I am looking into buying a grid tie w/o battery system and installing 18 Sanyo 190W panels in 3 strings on my patio cover. The problem is the patio cover will only start to get sun around 9:30 and will not be in full sun until about 11:00. From then until sunset there will be no shade. The first row of panels will be in full sun around 9:30 or 10 and the third row not until about 11.

I have heard that the sharp inverter would be best for this configuration because the first row of panels to get sun will be producing full power as it can accept 3 individual strings.

I have also been looking at the Xantrex GT3 and the PVPowered PVP2800XV. But will they be able to produce power like the Sharp, or will the system not produce until all panels are in the sun?
Or am I just confused?
Any help would be appreciated as I am a newbie to solar power.

The sharp does have two seperate inputs for mppt tracking, the bad news is the sharp is one of the lowest performing inverters efficiency wise on the market

Having strings parralled won't hurt production much, as each string gets sun, it will produce its energy and will not be dragged down by the other strings not yet in unshaded view.

As long as the strings are all in the same plane, using a Xantrex GT3.0 or PVPowered 2800 will function just fine, its only when you have the seperate strings on different roof direction or pitches seperate inverters show any measurable inprovement

Best bang for the buck is the GT3.0 IMHO

thnx guppy. How is the test of the pv powered inverter going?

My tests last year showed the inverter was @ 93.22% in actual efficency vs. a claimed 97.6% and this data was part of the behind the scene push to get the CEC to have offical UL observed and cerified performance of the inverters used in CA. The PVP2800 since came in at 94% in the official CEC tests and PVPower was pretty mum on the haircut its inverter received.

The PV powered has since done some improvements but no inverter is better than the GT3.0 in efficiency and the GT3.0 is lower street priced and has more features included to boot

PV power has approched me to test their lastest units but I am currently booked thru next spring with work so it will be sometime before I could even think about doing a new round of tests.

You can look at all the available CA approved inverters at:

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/cgi-bin/eligible_inverters.cgi

Hope this helps