Jerry's point about hitching your wagon to the right horse is hitting home with me right now. I'm considering what manufacturers have a strong international presence and are in it for the right reasons. I think 2026 will see a lot of manufacturers leave the market once the grid-tied business tanks with the loss of the tax credit.
It's related to this discussion about dependability - the equipment isn't going to be dependable long-term if the manufacturer goes away. 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 Sun, Sep 14, 2025, 12:58 PM Jerry Shafer <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey team wrenches, > I ran a lab for years and the cheapest flashes battery's all failed, Blue > planet is a great battery but they have moved out of the 48 vdc market, > Fortress filled that void and l have only one warranty issue, a cracked > display and they were quick to get one shipped. LiFePo4 aka LFP works and > is very stable, I used to only run with outback but added solark to the > list with great success, battery comms are good, it is an all in one so > time will tell. I do my best to stay with manufactures that have time in > the industry and did not buy the competition just to kill it. What l can > say is buyer beware, some of these newbies will be gone along with the > warranty, not all but some. I am not an invester and will look very closely > at who a new manufacture is befor putting my money and name behind it. > Fun times > > On Sun, Sep 14, 2025, 7:31 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Although I only have a handful of Midnite systems up and running, I will >> say that the Powerflo16 battery to AIO setup is dead easy. No dip switches >> (YAY!) No discovery process. They just work. I really like it. The downside >> is that the app is very limited in terms of visibility into the individual >> battery capacities. The only real way to determine if they are all working >> is to view the aH capacity figure that is displayed inconspicuously in the >> app. They include comm cables with each battery for both inverter to >> battery comms (special pinout, only needed for the master battery) and a >> straight-through Cat5 cable for interbattery communication. Oddly, the AIO >> defaults to PYLON protocol, so the first order of business is to change >> that to >> "Midnite" in the battery settings. And as I mentioned in another thread, >> Midnite doesn't seem to send the right aH capacity to Solar Assistant (I am >> working with SA support on a workaround). >> >> Pro tip: I don't think it is documented, or certainly not well >> documented, but you only need to turn on the master battery. All others >> should turn on in sequence, as long as the circuit breakers are all on >> first. >> >> On my first installation, I purposefully broke the communication daisy >> chain temporarily to see what happened, and everything kept working. There >> was no inverter shutdown, parallel fault, etc. The AIO simply renegotiated >> the new quantity of batteries in the chain and displayed the new aH rating >> for the quantity of batteries still in the comms sequence. That is a huge >> benefit over other batteries and inverters that go into crisis mode and >> shut down when communications are lost. >> >> EG4 works great after the initial setup, but it's not as simple and >> straightforward as Midnite. You have to dig into the menus to configure the >> protocols on both the batteries and inverters. I believe I have called for >> support on every single installation for one reason or another, but found >> the support to be very easy to reach, knowledgeable, and efficient. Again, >> this is based only on a handful of installations. >> >> I would not call my opinions statistically significant, but I have no >> problem recommending either setup. >> >> >> >> 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 Sat, Sep 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Having followed the battery - inverter discussions with interest, it >>> seems like a lot of communication problems are encountered. >>> >>> It seems like the least problematic setups are Midnite batteries and >>> inverters. EG4 setups seem to be getting good ratings also, with the >>> possibility of having short lived inverters. >>> >>> Would you say that this is an accurate assessment? >>> >>> Thank you, >>> >>> Drake >>> >>> >>> *Drake Chamberlin* >>> >>> *Athens Electric LLC* >>> >>> *Ohio Electrical Contractor’s License 44810* >>> >>> *NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional* >>> -- >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >>> >>> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org >>> >>> List Address: [email protected] >>> >>> Change listserver email address & settings: >>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >>> >>> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try >>> the other: >>> https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >>> >>> List rules & etiquette: >>> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >>> >>> Check out or update participant bios: >>> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org >> >> List Address: [email protected] >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the >> other: >> https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >>
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the other: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
