This is the first time I'm hearing of that. The product line is still
listed on their website.
On Fri, Feb 14, 2025, 1:28 PM Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
They discontinued the Conext line. Mo more XWs
On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM Glenn via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Whoa, what did I miss?
How is Schneider out of the picture?
-Glenn
On Feb 14, 2025 12:28, Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
I think I have seen or heard of issues and failures with
all of the Li batteries at this point. Even my favorite,
Discover. So then, what is most important to me is good
tech support and customer service. Discover has been
awesome. Midnite has been great too. Discover is releasing
a 16kwhr battery very soon. Most of my OG systems for
several years have been Schneider/Discover. With Schneider
out of the picture, I started using more Victron equipment
with Discover batteries. Now there's the Midnite AIO and
Powerlo16s. I've done several GTBB systems and like that
combo for that application. Bill's post reminded me of the
Rosie/Barcelona. I'm wondering what the pro's and cons are
between the AIO and R/B for off-grid. Not many choices
left these days
On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 6:47 AM Jason Szumlanski via
RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
I didn't initially realize they have the Powerflo16
outdoor wallmount battery. I see you can get that
capacity with it now. It's disappointing that the
stackable 5kWh Powerflo5 is limited to 80kWh (also 16
units). Most of my clients build dedicated
battery/inverter buildings and need massive capacities
to run their properties. I am trying to wrap my head
around how a multi-inverter Midnite AIO might be able
to take advantage of multiple un-paralleled battery
banks to get around this limitation. I'm waiting on a
call from a Midnite rep to discuss this and other
questions I have.
Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM Amos Post via
RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Hi Jason,
It looks like the limit to Midnite PowerFlo is
257kwh. (16.076kwh/unit*16units in parallel).
Best,
Amos
Amos Post
Integrity Energy
W 802.763.7023
C 802.291.2188
ienergyVT.com <http://www.ienergyvt.com>
Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/integrityenergyllp?ref=hl>
On Feb 12, 2025, at 5:22 PM, Jason Szumlanski
via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, Lou.
Yep, they all seem to be borrowing the "delay
and deny" tactic from the insurance industry.
It's an epidemic. Solar module manufacturers
are doing this, too (I'm looking at you, REC
and Silfab, who have given me the D&D
treatment on two clear-cut warranty issues
recently). I will continue to give Enphase
kudos for having readily available and mostly
competent customer service reps and a
refreshingly liberal warranty process,
especially if you are experienced and know how
to work the customer service reps correctly to
lead them to the right answer.
Regarding the firmware issues on inverters
and batteries, I have high hopes for Midnite's
AIO and MNPowerflo, given their claims that
firmware updates are tested, simultaneous, and
seamless. This is a far cry from Sol-Ark's new
policy of refusing to do firmware updates
unless a technician is standing by on-site. It
sounds like Midnite is listening, and the rest
are content with accepting mediocrity and
pushing issues onto installers.
And don't get me started about HomeGrid's
pathetic app and registration process... That
little Gen 3 WiFi antenna gives you such high
hopes, only to end in huge disappointment. The
app doesn't even seem to work.
Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar
Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 1:08 AM Lou Russo via
RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
The current trend of manufacturers
resisting issuing RMAs is concerning. The
amount of work they want us to do to
confirm their problem is staggering
(Looking at you SolarEdge). With that
said, we only have 7 systems with HomeGrid
batteries. We have had only one issue with
them and it was firmware related.
Unfortunately their firmware upgrade
process is a total kludge so much so that
like Jason, I just let them take over my
laptop and let them handle it. It really
made me appreciate Discover's software and
firmware update process. We have a lot of
Discover batteries out there and like
the EG4s you can just shut off the bad
battery and move on. In addition, if you
have a battery module that is "dark start
low" you can actually "charge" it (it's
more like spilling electricity) from a
good battery in the stack by turning off
all the loads and charging sources (i.e.
the inverter) and all the battery modules
except one good one and the bad one. After
you get the low one to a decent state of
charge you can fire everything up and
put a good balance charge on the entire
stack. I have found their support to be
great as well. They also just took
their remote battery monitoring out of
beta so now you can see battery info
directly online. Which is nice. I am a big
fan of having redundant monitoring so we
can "trust but verify" the data being
reported by the various components. I am
still bummed they ended production of
the 42-48-6650, the build quality was
ridiculously good. I am little leary of
their replacement, the 48-48-5120, but it
seems to be doing fine in our installs. It
has only been a year or so, so the jury is
still out. But all the same features I
described above apply.
Aloha,
Lou Russo
Owner
l...@spreesolarsystems.com
Office - 808 345 6762
Spree Solar Systems LLC
CT-34322
On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM Jason
Szumlanski via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
For what it's worth, they haven't said
anything about internet connectivity
on these two systems I'm dealing with
right now, and they are both Gen 3.
One site has a bunch of firmware
discrepancies, and this is the site
with one module that has all cells low
voltage. Not sure if it's even
recoverable. It's sitting at 39V.
The other site has all the same
firmware. This is the one I went to
today. One of 16 modules (2 full
stacks) has one of 15 cells internally
that is low voltage. To me, that's a
clear warranty swap situation, but
customer service wasn't having it.
Disassemble the battery and charge it?
That's not a solution. It has been
escalated. We will see what happens.
Clearly we should be able to take
these back to the shop for diagnostics
at a minimum and get them RMA'd.
Requiring the purchase of a Windows
laptop and a battery charger is not
ideal for sure.
The only good thing I can say is
customer service took over my PC today
remotely and ran diagnostics after
installing the required software
(which isn't a fast process). I was
expecting them to say, "yep it's toast
and we're sending you a new one,
valued customer."
No such luck.
Jason
On Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 6:48 PM Tyrone
Houck via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
Yep. And the 10 year warranty is
only good if connected to the
internet. Firmware update of every
module is crucial or else there
will likely be imbalances. You may
be able to address it as 1 and
shut of the others and charge it
through the bus but if it's cell
voltage is too low it may be an
rma situation. I have had similar
issues especially with gen 2. Zero
issues yet with any gen 3 modules
but the internet thing really
struck a nerve as they only just
recently got their internet
monitoring functional.. having to
go back to every site is a serious
pain just to ensure what should be
a basic warranty. Best of luck and
feel free to contact me offsite if
you have any other questions I
might be able to help with.
Tyrone Houck
Oregon Solarworks LLC
CCB #204937 LRT #076
541-787-1366
tyr...@oregonsolarworks.com
On Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 3:36 PM
Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches
<re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
wrote:
Hi Wrenches,
I am regretting some HomeGrid
Stack'd off-grid installations
right now. There is a major
flaw in the way these function
in an error state. For those
of you that don't know, these
48V batteries are stacked with
a single BMS on top, covering
up to 8 batteries below. Each
battery module has a circuit
breaker and dip switches to
identify the battery
communication number and
location in the stack. Each
BMS can be paralleled to
additional stacks with
communication cabling.
The issue is when one battery
module goes into an error
state. What will happen is
that battery stack's BMS will
recognize the error, and then
shut down the whole stack.
This cascades to the other
stacks and the system shuts
down - fails to deliver 48V at
the output terminals on the
BMS of any stack.
That is annoying, but what's
even more problematic is you
can't just shut off the
offending battery to bypass
it. You need to physically
change all of the dip switches
to bypass it and then
reprogram the BMS to
re-recognize the new module
count (after taking it out of
parallel). This is all very
time consuming and requires
the inverter system to be shut
down. Even if a battery is not
in an error state, you can't
just turn it off. The whole
system goes haywire.
Once you have it bypassed, you
can hook up a RS-232 cable
(Mac users need not apply) and
use their software to gather
diagnostics. Customer service
will then want to do
additional diagnostics with
the battery in the stock, but
that is not reasonable in and
off-grid system where uptime
is critical. One of the faulty
modules I am dealing with was
diagnosed as one of 15 cells
with low voltage. The
"solution" is to take it out
of the stack and charge it to
100% with an external charger.
By the time I'm done with all
of the diagnostic nonsense, I
can almost pay for a new
battery with the lost labor.
Isn't the whole idea for this
not to happen with balancing
done automatically? It was
suggested to me that it didn't
get charged to 100% often
enough, and that is why it
happened. That isn't an
acceptable reason for failure
in an off-grid system.
I hate to say this, but EG4
has a far better 5kWh solution
in this respect. Each module
has it's own BMS. When one
fails, you can simply turn off
the circuit breaker and
everything else continues to
work. In fact, a fault in one
BMS doesn't take out the whole
stack or stacks of battery
modules.
Back to HomeGrid. When this
happens, in my mind this is an
automatic RMA. They should be
replacing these, no questions
asked. Especially at almost
twice the price of EG4. They
actually want me to
disassemble the case of the
battery and charge it with an
external charger (which I
don't have) directly from the
terminals that are internal to
the battery case. Totally
unacceptable. Whatever is
inside that case is their
problem in my opinion.
I am not selling anymore
HomeGrid until I get
satisfactory resolution to
these issues. EG4 isn't
perfect, but I have actually
had pretty good success
installing some that I sold
and quite a few that consumers
purchased directly. And at
almost half the price, it's
easier to eat the cost of a
battery here and there for
customer satisfaction.
Anyone have similar issues
with HomeGrid?
Jason Szumlanski
Florida Solar Design Group
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