Solar panels generate direct current. Homes run on alternating current. The inverter is the piece of hardware that bridges the two, and the architecture you choose for that bridge shapes how your system performs for the next twenty-five years.
There are three common approaches: string inverters, string inverters paired with power optimizers, and microinverters. Each has a legitimate place in the industry. Only one, in our experience, belongs on a premium residential roof.
String inverters: the industry default
String inverters connect a series of panels to a single, centralized inverter. They are inexpensive and well understood, and for large, unshaded commercial arrays with uniform sun exposure, they remain a sound choice. Their limitation is architectural: if one panel in a string underperforms, whether from shade, debris, or a fault, the entire string suffers with it, with no panel-level visibility into why.
Optimizers: a meaningful improvement
Power optimizers sit at the panel level and work alongside a central string inverter, restoring panel-level performance tracking and mitigating shading losses. It is a genuine improvement, at the cost of additional equipment on the roof.
Microinverters: our standard for residential work
Microinverters convert direct current to alternating current at each individual panel. The result is panel-level monitoring as a baseline feature, not an add-on, genuine shade tolerance, since one underperforming panel never drags down its neighbours, and a system that keeps producing at near-full capacity even when a chimney, a tree, or a dormer casts a partial shadow across part of the roof.
The trade-off is more components on the roof, and a service call, on the rare occasion one is needed, means addressing hardware at the panel rather than in a single centralized location. In our experience, the performance and monitoring gains are worth that trade for the residential rooftops we design for, which are rarely as uniform and unshaded as a commercial field array.
The right architecture always depends on the specific roof, orientation, and shading profile in front of us. That is precisely why every system we design begins with a genuine site assessment, not a generic proposal, so the inverter architecture we recommend is the one your roof actually calls for.