Best Solar Inverters for Homeowners in 2026
Solar inverters are key to making the electricity generated by solar panels usable in your home. Here are some of the best options on the market today.
CNET experts have compared the most popular solar inverters' specs, warranties, prices and more. The SolarEdge Home Wave Inverter is our top pick in 2025. It was the most efficient inverter we looked at, letting you use a larger percentage of the energy your solar panels generate. This translates to less and more power to use around the house.
A solar inverter's efficiency is indicative of how well it converts DC electricity from solar panels into usable AC electricity. With any electrical conversion process, energy is lost in the form of heat – the lower the energy losses, the higher the efficiency.
Because the inverter is the brain of your solar system, and it's also, historically, the device that has the highest probability of failure, which can leave you in the dark (literally and figuratively). A solar inverter's main function is to switch DC power created by solar panels into AC power that's usable for your home appliances.
With other inverters receiving above-average scores, average just isn't good enough. Sol-Ark: Sol-Ark's residential hybrid inverter is expensive, and its efficiency ratings and warranties aren't as good as other inverters on our list. The Sol-Ark app has also received poor user review scores for its software.
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