We examined the specifications of several of the most common and widely available solar inverters on the market. The SolarEdge Home Wave Inverter was our top pick. It was the most efficient inverter we looked at, meaning you’ll get to use more of the energy your solar panels generate. SolarEdge also scored well for strong warranties and for an app that received high marks from users.
What are solar inverters?
Nobody who brags about getting solar panels says they got a solar inverter, but it’s very important. Without a solar inverter, you wouldn’t be able to use those solar panels to power your home. But what the heck is it?
A solar inverter’s job is simple: It converts direct current, or DC, electricity generated by your solar panels into alternating current, or AC, electricity that your appliances can use. Not all solar inverters are the same; selecting the right solar inverter for your home is tricky. That’s why the solar installer usually handles the task.
Can solar panels save you money?
Interested in understanding the impact solar can have on your home? Enter some basic information below, and we’ll instantly provide a free estimate of your energy savings.
Installers often carry more than one inverter. Here are some you might come across.
Each inverter on this list is put through a methodology process and given a score. To develop this methodology, I read and compared dozens of inverter spec sheets, and spoke with engineers and industry experts to determine what actually matters when selecting an inverter for your home.
Only single-phase, grid-tied and hybrid inverters for homes in the US were reviewed. DC power optimizers weren’t included in the reviewing and scoring of any of the string inverters mentioned in this article. DC power optimizers are popular additional components you can choose to install along with your string inverter. We also want to point out that we didn’t do any hands-on testing with any of the inverters on this list.
Best solar inverters of 2024
The best way to describe Tesla’s solar products is ‘well-rounded’. The same holds true for Tesla’s solar inverter. It has solid efficiency ratings and app user review scores. This inverter also has the longest limited inverter warranty we’ve seen. But it only comes in two sizes and Tesla’s customer service reputation is poor too.
Growatt is the best hybrid inverter we found during our search. It’s available in a variety of sizes and comes with a fair warranty and efficiency ratings. It’s also cheaper than other inverters, which is surprising because hybrid inverters tend to be more expensive. But Growatt’s app isn’t the most user-friendly and can be a bit buggy.
How we evaluated the best solar inverters
Like any other type of solar equipment, not every solar inverter is right for every home. Solar is a site-specific and personalized decision process, and finding the “best” inverter for your home would be extremely difficult without an on-site consultation. We also only looked at single-phase, residential-use inverters that are included in the California Energy Commission’s Solar Equipment Lists Program for this list. We did not perform any hands-on testing.
Instead, we focused on relatively objective ways of evaluating and comparing these solar inverters to see which ones stand above the competition. Here’s how we found the best solar inverters.
The first step was determining which categories would be used to evaluate each inverter. We then gave each category a weight. The weight we gave each category reflects the importance we felt was relevant to the average consumer. After a thorough research process and speaking with some subject matter experts (who did not influence the choices we made for this list), these were the categories (and their weights) we chose to evaluate each inverter on.
Warranty: 25%
California Energy Commission efficiency: 25%
Peak/maximum efficiency: 10%
User interface/consumer app: 15%
Inverter size options: 10%
Price: 5%
Company reputation: 10%
We looked at 10 of the most popular inverter brands on the market and collected the data for each category to compare the numbers. Each category (for every inverter) was given a tier-style rating (from 1 to 5) to evaluate which aspects of each inverter were above average (among our list), just average or below average.
Other inverters we reviewed
Chilicon Power Microinverters: Chilicon Power is another microinverters option, but these are less efficient and more expensive than Enphase’s IQ8 series microinverters. Chilicon Power’s microinverters are also only available in two sizes and suffer from unfavorable user app scores.
Delta Single Phase Transformerless solar inverter: Delta’s solar inverter isn’t a terrible option, but there are better options. The inverters that scored the highest in our list have better warranties, efficiency ratings and better overall user app scores. However, Delta does seem to have a much better customer support reputation than other manufacturers on this list.
Fronius Primo: Fronius Primo’s single-phase inverters have lower efficiency ratings and user app scores than other inverters on this list. The limited warranties on the Fronius Primo inverters are also the shortest inverter warranty periods we’ve seen (5 or 7 years). But it’s still worth calling out their extremely wide sizing variety, with nine sizes ranging from 3.8 kW to 15 kW.
SMA Sunny Boy: The SMA Sunny Boy received an average score in nearly every category. But with other inverters receiving above average scores, average just isn’t good enough.
Sol-Ark: Sol-Ark’s residential hybrid inverter is expensive, and its efficiency ratings and warranties aren’t as good as other inverters on our list. The Sol-Ark app has also received poor user review scores for its software.