Sungrow Power Supply Co Ltd is deemed the second largest inverter manufacturer in the world just behind the inverter magnet “Huawei.” Having founded in 1997 with little investment, the company now owns an asset worth $1.5 billion. Hence, this content on Sungrow inverter review will show you how the company expanded far beyond than of reaching the community by creating solar inverters to developing the technologies for the power transformation, en-routing the energy source, transitioning energy for the electric vehicles, storing energy, and lastly creating generators for the photovoltaic systems.
A Quick Snippet of the History of Sungrow
The journey of Sungrow company didn’t start off like any other typical solar inverter companies, but rather it was quite an ardent story that touched the heart of the founder to feel the necessity to build up this company. The Solargrow was founded by the professor named Cao Renxian, from the Hefei University of Technology in 1997 who oversaw the electrical problem in the remote areas in China, which led him to leave the job, and thus compelled him to inaugurate this company to ensure the better electrical supply through the use of renewable energy.
In the span of 20 years with glory and substantial financial growth, the company remains steadfast in getting all the businesses and customers to stick to the same slogan, which is “Green and Effective.” The company believes that the world can be made greener with the help of its involvement in manufacturing solar accessories.
The company managed to supply its first solar system to its customer who used to be an engineer at Southern Xinjiang railway. Then the company made its first turnover by generating an income of $87,000 in 1998. Since then, the company didn’t have to look back as more solar systems were ordered and purchased from their company. Now the company has a value of $1.5 billion worldwide.
Sungrow Inverter Review
Sungrow officially tries to illustrate that despite being leading inverter supplier globally, it still tends to keep its solar accessories, including the Sungrow inverter affordable and efficient. Their products are not meant to be made for making the profit; instead, it is made for the sake of the customers’ benefits and comforts.
The company also claims that it has deployed approximately 100GW of energy through Sungrow inverter worldwide. This is undoubtedly an enormous amount that this company has generated to sustain the renewable-energy goal. Fortuitously their unique inverter has been accredited by CEC Australia, TUV, UL, CSA, and other well-recognized international authorities.
Apart from this Sungrow inverter review, you can also check out some of the Cyanergy’s other inverter review content here
Which Features have made this inverter unique?
1. Up to 99% Efficiency: The combination of bifacial solar panels and an inverter equipped with either 2 or 9 MPPTs will try to bring out the best “sweet spots” across various solar panels to provide you the best yield of solar energy in accordance with the intensity of the sunlight. Therefore, you will achieve more efficiency by up to 99%.
2. Cloud App: This sleek and easy-going fuse free design is compatible with iSolarcloud App to monitor your every days’ operation and inform you regarding any necessary overhaul of the solar arrays.
3. Easy Monitoring: This iSolarcloud Sungrow inverter app enables you to run the complete monitoring diagnosis of your regular energy transition, self-consumption, individual string-level monitoring, and many more.
4. Copper AC cables to run smoothly: Sungrow inverters run smoothly with aluminum and copper AC cables while being able to run with both lithium and lead-acid batteries. This inverter is also equipped with an enabled DC 2-in-1 connection.
5. Remote Controlling Technology: Touch-free commissioning and remote firmware technology are two essential upgrades that make the critical operation and maintenance effortless and manageable.
6. Safety Features: Sungrow has always been well-known for its firm safety features. A type 2 SPD (Surge Protection Device) for both DC and AC ensures your safety at the highest level while following the grid regulations. Moreover, RS485, Ethernet, and WiFi are some of the options that allow you to access and utilize the solar inverters remotely from anywhere without compromising the safety and risks.
7. Data Security: Internal certified data security grants you access to all the files for monitoring and auditing purposes. In addition, a large data storage stores all your delicate data safely and soundly.
8. Protection against physical damage: This device is compatible with IP66 and C5 corrosion protection, which is outstanding to prevent it from any physical damage.
9. Easy Installation: Sungrow inverter is lightweight and compact, which allows it to be moved and installed easily. It comes with a mounting plate containing an internal level and remarkable push-in connectors for ensuring a straightforward and quicker installation.
