Solar Lattice

Concept

No-load losses

ID
concept:no-load-losses
IRI
https://solarlattice.org/kb/concept/no-load-losses
Status
active
Also known as
standby consumption, night consumption, tare loss, self-consumption of the inverter, core loss, iron loss, no load watt losses, Consumption at night
Category
Inverters
Concept kind
electrical

No-load losses are the power a device draws just to stay energized, even when it delivers no load. In a transformer, this is mostly core loss, also called iron loss, made up of hysteresis and eddy-current losses in the core steel, plus small dielectric and excitation-current losses. These losses are present whenever the transformer is energized and depend mainly on voltage and frequency, so they stay nearly constant while load losses rise with the square of load current. Total transformer losses are the sum of no-load losses and load losses, and transformer loss tables give no-load figures such as 510 W to 1100 W for a 500 kVA unit, depending on loss class. For inverters, datasheets give the same idea as standby, night or no-load consumption, or as tare loss.

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Claims

related_to

c1 drafted · lead Medium voltage transformer

Transformer no-load loss is the power needed to keep the core energized whenever the unit is energized, independent of load.

c2 drafted · lead Standby

Inverter datasheets list power drawn in standby or energy-saving mode.

c3 drafted · lead Night mode

Inverters draw a small amount of power at night while disconnected from the grid.

c4 drafted · lead Sunny Island 4.4M / 6.0H / 8.0H

Manual lists consumption in no-load operation and in standby or energy-saving mode.

Data