Solax Solar Inverters- Independent Review

Note: Solar Choice is not a solar installer and has no financial or other incentives to promote any product brand over another. 

Overview of Solax – Company History

SolaX Power commenced operations in 2010, headquartered in Hangzhou, China. Solax quickly expanded globally, entering the Australian market in 2014 when they opened an office in Victoria. Solax has 6 global offices and over 500 employees, distributing to 66 countries via 200 distribution channels. This has resulted in over 600 thousand Solax inverters being installed worldwide.

Solax is actively pursuing research and development through its affiliation with Zhejiang University. The university is one of China’s leading research facilities and the only national silicon material laboratory.

A Brief Rundown on Solar Inverters

A solar system’s inverter is the point at which the DC electricity produced by solar panels is turned into grid-compatible AC electricity.

String inverters have traditionally been the standard in the solar industry. They send the power produced by solar panels to a central inverter that changes it from DC electricity to the usable AC electricity that powers homes.

Hybrid Inverters have the same characteristics as a string inverters with the additional feature of a charge controller, which is used to manage a battery system. Charge controllers can also be bought as an additional unit, but hybrid inverters provide the option of an all-in-one device.

Solax Inverter Efficiency

An important aspect of getting the most value out of a solar inverter is choosing an appropriately sized inverter to optimise the solar panel system efficiency. To read about the importance of inverter sizing and system efficiency click here.

Residential inverter efficiency standards are generally 95 to 98 per cent, Solax Inverters either fall into or exceed this standard. The Solax residential inverter range has efficiencies from 97.1% to 98.5%.

Solax Inverter Warranty

In Australia, all CEC-approved Solax inverters come with a 5-year warranty for parts and labour from the date of installation. An additional 15-year extension to the warranty can be purchased.

The standard 5-year warranty is rapidly becoming one of the shortest inverter warranties offered in Australia with many of the growing Chinese companies starting to offer a standard 10-year warranty. As we’ve discussed previously, a warranty is only worth something if the company providing it is still around and there is an accessible route to claiming it if your Solar Installer is no longer around.

Solax Inverter Costs

Solax Inverters are manufactured in China, which means that they will generally be cheaper than European-manufactured competitors.

Indicative pricing

Keep in mind that inverter costs generally only run between 10-20% of your total system, so often it is worth investing in a high-quality inverter given this will have a large impact on the efficiency and performance of your Solar Power project.

A Full Range of Solax Inverters Available in Australia 

The following Solax Inverters are approved by the Clean Energy Council for the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, which is Australia’s home solar rebate program.

X1 MINI 

The SolaX X1-MINI G3 range of inverters suit customers with small requirements or a limited amount of roof space. The inverters range from a tiny 0.6kW through to 3.6kW which could be paired with a maximum of 4.7kW of solar panels. 

These inverters have a maximum efficiency of 98% which is comparable with the better inverters on the market. Despite the small and lightweight design, the inverters still come with an LCD display to help customers see the real-time performance on the device.

X1 BOOST 

The X1-BOOST inverter is SolaX’s flagship model featuring models with output capacity from 3kW to 6kW. The inverter can be controlled and updated remotely with the SolaX ‘Smart Plug’ which makes maintenance and monitoring easier for SolaX and their customers.

The X1 BOOST is IP66 rated, meaning it can be comfortable installed outdoors with protection from the elements. All models in the range come with 2 maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) which enables your installer to put solar panels on two different roof angles. 

X1 SMART

The X1 SMART series has 3 size options – 6kW, 7kW and 8kW. This model is unlikely to be very popular in Australia which most commonly sees 5kW to 10kW inverters deployed on residential homes.

The X1 SMART has a bulkier and squarer design than other models. It does still feature the touch-screen LCD display which is common to all SolaX’s inverters. The inverters come with IP65 environmental protection rating and 2 MPPTs.

X3 MIC and PRO

SolaX’s 3-phase inverters range from 3kW to 15kW in the MIC series and 8kW to 30kW in PRO series. The 3-phase inverters feature a more impressive maximum efficiency rating up to 98.3% on the MIC series and 98.5% on the PRO series.

One limitation of SolaX’s inverters is that they do not have any options with more than 2 MPPTs (except for 25kW and 30kW options in the PRO series which have 3). That means they are generally only suitable for rooftop installations where the solar panels are going to be installed in a maximum of two different orientations.

The MIC and PRO series are IP66 rated giving them excellent protection against the elements and can be installed indoors or outdoors.

Solax Inverter Specifications

Solax System Monitoring

Solax’s Pocket WIFI enables the ability to remotely monitor inverter performance on the entire Solax inverter range. The additional plug-in device allows users to track the performance of their system anywhere in the world.

The software designed to visualise system performance remotely is the SolaX Cloud. The real-time monitoring solution enables the user to see performance metrics and perform inverter maintenance & software updates via the mobile application or website portal.

Read more product reviews from Solar Choice

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Jeff Sykes

CEO at Solar Choice

Jeff has consulted on over 20MW of commercial solar projects, ranging from SMEs to ASX top 100 companies. Jeff has also provided independent advice to 100s of residential solar, battery and EV charging customers across every state in Australia. He holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and is an expert in business strategy and financial analysis.

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