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AC Coupled Storage vs. DC Coupled Storage
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Coupling refers to how your solar panels are wired to your battery storage system, and the options are either direct current (DC) coupling or alternating current (AC) coupling. The main difference between the two lies in the path taken by the electricity that the solar panels create.
Solar cells create DC electricity, and that DC electricity must be converted into AC electricity before it can be used by your home. However, solar batteries can only store DC electricity, so there are different ways of connecting a solar battery into your solar power system.
DC Coupled Storage
With DC coupling, the DC electricity created by solar panels flows through a charge controller and then directly into the solar battery. There is no current change before storage, and conversion from DC to AC only occurs when the battery sends electricity to your home, or back out into the grid.
A DC-coupled storage battery is more efficient, because the electricity only needs to change from DC to AC once. However, DC-coupled storage typically requires a more complex installation, which can increase the initial cost and lengthen the overall installation timeline.
AC Coupled Storage
With AC coupling, DC electricity generated by your solar panels goes through an inverter first to be converted into AC electricity for everyday use by appliances in your home. That AC current can also be sent to a separate inverter to be converted back to DC current for storage in the solar battery. When it’s time to use the stored energy, the electricity flows out of the battery and back into an inverter to be converted back into AC electricity for your home.
With AC-coupled storage, electricity is inverted three separate times: once when going from your solar panels into the house, another when going from the home into battery storage, and a third time when going from battery storage back into the house. Each inversion does result in some efficiency losses, so AC coupled storage is slightly less efficient than a DC coupled system.
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