However, your home operates using alternating current (AC or “household”) electricity. A solar inverter converts DC to AC electricity. Depending on your system, a storage inverter or power optimiser may also be required. In short, you can’t have a residential or portable solar power system without at least one solar inverter.
Solar inverters are very eficient, usually 93–96 per cent depending on the make and model - never 100 per cent because they use some of the input DC power to run, generally around 10-25W. Their eficiency can be improved by an electronic technique known as Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT).
In some configurations, a standard inverter may consume between 0.416 amps and 2.83 amps of power in idle mode. But this amount may vary depending on the type of battery bank used and the types of loads connected to the inverter. Typically, in a no-load current, the energy drawn by the inverter is only 2 to 10 watts an hour.
Solar inverters are an essential component in every residential photovoltaic system. PV modules — like solar panels — produce direct current DC electricity using the photovoltaic effect. However, virtually all home appliances and consumer electronic devices require alternating current (AC) electricity to start and run.
There are many diferent makes and sizes of inverters on the market. The key characteristics are: maximum power point (mpp) voltage rang - the voltage range at which the inverter is working most eficiently. Many solar PV systems in the UK have an inverter with a power rating that is smaller than the array.
Now to determine how much power your inverter is drawing without any load, multiply the battery voltage by the inverter no load current draw rating. For example, Battery voltage = 1000 watts Inverter = 24V No load current = 0.4 watts Power drawn = 24V * 0.4 = 9.6 watts