SolarEdge Inverter Questions

[JayG]

I have solar panels with a SolarEdge inverter. The display froze on me before and just shows a steady backlit blue display with no information on the screen. Just a blank blue screen and all three lights are lit steady (green, yellow and red). But the inverter seems to be sending updates to the monitoring app since I periodically see current updates.

From other posts on this forum, this seems to be a known issue. I have some questions.

- What causes this?
- How do I recover from it? One post said to turn off and back on the entire system.
- Can I turn it off and on at night? Will it turn on properly at night since it can't do its startup routine by pairing with each optimizer.
- Should I reset it by turning the on/off dial at the bottom part of the inverter, the on/off switch next to the display button under the top part of the inverter, or by using the emergency switch to shut down the entire system?
- Should I leave it alone and reset it in the morning? If I do, will the display burn out by being lit steady all night long?

Can someone explain what each of these different switches do and when I'd need to use each one of them? Is there documentation that explains all this? I can't find anything on SolarEdge's site.

[sensij]

I'm not familiar with this problem.

If you would like to turn off the system to reboot it, I would suggest using "the on/off switch next to the display button under the top part of the inverter".

The dial switch on the bottom will disconnect the array from your inverter, but will not cut-off access to AC power (there are some models in which the disconnect is both DC and AC, but that is an older design). You would use this switch if you want to leave the inverter on, but perform service on the panels or optimizers. Note that if you don't have the rapid shutddown kit, it will take some time for the DC capacitors to bleed down to a safe level. The screen indicates the DC voltage and lets you know when it is safe.

The emergency switch sounds like it is an AC disconnect. If you cut off the inverter from the grid, it will drop the optimizer voltage to 1 V DC, and will shut down shortly thereafter. You would use this switch to make the inverter safe to open. Same note as above regarding DC voltage taking some time (less than 1 min) to bleed down.

[DanKegel]

I just experienced something like this an hour after the system was first turned on.
The display went reverse video for ten minutes, then back to normal, but either way, it no longer shows the output power.
Here are shots before the problem, during the reverse video, and after reverse video but still with data missing... or rather, the output is going to the wrong spot on the display (it's overwriting part of the first line instead of going to the 2nd line).

You can even see the data display fighting with the legend on the first line on some screens, it flickers between the good legend and the improperly located data.

[foo1bar]

Can someone explain what each of these different switches do and when I'd need to use each one of them? Is there documentation that explains all this? I can't find anything on SolarEdge's site.

http://www.solaredge.com/files/pdfs/products/inverters/guides/se-inverter-installation-guide.pdf

The 3 switches/buttons you're seeing:
1> pushbutton to turn on the display and cycle through the different screens of info (p. 18)
2> on/off/switch that turns off the inverter (p. 18)
3> big rotary knob type switch at the bottom that disconnects DC inputs. (sort of see that part on p. 103)

I'd power cycle the unit to see if that solves things.
1> turn off with switch by display button
2> switch off DC with big knob.
3> wait 5 minutes or more
4> switch on DC with big knob.
5> turn on switch by display button

And I'd contact the installer. Looking at the manual I don't think the red LED should be lit.

I don't think I've seen other threads about what you're describing. (not saying they don't exist - just that I haven't seen them - so please share the links as I will want to see them since I have a SE7600 myself.)

[DanKegel]

Power cycling didn't seem to do anything, but the problem was gone when I looked again after dark. Maybe when it switched itself into "night mode", it reinitialized whatever was busted? I'll post again sometime and report how often it happens.

[DanKegel]

Happened again today. This time it healed itself in half an hour. That's once per day so far.

[arby2427]

My SolarEdge inverter did that once that I'm aware of. It happened after dark. I cycled an ac maintenance disconnect located between the inverter and the breaker panel and it rebooted back to normal. I don't know if it has happened again but it must have cleared itself if it did.

[NYHeel]

I just had the same thing happen to me that the original poster described. I came down to my basement and the display was just blue with no text and all three lights were on. This was shortly after dark so maybe the system had an issue going into night mode. I tried pressing the main button and that didn't do anything.

I just walked away and came downstairs an hour later and everything seemed back to normal. I pressed the button and the display said it was in night mode.

Should I be worried about this? My whole system is only 3 weeks old.

[ButchDeal]

Should I be worried about this? My whole system is only 3 weeks old.

The installer or solarEdge could have been working on the system remotely. SolarEdge does firmware upgrade occasionally and installers can remote control some features of the inverters.

[NYHeel]

The installer or solarEdge could have been working on the system remotely. SolarEdge does firmware upgrade occasionally and installers can remote control some features of the inverters.

Good to know. I'll just watch out to see if this happens again. I'm not going to bother reaching out to my installer unless it happens again.