ISolarCloud Monitoring App
As aforementioned in our Sungrow inverter review, that the addition of the ISolarCloud app is a boon for all the latest Sungrow inverters, including the premium SG model inverters, this app can be used from your smartphone and is a perfect combination when used with WiFi as both blended together can help you monitor your solar performance by showing you the essential updates, such as self-consumption, exported energy to the grid, as well as the battery, overall and monthly yield of energy, etc. However, initially, there were concerns regarding the use of self-consumption features but solved in the latest SG inverters.
Interface of the ISolarCloud solar inverter app
Most of the recent versions of the Sungrow inverters with both single and three-phase meters come up with smart meters, data loggers (logger 1000 controller), and WiFi dongles, and so is the Sungrow SH5K hybrid inverters with S100 meter and dongle. The application of the energy meter is to trigger the export limiting and energy storage system of the inverter.
Extended 10 Years Warranty
Prior to this new warranty system, Sungrow used to provide only five years warranty along with an optional extension to 10 years warranty on some models. However, from the 1st of April 2020, it stated that it is now offering a 10-years warranty on any latest Sungrow inverters provided that they have to be bought and installed in Australia.
The following models will be applicable to this 10-years warranty in Australia which is as follows;
| SG2K-S (Premium) | SH5K-30 |
|---|---|
| SG2K5-S (Premium) | SG5KTL-MT |
| SG3K-S(Premium) | SG10KTL -MT |
| SG3K-D (Premium) | SG15KTLM |
| SG5K-D (Premium) | SG20KTLM |
| SG8K-D (Premium) | SG30CX (Premium) |
| SH5.0RT | SG50CX (Premium) |
| SH10RT | SG110CX (Premium) |
Probably the Best Inverter Battery
The SBP4K8, aka PowCube 4.8 is considered one of the best home batteries for the 5kWh solar system. The high performance of this battery is achieved owing to the contribution made by the Samsung SDI battery module since Samsung manufactures the world’s one of the most sophisticated lithium batteries. Sungrow had teamed up with Samsung SDI in 2015. The SBP4K8 battery is lightweight and cheap and easy to hold it using the handles shaped into a sturdy cast aluminum lid.
The multiple entry points on both sides of the battery make it easy to be linked with other batteries in parallel connection for the higher storage capacity up to 14.4kWh.
Customer support when you encountering a faulty inverter
Whenever you encounter an issue with your Sungrow inverter, your first place to call will be your installer who will be responsible for replacing or repairing your faulty inverter as long as the installer is contactable or in business provided that the inverter must be in its warranty period. However, if the installer is not found or no longer in this business, you must lodge a warranty claim with Sungrow.
In that case, Sungrow expects you to find your suitable installer (in some instances, the Sungrow can find you an expert installer) to seek the fault in the inverter. If there is, then the Sungrow will jointly work with the installer to fix or replace the inverter. However, you won’t receive any compensation for arranging your installer and inspect the faulty inverter.
Residential Solar Inverter
There is a stern competition between all the world-class leading solar inverters. However, the competition between Fronius inverter and Sungrow inverter has always been intense. The newly solar inverters from the SG series of the Sungrow brand are widely accepted by the customers, particularly in Australia, as they seem inexpensive and consistently as good as their word.
Most of the solar industries are based in China, and not all of their branded solar products are up to the mark, but Sungrow has dominated the market since its inception, especially in Sydney, by their excellent customer service. According to Formbay data, the Sungrow SG series, from the sales point of view, has become the second most selling inverter just behind the Fronius, which is an incredible thing. Sungrow residential SG series inverters are equipped with a slew of some modern features, including passive cooling rear heatsink, no transformer, string inverter with single to dual MPPTs, LCD display, compactness, and WiFi technology.
Besides, no power de-rating is noticed below 45 degC due to its conspicuous design. In fact, the newly released SG premium inverters after the end of May 2020 will consist of a built-in DC isolator and Quirk Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (QAFCI). Check out more details about Sungrow residential SG series in the following specification.
There are mainly 3 types of SG inverters based on the presence of LCD display, as well as the number of MPPTs which are;
- S series – Single MPPT with LCD display.
- D series – Dual MPPT with LCD display.
