I will look back and see if I have any pictures of excessively damaged microinverters. Like the others, we had to send them all back for dissection. The Enphase engineering team that I handled my cases and actually came out to do on site assessments told me the problems were due to corrosion intrusion.
Michael D Nelson MD Electric & Solar, Inc. 707-684-0064 mobile 707-884-1862 office www.mdelectricsolar.com Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 14, 2016, at 9:32 AM, Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarag...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Mike > I also work near the ocean, its all around me here in Hawaii, we have had the > 190's fail but not to environmental conditions and very few issues with > 215's. Do you have any pics of the damage as l have seen very little salt > issues. > Jerry > > >> On Sep 13, 2016 9:11 PM, "Mike Nelson" <mdelectricso...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I've had so many Enphase failures it's kind of ridiculous. We install most >> of our systems near the ocean so corrosion has played a big factor. The >> newer micro inverters are holding a much better, 215 and 250's. I have >> learned over the years that SMA makes the best product, and I mostly stick >> with them. Sometimes micro inverters are requested or really fit the >> installation particulars, so I still use them occasionally. I haven't yet >> tried solar edge. >> >> Michael D Nelson >> MD Electric & Solar, Inc. >> 707-684-0064 mobile >> 707-884-1862 office >> www.mdelectricsolar.com >> Sent from my iPhone >> >>> On Sep 13, 2016, at 6:23 PM, Rebecca Lundberg <rebecca.lundb...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>> Esteemed wrenches, >>> >>> I'm hoping the experience of this list can help give us a broader >>> perspective on the current market performance and as a secondary concern, >>> tech support (or lack thereof), from solar micro-inverter manufacturers. >>> >>> Are others having much trouble with micro-inverters? We have had repeated >>> issues with several different brands on our systems in Minnesota: >>> - 8 Enphase systems with mostly M210 and M215, have had to repeatedly go >>> back to sites to replace units. The new replacement ones seem to be lasting >>> better (we sure hope they will). Enphase is harder to contact in recent >>> years, but we're happy they at least provide a predictable stipend. Are you >>> also having to replace a lot of this brand of product? Are the newer models >>> holding up better? >>> >>> - We gave a new inverter busbar design concept a try (tenKsolar) and though >>> the micro-inverters were supposed to take turns and be 'redundant,' the >>> ones with APS micro-inverters needed 100% replacement and the ones with >>> Lead Solar micro-inverters have a problem where if one of them fails it >>> appears to send a signal to all the rest so the entire busbar stops working >>> -- in action it's far from redundant. When we purchased the tenKsolar Rais >>> Inverter Bus (RIB) the spec sheet didn't tell us what brand of >>> micro-inverter they would use as the OEM so we couldn't research the >>> viability of the product or company or warranty stipend (or lack there-of) >>> of the micro-inverter OEM. We assumed it was a tenKsolar product and they >>> would provide warranty replacements, service, and tech support, but our >>> experience has been far from that. When something goes wrong tenK says >>> 'it's not our product that's failing' because they don't actually >>> manufacture the micro-inverter (it's an OEM), the micro-inverter company >>> says 'it's not our product' because tenKsolar has it wired and used in a >>> very unique manner specific to the tenKsolar product, so both manufacturers >>> are backing away from any responsibility. A 25-year warranty on the >>> inverter busbar is a great concept but if/when something goes wrong there >>> is no support and no apparent warranty at all except maybe they will send >>> us a new component that needs several hours of work to re-install, so >>> either the installer does the warranty work for free or the customer has a >>> very unexpected expense to get their system back up and running a year or >>> two after it was installed; we think both scenarios are unacceptable (from >>> our installer perspective :-), do any of you have experiences you can share >>> here? >>> >>> I'm wondering if the climate in MN makes us an anomaly. Based on these >>> micro-inverter experiences we feel like the Rapid Shutdown rule has forced >>> us to use dc optimizers on residential applications whether we want to or >>> not -- is that pretty much what all of you are doing too? >>> >>> Rebecca Lundberg >>> _______________________________________________ >>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >>> >>> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >>> >>> Change listserver email address & settings: >>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >>> >>> List-Archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >>> >>> List rules & etiquette: >>> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >>> >>> Check out or update participant bios: >>> www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List-Archive: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org >
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