Solar Inverter Comparison Chart

By Finn Peacock, Chartered Electrical Engineer, Fact Checked By Ronald Brakels

Note: the chart that used to be on this page has been decommissioned – see our shiny new inverter comparison table here.

When comparing inverters, one of the most important things to consider is the efficiency.

Unlike solar panel efficiency, which, somewhat counter-intuitively, does not directly affect the amount of electricity your solar system will produce (you can read why here), solar inverter efficiency is critical to your solar system performance.

All the power from every solar panel goes through your inverter, so the amount of energy that your solar system generates is totally dependent on your inverter’s efficiency. The higher the efficiency, the more power you’ll get and the more money you’ll save.

Check out the new inverter comparison tool here.

Historical notes:

To help you compare inverters, I created a tool that used efficiency data from the California Energy Commission and applied it to products that are approved in Australia.

The efficiencies listed are known as the “Californian Efficiency” and I used these numbers because they were independently measured, which I thought was a lot better than relying on the manufacturers’ own measurements, who may be a little optimistic when measuring their own inverters.

Not every inverter available in Australia was on the list because I only use models that had been tested by our Californian friends!

Note: efficiency isn’t everything! Also critical is reliability. The inverter is the item most likely to fail in the first 10 years of your solar system, so my advice is always get a 10 year inverter warranty.

One of the best ways to judge a product’s reliability is to check out our solar inverter reviews where I’ve asked thousands of solar system owners who’ve had their system for more than 12 months how reliable theirs has been.