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Offline Panels in my array? (Solar Edge SE7600A-US inverter)

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  • Offline Panels in my array? (Solar Edge SE7600A-US inverter)

    My go-live date was June 2015, and as I was watching with glee the snow finally shedding off the panels after the last snowstorm, I noticed something on the display of my SE inverter (Solar Edge SE7600A-US). I have two sets of panels, 18 on each roof section, a total of 36 panels. All of them are connected to the same inverter.

    Normally, the status display shows the DC/AC voltages & power, as well as some status indicators. Normally under the output indicators is a:
    P_OK: 036/ 036
    which I would assume means it has a connection to all 36 panels.

    Now, it shows
    P_OK: 033/036


    I dont see any error codes display that indicate a problem, outside of that the number has dropped from 36 to 33. Does this mean that 3 of my panels have stopped functioning? I don't have the SolarEdge utility set up, as the system was installed by Sungevity and I get my usage data via a downstream ASUS meter. From all the horror stories, I'm not sure calling Sungevity will do any good given their bankruptcy state.

    Panels are 36 x Hyundai Heavy Industries HiS-M250RG(BK)



  • #2
    is your solaredge inverter set up for monitoring and on the network? if not then set it up, get yourself and installer account on solaredge monitoring portal and configure it.
    The bad thing is that you likely do not have an optimizer map so you will not know which 3 are down but you can get more accurate failure information.

    Also if some of the modules are still covered with snow then that is why they are off line. The optimizer is powered form the PV module.
    OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

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    • #3
      It's not set up for SE monitoring portal. I asked Sungevity about this back when the system was originally installed, as I wanted more detailed reporting including real (near) time reporting versus waiting ~30-45 minutes for the ASUS meter to upload aggregate usage data over the cellular network.

      Sungevity said that if I turned SE monitoring on, it would invalidate the warranty. With the Sungevity warranty probably not worth the paper it's printed on, I'm all about setting up SE monitoring. I can always turn that off if there is a warranty situation, I cant imagine Sungevity would ever know it's turned on.

      And you're right, I'd have to ping the local installer to get a map of the panels and which optimizer is which.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by ButchDeal View Post
        i

        Also if some of the modules are still covered with snow then that is why they are off line. The optimizer is powered form the PV module.
        It did turn out to be snow cover. Even though most of the panel was free of snow, it was apparently enough to prevent the panel from being live. The next day the last bit of snow melted off and now all 36/36 panels are registering.

        Thanks for the info

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Burningislove View Post
          Sungevity said that if I turned SE monitoring on, it would invalidate the warranty.
          Most likely they don't want to deal with any support for that. Unless there's a seal on the unit (which I'm sure there's not) they won't know if it was opened to plug in an ethernet cable.

          I had a sungevity rep tell me "We can't enable SE monitoring on your inverters. Solaredge doesn't support it for commercial 3-phase inverters". (It was a commercial 3-phase system)
          Of course they were wrong - but if I had believed them I wouldn't know that they never finished the installation (one panel not electrically connected / not producing)

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          • #6
            Originally posted by foo1bar View Post

            Most likely they don't want to deal with any support for that. Unless there's a seal on the unit (which I'm sure there's not) they won't know if it was opened to plug in an ethernet cable.

            I had a sungevity rep tell me "We can't enable SE monitoring on your inverters. Solaredge doesn't support it for commercial 3-phase inverters". (It was a commercial 3-phase system)
            Of course they were wrong - but if I had believed them I wouldn't know that they never finished the installation (one panel not electrically connected / not producing)
            Definitely no seal. I've had to tighten down the hex screws on the face panel of the inverter once or twice. And of course, the electrical engineer in me simply wanted to know how the internal wiring was laid out.

            Does your inverter not give a status of each panel (on/off)?

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Burningislove View Post
              Does your inverter not give a status of each panel (on/off)?
              It is a business/commercial scale system. All optimizers are connected and reporting - but there are 2 panels (modules) per optimizer. (not like the ones most people have on their residential roof). So if only one of the two modules is connected to an optimizer, the optimizer count is still as expected - ex 30/30. But when you look at the per-optimizer data from the SE monitoring, you can see that one of the optimizers only produces half the power of the ones next to it.

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