What Is A Hybrid Solar Inverter?

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular with each passing year. There are even whole neighborhoods being built where every house comes with a solar energy agreement with the power company.

A hybrid solar inverter helps make your solar power system more efficient at converting energy into electricity your home can use. This is new technology that combines the solar inverter and the battery inverter into one piece of equipment.

This article is about the hybrid solar inverter’s capability to take your solar power system to the next level. Keep reading to find out how this device can help you.

What Does It Do

In the most basic of terms, a hybrid solar inverter is a power manager. It manages the conversion of solar energy into electricity your home can use, as well as the transfer of energy between the solar batteries and the utility grid.

Traditional solar power systems have solar inverters and battery inverters. These are separate components of the system, though. A hybrid solar inverter is one device where the two types of inverters are combined.

How it Works

Inverters convert and transfer energy. The traditional solar inverter takes direct current (DC) and changes it into alternating current (AC), which is the kind of current that can power your house.

A solar inverter captures the DC from your solar panels and converts it to the AC your home needs. This is a direct transfer from the solar panels to the homes power system.

The battery inverter does the same thing but to the DC energy that’s stored within the battery. It takes that stored energy and converts it into the AC electricity your home uses.

The hybrid solar inverter is a single device that does the work of both the solar inverter and the battery inverter. It can convert the DC into AC regardless of where that DC energy is coming from.

Different Functions of a Hybrid Solar Inverter

A hybrid solar inverter combines the functionalities of both a traditional grid-tied solar inverter and a battery inverter, offering a range of benefits and capabilities.

Energy Conversion: Like all solar inverters, the primary function of a hybrid solar inverter is to convert the direct current (DC) generated by solar panels into alternating current (AC) that can be used by household appliances and fed into the grid.
Battery Charging and Discharging: Hybrid inverters can charge a connected battery using solar power. This allows for the storage of excess solar energy, which can be used later when the solar panels are not producing enough power, such as during the night or on cloudy days.
Energy Management: Hybrid inverters are equipped with intelligent management systems. They can decide when to store energy in the battery, when to use it directly to power loads, and when to feed excess energy into the grid, based on the availability of solar power, the energy demands of the household, and the battery’s charge level.
Grid Interaction: Hybrid inverters facilitate a two-way interaction with the electrical grid. They can feed excess solar energy into the grid and also draw power from the grid when necessary. This feature is particularly useful in systems that operate under net metering policies.
Load Prioritization: Some hybrid inverters come with the ability to prioritize certain loads. In case of limited solar power or during power outages, these inverters can ensure that critical loads such as refrigerators or medical equipment continue to operate.
Off-Grid Capability: In the event of a grid outage, a hybrid inverter can isolate the home from the grid (islanding) and continue to provide power from the solar panels and the battery, unlike traditional grid-tied inverters.
Monitoring and Reporting: Modern hybrid inverters usually come with digital interfaces and connectivity options such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This allows for real-time monitoring of energy production, consumption, battery status, and system health. Users can track these parameters through mobile apps or web interfaces.
Enhanced Efficiency: By optimizing the use of solar energy, battery storage, and grid power, hybrid inverters can enhance the overall efficiency of the solar power system. They ensure that less energy is wasted and more is utilized effectively.
Scalability and Flexibility: Hybrid inverters are designed to work with a variety of solar panel configurations and battery types. This makes them suitable for different scales of solar installations, from small residential systems to larger commercial setups.
Cost-Effectiveness: By integrating multiple functions into a single unit and enabling better energy management, hybrid inverters can make solar energy systems more cost-effective in the long run.

Hybrid Solar Inverters Convert In Either Direction

When a solar inverter converts DC to AC, the electricity goes to the house to power lights and appliances or to the solar batteries to be stored for later use.

Energy is stored in the batteries as DC. A hybrid solar inverter can take energy off the utility grid and converts it from AC to DC to be stored in the batteries.

When it’s time to use the stored DC from the batteries, it once again must be converted back into AC. A hybrid solar inverter can do all of this without the help of another device. It’s a bi-directional converter of energy. It can change from DC to AC and from AC to DC. It also pulls from the solar panels and from the utility grid.

