General question about Inverter rated capacity

[James.huang10]

Hi all,

I tried doing my own research first and all leads says that the inverter output can never be more than the rated capacity. If i have a H1 G2 5kw inverter, how come I am seeing 1.8 kw charging my battery and 3.6kw load into the house which is about 5.4kw in total?

I just got a system installed recently and trying to learn more about how a solar system actually works. Sorry if this is a noobie question

[Dave Foster]

The inverter can never output more than it's rated AC capacity so your H1 5.0 can output a maximum of 5kW on the AC side (i.e. your house load and grid), but the batteries are on the DC side of the bus and if your array is over capacity (say at 6kWp) you would be able to output 5kW AC and charge your batteries at 1kW.

Many systems are slightly over-rated on the PV array, you can't exceed the inverter string power/current limits but often the array will be 115% maximum inverter AC output.
Also that rating is at 25C, the array derates above that but increase below that and so on a perfect sunny day when the ambient temperature is low you can see higher output on your array, the trick is to make sure your batteries have some space in them to accept the excess otherwise the array will derate and you will see clipping.