- TL-D series – Dual MPPT – parallel strings option & no display.
Commercial Solar inverters
Sungrow company is prominent for manufacturing the residential inverters and is also the world’s second-largest inverter manufacturer for making large-scale commercial and utility solar inverters. They are many commercial inverters available in various models with different power capacities, such as 33kW, 40kW, 50kW, and the largest 110kW in the CX series with a vast number of extraordinary features. Australian’s Sungrow CX inverters are a bit different from the global CX models. For example, 30kW inverter has 3 MPPTs, 50kW has 5 MPPTs, and 110kW has 9 MPPTs. Unfortunately, We can’t give enough detail about 40kW in this Sungrow inverter review as the 40kW system is not available in Australia at the moment.
The common characteristics of the above models of the CX series are as follows;
- MPPTs vary from 3, 5 to maximum of 9 with an average efficiency of 98.6%, to 98.7%.
- Touch free commissioning and remote firmware upgrade.
- Fuse free design with a solid use of ISolarCloud for the string level monitoring.
- Online IV curve scan and diagnosis for the better outcome of the self-consumption.
- IP66 and C5 anti-corrosion with type 2 SPD for DC and AC for ensuring the better safeties from the grid.
- Built-in PID recovery functional optional.
- Compatible with Al and Cu AC cables.
- Integrated WiFi system to remotely monitor and maintain the inverter system.
Sungrow Hybrid Inverter
Sungrow hybrid inverter is one of the most unique and demandable solar inverters in the recent era. Although the first model, SH5K+ was released in 2015 with much expectation, it rather seemed like a plain design with not adorned with too many features. However, customers fancied it due to its cheap price despite having no off-grid backup system like EPS (Emergency power supply). However, the EPS box is then launched in the following year to meet the demand of the customers and then finally created hype amongst the customers.
SH5K+
SH5K+ has garnered its popularity not due to receiving an additional EPS box option to back up the service when the electricity is gone, but rather its sleek, silver, attractive, subtle & fashionable design, and the presence of LCD display are some of the reasons why it managed to lure its customers. This device can be connected to not only 48V lead-acid batteries but also any range of lithium batteries, including BYD, LG Chem, Pylontech, and The Sungrow SBP4K8 flagship battery. Its EPS is capable of backing up with its 3kW power to any basic essential loads, such as lighting circuits, fridges, PCs, and TVs.
New SH5K-30 Hybrid Inverter
This new inverter has a significant feature that has added an extra value to it, which is its built-in EPS box that saves the time and space to install this inverter. Since there is no hassle of extra cable or conduit, it is way safer and easier to install and set up it. This inverter is also blessed with an integrated DC isolator to provide extra protection, as well as save time and money. The ability of the EPS to provide an on-the-spot supply of the electric power is just phenomenal, which takes only 20ms compared with the retro model that would otherwise have taken 3-5 seconds to back up.
The extension of the warranty from 5 years to 10 years has also made it demandable to purchase. However, the only drawback is that this inverter doesn’t run with lead-acid batteries like Pylontech, but the company is working on it to make the inverter compatible with Pylontech.
Residential 3-phase Hybrid Inverters
Most of the inverters for the residential properties mentioned in this Sungrow inverter review article are likely to be the single-phase inverters, but thanks to Sungrow for thinking about some of the largest residential properties that require three-phase inverters.
The Sungrow three-phase hybrid inverters are also known as the SH-RT model, which comes with 5.0kW, 6.0kW, 8.0kW, and 10kW power options. However, in Australia, the company is about to initially launch only 5 and 10kW systems followed by 8kW in the near future. These inverters possess a battery with a high voltage rating from 150V to 600V with a charge/discharge rating of up to 10,600W. To know more, you can click the link to know more about this inverter.
Conclusion
In essence, from the review of the Sungrow inverter, it is evident that Sungrow solar inverter is no less than of Fronius inverter in terms of its massive extraordinary and unique features and their durability. These inverters are perfectly suitable for use in commercial and residential properties. Cyanergy takes pride in having these modern inverters in their possession. If you need to know more about these inverters, do comment below and let us know.
Read about Cyanergy, one of the best CEC Approved solar retailers in Australia.
