Hoymiles HMS-500W-1T Micro Inverter

In short: a Performance 800 plugin solar kit with 2 solar panels produces up to 1.600 kWh/year in southern Europe.

Kits with just 1 panel produce up to 800 kWh/year, kits with 4 panels about 3.200 kWh/year. Total production depends on several factors, like

• location
• orientation
• angle (or azimuth)
• the type of kit you choose

Our Savings Calculator helps you find the exact answer for your installation.

When considering the installation of a plugin solar kit, look for the place in your household with the most unimpeded sunshine hours. This can be your terrace or balcony, or a pergola, or a wall. We also have solutions for tile roofs or metal roofs.

In short: depending on your consumption, potentially all of it.

A plugin solar kit produces solar energy for self consumption at home. The energy it produces is used directly by your household appliances. This avoids you having to buy that energy from your power company, lowering your power bills.

Your savings are therefore determined by

• how much energy your kit produces
• how much you pay your power company per kWh, with all extra costs and taxes included

For example, if your kit produces 1.600 kWh per year and you pay €0,25/kWh to your power company, you save €400 per year (1.600 kWh x €0,25/kWh = €400). You can calculate how much you can save at your home address with our Savings Calculator or check the European Commission’s PV GIS.

How much the savings are on your overall electricity bill depends on how much you consume in total. If your yearly consumption is 1.500 kWh, then you’ll save over 100% of your power consumption. If you use 5.000 kWh, it will be just 32%. The average household in Southern Europe consumes about 3.200 kWh/year, where a kit can save half of it.

In any case, some savings are better than no savings at all. Every kWh you can produce yourself is a kWh you don’t have to buy from the grid, saving you money every day.

In short: probably most of the time, yes.

Your solar kit’s production of electricity is almost never the exact same as the consumption of your household. If you consume more than you produce, then 100% of your production is used on the spot, maximizing the economic profitability of your kit as you take full advantage of the savings.

If you produce more than you consume, you have several options:

• Feed the surplus energy into the power grid. In Spain you can certify your kit with us, and get compensated for your surplus by your power company.
• Add storage with a smart meter, and store all excess energy during sunshine hours, to use it when the sun doesn't shine.
• Install a “zero discharge” device or “smart meter” on your distribution panel, that lowers your kit’s production and avoids any spillover of excess electricity to the power grid. This is the least attractive option, since you incur the cost of the smart meter and installation, and get no benefit from it.

If you feed a lot of energy to the power network, for example because you’re not at home during the day or use your home only sporadically, a storage system is probably the smartest solution. Most storage systems are modular, so you can start small and upgrade as you see the need for it.

In short: no.

Your solar kit produces electricity depending on the varying amount of sunshine your solar panels are exposed to. Starting from zero at night, during the morning solar production increases and peaks at around noon, only to slowly decrease again until the sun goes down in the evening. Your kit’s energy production curve follows the same bell curve pattern.

Keep in mind that any solar panel’s power output is measured in Wp (Watt peak), a theoretical measurement unit that indicates the maximum (peak) output of a panel under perfect testing conditions. In real life these conditions can be met just for a limited amount of time in ideal conditions (south facing, 30 degrees installation).

Customers in Southern Europe, where during large parts of the year sunshine hours are very long, see our Premium solar panels produce solar power at or slightly above Wp levels for hours in summer. Investing in quality solar panels is likely to maximize your yield and savings over many decades.

Check our Savings Calculator to see how much you can save with a solar kit in your home.

In short: much easier than you might think.

A plugin solar kit generates electricity from the sun with solar panels. The micro inverter converts the panels’ DC power into AC power used in your household. A special cable connects the micro inverter to a normal Schuko plug in your home, feeding your kit’s power into your household’s power circuit.

That circuit is like a system of canals. At different points there are devices that consume energy (your fridge, lamps and other devices). The sum of that energy consumption is what at the end of the canal is fed from your power company into your household. Your power meter counts how much that power is at any time.

If you now connect a plugin solar kit to your canal, that kit feeds solar power into the network. Due to a slightly higher voltage, your devices use your solar power first. If you have several power circuits at home, these all meet at the distribution panel, which in turn is connected to your power meter and the grid. If there is excess power in the circuit your kit is connected to, it will spill over first to your other circuits that are demanding energy.

Beware that this only works in a single phase home network. If your network is triphase, a kit works in one phase only. You can connect different solar kits to each of your three phases.

Check out our explanation video on how this circuit works.