Researchers at the Solar Tech laboratory, housed at the Department of Energy at the Politecnico di Milano, have installed Optidrive E2 single phase drives to test solar energy conversion systems under real conditions and develop prototypes for use in residential applications. 

Invertek’s Optidrive E2 Single Phase Output inverter is designed for use with single phase permanent split capacitor (PSC) or shaded pole motors. 

The Solar lab currently has more than 20 photovoltaic panels located on its roof which are used to test output and conversion under a number of different parameters. Operators reported that they were not able to control the mass flow rate and temperature in the cooling loop because it had two electric motors running at a constant speed, from a single phase supply – one 100W and one 200W.The lab was advised to install two Optidrive E2 single phase inverters – one to control each motor. This allowed the operator to regulate the parameters and increase the flexibility of the thermal loop without having to change the power supply to an industrial three phase.