Types of Hybrid Inverters

Understanding the different types of hybrid solar inverters can help in selecting the right one for a particular installation. Here are the main types:

Single-Phase Hybrid Inverters: These are suitable for residential solar systems where the electrical grid operates on a single-phase power supply. They are typically used in smaller installations and are designed to handle lower power requirements.
Three-Phase Hybrid Inverters: Ideal for commercial or industrial applications, these inverters are compatible with three-phase power supplies. They are used in larger solar installations where the power demand is higher, and the distribution of power needs to be balanced across three phases.
High-Voltage Battery Compatible Inverters: These inverters are designed to work with high-voltage batteries, providing efficient energy conversion and reducing energy losses. They are suitable for systems where long battery life and efficient energy storage are priorities.
Low-Voltage Battery Compatible Inverters: These are designed for compatibility with low-voltage batteries. They are often used in smaller or residential solar systems where the cost is a significant consideration, as low-voltage batteries tend to be more affordable.
AC-Coupled Hybrid Inverters: These inverters are used in systems where there is already an existing solar inverter, and the battery storage is added as a retrofit. They work by converting the AC back to DC to charge the battery, making them suitable for upgrading existing solar installations to include storage.
DC-Coupled Hybrid Inverters: In these systems, both the solar panels and the battery storage are connected directly to the inverter via DC connections. This type is more efficient for charging batteries as it avoids the loss of energy that occurs when converting DC to AC and then back to DC.
Hybrid Inverters with Backup Power: Some hybrid inverters come with a built-in feature to provide backup power during grid outages. These inverters can isolate from the grid during an outage and continue to supply power from the solar panels and/or battery.
Smart Hybrid Inverters: These inverters incorporate advanced features like smart energy management, remote monitoring and control, and integration with home automation systems. They use AI and machine learning algorithms to optimize energy usage and efficiency.

Pros and Cons of a Hybrid Solar Inverter

Pros

Always Have Power – A hybrid solar inverter combined with a good battery storage option means you can have power at all times, even in an outage. Your hybrid inverter makes it where you can convert energy in both directions and from both sources. That means you’ll have power throughout a power outage.
Easily Monitor Energy – You can monitor the energy output and conversion so easily with a hybrid inverter. There is a display panel that tells you how much energy is coming in and going out every day.
Add Battery Storage Later – Once you install a hybrid solar inverter, it’s simple to add a battery storage option at any time. This is a good idea since the hybrid inverter is capable of converting energy in both directions. This combination gets you the most bang for your buck.

Cons

More Expensive – Hybrid solar inverters are more expensive as a complete system than the traditional setups. They’re certainly worth the extra money if you live somewhere with unreliable power.
Not an Ideal System Upgrade – If you have an existing solar energy system and you’re wanting to upgrade with battery storage, you may just want to buy the battery inverter. It’s less costly than upgrading the entire system to a hybrid inverter with a battery storage option.
Technology Continues to Change – As soon as you install the hybrid solar inverter, something new will get released with brand new technology. Once you’ve already gotten a system set up, it is not cost effective to then change it again. You may also find there aren’t the same options for upgrading down the road because yours may not be compatible.

Do Hybrid Inverters Make Your Home Off-Grid?

Hybrid solar inverters make it where your home is traditional and on-grid sometimes, while having the capability to make it off-grid others.

They can make your home completely off-grid if that’s what you’re looking for. They do this by functioning in the capacity of several other types of devices all within one piece of equipment.

Should you want to go completely off-grid, you’ll have to make sure to get enough of a battery storage system installed to provide you the power you’ll need at times when there’s less sun exposure time. There are times when your inverter will have to pull heavily off your battery stored energy. Make sure you consider this during your system planning.

Hybrid Solar Inverters Cost

These devices are not cheap. You’re looking at an average cost of about $20 to $40K to install a hybrid solar system. That price range is for the entire system, though, which includes the solar panels, as well.

For just the hybrid inverter you can expect to pay upwards of $6000 – $8000…which is quite a chunk of money when compared to the $1000 – $1500 cost of a standard solar inverter.