mind that I am looking at the product from a critical engineering point of view.  I'm not a specialist in Inverters, but I have done electronic systems design and software engineering for decades, so I know a bit about product design. I chose SMA-America inverters after doing research on this critical piece of equipment.  They have a great design and good features.  This is a competitive market and there are other good inverters, but SMA really has their act together on this piece of equipment.  Their pre-sales support people have also been fabulous with giving answers to my a few tough questions during a call to their facility.  I wish I could say the same for the online customer forum which was poor at the time I bought the equipment.  Stick with talking to them on the phone.  They are smart people.  SMA is clearly going to continue being a leader in this field for decades to come. This device is the whole reason I chose SMA equipment.  I looked carefully at specifications as compared to competitive devices.  I talked to many dealers about various inverter pros and cons.  I think SMA inverters are superbly designed and have been well engineered from the start.  Now, that's the German engineering I'm used to seeing!  I'll come back to this page in the future if there is new information to post.  Otherwise you can assume they continue to work reliably. I have two of the 4KW "Sunny Boy" 4000US models mounted side by side.  After using the inverters for a year, I can see that these units are solidly built with quality components and clearly designed for long life.  I'm quite impressed with what I see. Here are some observations:  Built like a tank... solid construction and nice looking.    Very efficient (as high as 96.8% Peak).  All manufacturer's inverters are efficient these days, but SMA beats a lot of the others.  They are also doing something clever with their MPP (maximum power point) algorithms where the unit quickly adapts and tracks the MPP during times when energy production radically shifts such as when the sun is obscured by rapidly moving clouds and then becomes clear again.  I've seen other manufacture design do this job poorly and result in lost power during those times.    Quiet... I expected them to buzz like a bee hive, but no. I hardly notice them running. Even when the cooling fan is on during heavy conversion loads, I barely hear it running. My laser printer makes much more noise than the inverters!    Fast startup.  From power on to full operation, it is about one minute. I understand that older units were slow and took as much as 5 minutes to start up, so SMA must have corrected that.    The LCD display has a very limited viewing angle. This is not a big deal since you look will rarely look at them.    They turn off completely at night.  To me that is a disadvantage.  I'd prefer to see the LCD display in operation so I can review daily energy production and status if I come home after dark.  Only a tiny amount of power would be needed to do that.  Fortunately I can review status with my WebBox, but for 95% of customers who won't have that device, it is not possible to review daily production after the inverter shuts down.    This is another minor point, but I noticed when the inverter is turned off during the day for any reason (example... temporary utility company power failure) then it loses information about daily production.  Thus, "Daily Production" is not really an accurate term.  It is actually the amount of energy produced since the inverter was placed in an operational state for that day.  Since startup usually occurs at dawn, it presents accurate daily information unless a power failure occurs.  Note:  Total energy production over the life of the unit is properly tracked.   Copyright© 2008-2013, Cyber Innovations Corporation, Pleasanton, CA.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED