Wrenches-
I'm having a lot of difficulty commissioning my first Enphase Ensemble installation. This is on a pre-existing microinverter installation. Have been on the phone with tech support several times; each time they forward a Tech Brief about commissioning that has different and slightly conflicting instructions. It seems the order of turning on each box is critical. Because of already-obsolete software that they ship with, the software must be updated before activating the Envoy, Enpower, and Encharge or they will not work.
And for some reason the Envoy must have both Wifi and cell connection before even starting commissioning, but the slower cell connection is used for software download so it takes up to 12 hours.
This commissioning must be done on-site using their latest version of
Installer Toolkit on a smart phone. Sure, there are buttons in
Enlighten's Activation page to add an Enpower and Encharge, but these
do not work "yet".
Enphase tech support says they are working on making this a single-day process rather than the current multi-day commissioning. This does not even count the actual hardware installation time.
I would advise anyone against moving any loads to a new subpanel before the entire system is commissioned and operating.
As of now I have an Enpower that mistakenly thinks it is off-grid when the grid is present, so it has told the Envoy to shut down the PV microinverters and batteries. These are relay controlled, therefore it is not possible to have them connected without software control. It has already committed the major crime of shutting down the backed-up loads while the grid is still present. Enphase is working on it, but seem to be developing software on the fly. I suppose their integration process has been hit hard by pandemic distancing, and they are all working remotely.
Has anyone else had a successful experience commissioning an Ensemble?
I'd like to hear about the doos-and-don'ts.
Don Barch
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