Life Expectancy of PV Inverters and Optimizers in Residential PV Systems

Bucher, Christof; Wandel, Jasmin; Joss, David (30 September 2022). Life Expectancy of PV Inverters and Optimizers in Residential PV Systems In: WCPEC-8: EU PVSEC Proceedings. Milano. 26.-30. Sept. 2022. 10.4229/WCPEC-82022-3DV.1.46

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The average Time To Failure (TTF) of PV inverters and PV optimizers is investigated in this paper. The focus is on residential and small commercial systems. The data used in this paper includes 1195 PV systems consisting of 2121 inverters and 8542 optimizers. The data is obtained by means of an online survey sent to the system operators (343 systems) and by analysing system service databases of professional PV system installers and operators (852 systems). Since most of the systems examined are still in operation and have never failed so far, the results are presented using Kaplan-Meier survival curves. After 15 years, 34.3 percent of inverters show a first failure. The most important factors influencing the TTF are the installation location of the inverter (indoor installations have a lower TTF than outdoor installations), the manufacturer and the inverter topology (installations with optimizers have a lower TTF than installations without optimizers).

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	School of Engineering and Computer Science > Institute for Energy and Mobility Research IEM School of Engineering and Computer Science > Institute for Energy and Mobility Research IEM > IEM / Photovoltaic systems School of Engineering and Computer Science BFH Centres and strategic thematic fields > BFH Energy Storage Research Centre
Name:	Bucher, Christof0000-0001-7092-0804; Wandel, Jasmin and Joss, David
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
Language:	English
Submitter:	Christof Bucher
Date Deposited:	07 Dec 2022 10:39
Last Modified:	12 Aug 2024 15:06
Publisher DOI:	10.4229/WCPEC-82022-3DV.1.46
Related URLs:	Author Organisation
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Life expectancy of PV inverters, Time to Failure (TTF), survival curve, Kaplan-Meier estimator
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.18138
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/18138