Q&A with Hoymiles

When you picture a solar energy system, you probably think of the panels – for a good reason! They're certainly the most visible component. However, inverters are also an essential part of your solar energy system: they convert the direct current (DC) electricity generated by your solar panels into alternating current (AC) electricity used by most common household appliances. Hoymiles is one company that manufactures inverters; specifically, they make microinverters, which are installed and convert electricity to each solar panel. We sat down with Hoymiles to learn more about their history, product offerings, and advice for those exploring inverter options.

When and where was Hoymiles founded? How has Hoymiles grown and changed over the years?

Founded in 2012 and originating from a tier-1 research institute in China, Hoymiles has been backed by strong research and design (R&D) abilities from the very beginning. It’s centered around MLPE (module-level power electronics), a technology designed to improve and extract more energy from solar installations.

After a decade of development, Hoymiles has grown into a full-fledged smart energy solution provider present in 110+ countries and regions. It’s now one of the fastest-growing microinverter manufacturers in the industry, increasing its annual sales volume by an average of 100% since 2016. In Dec 2021, Hoymiles went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, for which only high-tech companies are able to qualify. With a vision of a clean, sustainable future, Hoymiles strives to lead the smart energy industry through its rugged technology and reliable products.

What's Hoymiles' company mission?

Hoymiles’ mission is to become the leading choice for getting started with smart energy, make good technology more impactful by ensuring it's accessible to everyone, and bring smart solar to the entire world with high-quality products.

Tell us about your product lineup – what are each of their best use cases?

Hoymiles' module-level microinverters cover a full range of power ratings so that users can always find the best fit for their settings. They are all compliant with NEC-2017 & 2020 rapid shutdown requirements.

The HM-400/800/1500 series of single-phase microinverters offer a great balance between affordability and efficiency. Coming with one-channel, two-channel and four-channel options, they can minimize your upfront cost while maximizing solar production. The IP67 enclosure rating also ensures longevity and reliability. This inverter series offers:

• 300 VA to 1500 VA

• Module-level monitoring

• CEC peak efficiency 96.7%

• Ambient temperature -40°C to +65°C

• Power export control

• 25-year warranty

The HMS-500/1000/2000 series of single-phase microinverters come with an input current of the industry-leading 16 A and are manufactured for high-powered PV modules (aka solar panels). The peak output power from 300 VA to 2000 VA makes them suitable for home and commercial use. The independent maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and monitoring put you on top of your system's operational data. With the Sub-1G wireless solution, the HMS series guarantees more stable and long-distance communication with the gateway, ideal for commercial and industrial settings. This inverter series offers:

• One, two, and four input channels

• CEC peak efficiency 96.7%

• Ambient temperature -40°C to +65°C

• IP67 rated

• Max. input voltage 65 V

• Power export control

• 25-year warranty

In your opinion, what differentiates your inverters from others on the market?

Featuring a wide power range and flexible design, Hoymiles microinverters help to make solar installations as adaptable and effortless as possible. Here are some of the features that help us stand out:

• Wide power range and flexible design: Hoymiles microinverters come with a full power range from 300 W to 2250 W, ensuring all installations are covered – from small-scale residential solar balconies or carports to large commercial rooftop installations. The microinverters can connect to one, two, or four solar panels, enabling users to flexibly design their own systems, even when their rooftops are complex and have different orientations.

• Excellent efficiency: the 99.8% MPPT efficiency and the leading 96.7% CEC peak efficiency promise great solar yield, lower per-watt costs, and a shorter payback period. The excellent MPPT efficiency means that the microinverter can almost perfectly track the maximum power point of each module, delivering the best solar generation for users.

• Safety and great reliability: with the IP67 rating, our microinverters can still perform in a normal status even after short immersion in water – this guarantees the safety and longevity of your microinverters.

• Best cost-effectiveness: Hoymiles believes in making energy open for all. Our innovative design is just for that purpose: the 2-in-1 microinverter, for instance, can be connected to two solar panels at once, so users can just buy one unit instead of two.

Can you tell us about the data insights available to homeowners with Hoymiles inverters? Do they have access to an app, and if so, what's included?

Hoymiles' self-owned S-Miles Cloud is an all-purpose online smart monitoring platform that visualizes all the operational data of the solar installation. Users can access all the data via a web portal or a mobile app, free of charge for life. With just one tap, homeowners can customize the solar array layout, track their energy usage, monitor power production of each solar panel over time, and detect potential issues anytime and anywhere. This minimizes the maintenance work and saves a lot of time as almost all diagnoses can be done online.

Research and design are a big part of your history – how does this factor into your creation of new products? What new products can we expect in the near future?

R&D is the driving force of Hoymiles' development ever since its conception. Through research-backed solar system development, we're helping businesses and individuals reduce their energy emissions and optimize their spending. Besides enhancing the technical performance of the products, we try to put ourselves in our customers' shoes so that our products are designed in the most user-friendly way. We always listen to our customers' suggestions and optimize energy solutions for them. We want to make sophisticated technology as simple, flexible, and affordable as possible.

For example, to make microinverters more cost-effective for customers, we developed the industry's first 4-in-1 microinverter in 2017 – it's connected with four solar panels so users can install fewer microinverters (and save money) without reducing the MPPT and monitoring capabilities.

Apart from microinverters, energy storage solutions are also a big part of our product portfolio as we strive to help our customers achieve more energy independence. We launched the new generation of hybrid inverters in 2022 for the European and Asia-Pacific markets, and the North American version is expected to come in 2023.

