Which Solar Inverters Actually Work in Sana'a?

You are buying an inverter for a house or a shop in Sana'a, and every supplier is showing you the same specification sheet they show a buyer on the coast. One line on that sheet was written for your situation, and almost nobody points at it: operating altitude. Sana'a sits high in the mountains, above 2,000 metres, and a unit whose own datasheet row permits 2,000 m is not rated for the city at all.

Here is the direct answer before anything else. Across our Felicity listings, 44 publish an operating-altitude figure. Four of them are rated to 4,000 m. Ten are rated to 3,000 m with derating above 2,000 m. One is rated to 3,000 m with no derating note attached. Thirteen state 2,000 m, and sixteen battery listings state below 2,000 m. Sana'a is above 2,000 m, so the last two groups sit outside the rating their own record publishes, and the first three sit inside it. For an ordinary house the unit to look at first is the IVAM6048P1G1, a 6 kW single-phase off-grid inverter whose record states an operating altitude of 3,000 m.

We are an authorised Felicity Solar distributor and we supply Yemen. Send us the exact model somebody has quoted you and we will read the altitude row back to you before you pay for it: WhatsApp +971 4 255 0887, +971 4 255 0887, or sales@felicitysolar.me. It takes a minute and it is free.

What does "operating altitude" actually mean on an inverter?

It is the manufacturer stating the highest elevation at which the unit is qualified to do what the rest of the sheet promises. Two physical things change as you go up: the air gets thinner, so it carries heat away from the electronics less effectively, and thinner air is also a weaker electrical insulator, so the clearances inside the box have less margin. The manufacturer tests to a ceiling and prints that ceiling. Above it, the unit is not certified — not "probably fine", not "a bit weaker". Simply outside what anybody has committed to in writing.

This is not a marketing number that every brand inflates. It is one of the few rows on a specification sheet that describes the site rather than the machine, which is exactly why it decides the purchase in a mountain city and is invisible everywhere else. A buyer in Aden, on the coast, will never need to look at it. A buyer in Sana'a needs to look at it before anything else on the page.

Which Felicity inverters are rated above 2,000 m?

These are the listings whose own record publishes an altitude ceiling higher than 2,000 m. Nothing here is estimated; each figure is the row printed on that product's page.

For a villa, a flat, a clinic or a shop in Sana'a, the practical entry on that table is the last one. The IVAM6048P1G1 is rated 6 kW, takes two MPPT trackers over a 90-425 V window, charges a 48 V bank at up to 135 A, is IP65, and states a maximum efficiency of 97.6% and a European efficiency of 96.5%. Six units can be paralleled if one is not enough. Everything else on the list is a commercial three-phase machine sized for a factory, a farm or a tower, not a home.

Which ones state 2,000 m, and what that means for you

Thirteen inverter listings publish an altitude of exactly 2,000 m: IVGM5KLP2G1, IVGM6KLP2G1, IVGM7K6LP2G1, IVGM8KLP2G1, IVGM10KLP3G1, T-REX-3KLP1G01, T-REX-3K6LP1G01, T-REX-4KLP1G01, T-REX-4K6LP1G01, T-REX-5KLP1G01, T-REX-6KLP1G01, T-REX-10KLP3G01 and T-REX-10KHP3G01.

These are good machines and several of them are the ones a Sana'a buyer is most often shown, because they are the popular residential hybrids. The IVGM5KLP2G1, for instance, is a 5 kW single-phase hybrid with a 10 ms transfer time, a noise level under 35 dB and a 10-year warranty term on its record. None of that is in question. What is in question is only the altitude row, and on a site above 2,000 m that row does not cover you. We would rather tell you that in an article than after an installation.

What does "derating above 2,000 m" mean when I am sizing?

It means the unit is permitted up to 3,000 m, but the manufacturer expects it to deliver less than its full nameplate output once you pass 2,000 m. It does not shut down and it is not operating outside its rating. It simply will not give you everything the label says, because the thinner air limits how much heat the enclosure can shed. Our records publish the ceiling and the derating threshold; they do not publish a percentage-per-hundred-metres figure, so we will not invent one for you.

The practical consequence is a sizing rule rather than a spec argument. On a site above 2,000 m, do not choose a derated model whose rating only just covers your load — leave headroom, or choose from the group that is rated flat to the altitude. The same logic runs alongside the temperature row: the IVGM 25-50 kW group is rated -40 to 60 °C with derating above 50 °C, and the T-REX 25-50 kW group -25 to 60 °C with derating above 50 °C, so on a hot afternoon at altitude two derating conditions can apply to the same machine at the same time.

The battery side is the part almost everybody misses

Sixteen of our battery listings publish an operating altitude, and every one of them reads below 2,000 m: FLA48280, FLA48300, FLA48400TG1, FLB24100WG1, FLB24205WG1, FLB24230WG1, FLB48100WG1, FLB48205WG1, FLB48230WG1, FLB48314TG1-H, FLH48100UG1, FLH96050SG1, FLM500-125-261, FLS-ES232LC-G, FLS48050SCG1 and FLS48100SG1.

The rest of the battery range publishes no altitude row at all, and where a figure is not published we do not have one and will not guess at it. So the honest position is this: if your site is above 2,000 m, the altitude question on the storage side has to be asked before you order, not after the pallet arrives. Talk to us with the site elevation and the pack you are considering, and we will tell you what the record says — including when the record says nothing, which is an answer too.

What nobody can honestly promise you about altitude

We are not going to tell you that a 2,000 m unit "works anyway" in Sana'a. We do not have a test that says so and neither does anybody selling you one. We are not going to publish a percentage of output lost per hundred metres, because that figure is not in our records. And we are not going to quote you a price for electricity, a fuel cost or a payback period for Yemen, because no source we are permitted to publish from states one.

What we will do is name the models whose own datasheet row covers your elevation, and stand behind the ones we ship. That is a narrower promise than most suppliers make and it is the only one that survives contact with a real installation.

Choosing in one paragraph

For a home or a small business in Sana'a, start with the IVAM6048P1G1 at 3,000 m and 6 kW. For a workshop, a farm or a building that needs three-phase, look at the IVGM25KHP3G2 or the T-REX-25KHP3G01 and size with headroom because of the derating note. For a large commercial site, the IVGM75KHP3G1 and its siblings are rated to 4,000 m, which is more margin than Sana'a asks for. And on the battery, ask us first. You can browse the whole range on the inverters page and the batteries page.