A genuine technological breakthrough and fruit of several years of research and development, the hybrid IMEON inverter is much more than a simple inverter charger. Thanks to its innovative electronic architecture encapsulating an inverter charger, a solar inverter and an artificial intelligence in a single system, the hybrid IMEON inverter simplifies the implementation, sizing and configuration workload necessary for the proper operation of photovoltaic installations with batteries.
Before the arrival of the IMEON hybrid inverter, several components were necessary to set up a solution for solar self-consumption with batteries: a MPPT or PWM charger, an inverter charger, and a transfer switch. The multiplication of necessary components and conversion steps has created several drawbacks: primarily, the overall efficiency of this kind of system is low and does not produce a kWh which is competitive to one provided by the public electricity distribution network from the perspective of the price. This is the reason why this type of installation is usually reserved for the electrification of isolated sites and is not suitable for self-consumption installations involving storage which are connected to the public electricity grid. Secondly, each component must be dimensioned correctly and operate in coordination with the other devices within the installation;
The solar charger must be sized with respect to the power of installed solar panels but must also charge the battery bank with a suitable current so as not to degrade the storage prematurely. Manufacturers of lead-acid batteries usually recommend that the charging current of batteries should be between 10% and 20% of the C20 storage capacity (charge and discharge in 20 hours).
The inverter charger must be sized with respect to the power consumption of the electrical appliances but must also apply a suitable discharge current to avoid damaging the battery. Lead battery manufacturers generally suggest programming the inverter charger to apply a discharge current not exceeding 20% of the C20 storage capacity.
The battery park must be sized according to the expected solar output, the peak power installed, the power of the inverter charger, etc …
Taking all of that into account, it is easy to understand that this type of installation is not at all suitable for self-consumption with batteries on sites connected to the electricity network. In a house, in which the occupants are not accustomed to energy restrictions, it is important that the loads can evolve in the sense of addition of new electrical appliances, arrival of new occupants increasing average power consumption, regard for regular and irregular habits etc … The architecture of older generation systems with MPPT charger and inverter charger does not allow this modularity since they are initially sized for a specific scenario and changing this scenario necessarily entails a complete modification of the solar installation.
The hybrid IMEON inverter provides a solution to the problems of efficiency and modularity. Thanks to its patented electronic architecture and its integrated intelligence, IMEON prioritizes the direct use of the energy generated by the solar installation in order to maximize the yield and allows changes in consumption habits without any modification of initial installation.
