Thanks for the answer folks, I really think there’s a wealth of info here that will help people out when thinking of installing solar. We also have some advice from CHOICE to help dodge the shonks, and for other readers, please feel free to keep posting your answers to this thread.
4 Likes
I think my recognized brand “origin” used cheap inverters. My first system was from them and I was too busy to take notes. The inverter failed 2 times—I had to replace the second one myself. Turns out the daisy chain of solar panels produced more voltage than the inverter was rated for?? It was close but in my mind that’s not good enough and possibly contributed to the failure.
I made sure the replacement had no such issues.
My second system used micro-inverters. This means there is no single point of failure. It was from TINDO–not cheap but has worked faultlessly
4 Likes
3 parts to the design. The components the system and the installation. The cheapest systems use solar panels in series and a single inverter. Loose either one solar panel or an inverter and you get nothing out. Also a replacement panel has to be a very good match.
A microinverter system has an inverter per panel. Loose a panel or an associated micro-inverter and that’s the extent of the degradation—the rest still functions.
4 Likes
That sounds like an incompetent installer… It is pretty easy to calculate the safe (and legal) maximum panel string length for an inverter. I’ve also heard of cases where there weren’t enough panels in a string, leading to very poor performance.
5 Likes
You are right. I trusted Origin to know what they were doing and was too busy to check on them. I had this silly idea that they would know what they were doing :(.
5 Likes
Turns out my second system was badly installed. was checking performance after a long period away from home and notice 2 panels were producing about 10% of the others. In order to save installation time those panels have been installed in the shade of a satellite dish!! There was room to move them–just lazy I guess. I cant get on the roof so I had to climb a ladder and use binoculars to see this. Have emailed the company…fingers crossed
3 Likes
Great! The installer is here and promised to move some panels out of the shade 
3 Likes
Hopefully the outcome is what you needed to get a decent power supply outcome. Good on you for persisting.
2 Likes