Our module-level rapid shutdown devices that debuted in 2022 will also be available soon in North America. These are designed to bring ultimate safety to string solar systems.

What do current product delivery times look like?

We have distributors in 76 countries and regions (and we're expecting more), covering major markets such as North America, South America, and Europe, so installers can always reach local distributors for our products. Delivery for orders from local warehouses normally takes about one to two weeks if we have enough inventory. For orders to be delivered from China, the lead time is roughly within one month.

In the meantime, our manufacturing capacity is constantly expanding and will reach five million units in 2023. We're also speeding up the deployment of more local warehouses and even manufacturing bases in key markets, so you can expect shorter delivery times in the future.

What are the critical factors for homeowners to consider when choosing what type and brand of inverter to install?

• Safety: this is always of paramount importance for anyone who plans to install a solar system on their property – after all, you're dealing with electricity! Before choosing equipment, you should ask questions like, is the inverter compliant with local standards? Is it robust and water- and dust- resistant?

• Power production: more power production means lower energy costs and a shorter pay-back period. You want to make sure your inverter can convert more solar power into usable energy, has a low startup voltage so it can work longer during the day, and has a longer service life so it produces more solar energy throughout your system's lifetime.

• Visualized display of solar production: you should be able to easily access the data on your solar installation. Inverter manufacturers normally offer an online platform so that you can read your energy usage. In the case of microinverters, you can get granular data about how each of your solar panels is working. Some questions you should ask include: is the display stable and accurate? How easy is it for you to stay on top of your solar data?

• Cost: how much is the inverter? Does the per-watt cost make it worth investing in the inverter? Can I recoup the cost in a shorter time? It's always better to have the best solar yield with lower cost, so it's a trade-off between different aspects.

Besides these major factors, Hoymiles also recommends you consider these factors when making the decision.

• Scalability: how easy it is to scale up your solar system if your energy consumption grows? This is an important factor because there's a good chance your electricity consumption will increase in the future. Whether it's through adding new appliances in your home, like electric vehicles (EVs), or adding more family members, you'll need to install more solar panels and inverters accordingly. Ideally, your inverters should be compact and easy to install.

• Availability: is the product available in your area? Does the manufacturer have local distributors or warehouses? Can your installer easily get in touch with them?

• Maintenance and warranty: you'll want minimum maintenance for your inverter – but, if any maintenance or help is needed, can you get responsive feedback? You'll also need to ensure that the inverter has a reasonable warranty. For example, microinverters normally have a 25-year standard warranty in the U.S.

Why do you think homeowners should choose Hoymiles inverter products?

• Homeowners can get 10–30% higher power generation with Hoymiles microinverters: the low startup voltage of 22 V and the module-level MPPT promise the most energy from sunrise to sunset day after day.

• Installation with Hoymiles microinverters is super easy – you just plug the products into place. They can connect to one, two, or four solar panels, so you can flexibly design your own system, particularly when your rooftops are complex and have different orientations.

• You can easily scale your system with our plug-and-play microinverters if your energy consumption grows over time. Your property is future-proof with our products.

• Our products are built to last: we have a failure rate lower than 0.18% and offer 25-year warranty, so you'll get incredible reliability with us.

• Hoymiles microinverters work in any installation setting, with a wide power range from 300 W to 2000 W, be it a small-scale residential solar balcony or large commercial rooftop installations.

• We offer a powerful online monitoring platform S-Miles Cloud for homeowners to access detailed data about their system. Everything is visualized on the intuitive interface so that homeowners are able to check, manage and troubleshoot their solar installation and make data-driven decisions at every stage.

• Our gateway product DTU (data transfer unit) collects and transmits all the operational data of the solar system to Hoymiles' visualized S-Miles Cloud platform. Our DTUs offer different options for internet connection: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and 4G, depending on your accessibility to the internet. This completes a seamless experience for your solar journey.

How does Hoymiles plan to support the clean energy transition?

Hoymiles believes in open, equitable, and clean energy for all. The switch to a clean energy future requires more technological innovations, which is what our driven engineers are constantly thinking about. Hoymiles always pays close attention to customer needs and strives to come up with more efficient solutions at affordable prices so that businesses and individuals can reduce their energy emissions and optimize their spending at the same time.

Besides microinverters, we're also investing in energy storage solutions to help customers move toward energy independence. With smart energy solutions, we enable our customers to become sustainability leaders in their own communities so that more and more people will engage in the transition to a clean energy future. "We will continuously strengthen ourselves while also developing around our core technology of power electronics and renewable energy in response to external changes and our own progress," explains Hoymiles' CEO and founder Yang Bo.

What is Hoymiles particularly excited about relating to the future of clean energy?

Clean energy (such as solar) is limitless, and that presents limitless opportunities and vast room for tech improvements. We feel excited to be part of this mission. To date, over one million Hoymiles microinverters have been installed in more than 110 countries and regions. We're witnessing homeowners slashing their utility bill by 80-90% and business owners running their properties completely on solar.

And this is just the start: with a strong R&D background and rugged technology of power electronics, we will spare no effort to convert our best technology to the best power electronics products and deliver them to customers across the world.

Ready to start your solar journey? On the EnergySage Marketplace, you can receive up to seven custom quotes from local installers. The quotes will include information about the proposed solar equipment, system design, financing, and more. If you want to install specific equipment – like Hoymiles inverters – make a note in your account so installers can provide a quote with that equipment.