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Honest Opinion About String Inverter Brands

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  • Honest Opinion About String Inverter Brands

    Background of Inverter issues:

    I have a 8 month old grid tied 10.22 kW system; 28 qty LG 365 Watt Neon R, SMA Sunnyboy 7.7 inverter in three strings. The inverter is installed inside of my insulated pole barn out of the weather and is not in direct sunlight.

    1) For the first 5 months, the SMA 7.7 inverter was doing a hard restart every week because the firmware wasn't completely installing after automatic updates. That problem was fixed by updating the inverter with the latest firmware, then turning off automatic updates.

    2) Then the SMA inverter started having nuisance arc faults (installer found no faults), that (so far) has been "fixed" by the latest firmware upgrade. Nuisance arc faults would shut down and deactivate the system. I would find out about these system shutdowns only after looking at my daily power generation.

    3) Just last week, the display stopped working. The inverter still runs and I can control the inverter through the web interface, but the display (or display driver) on the inverter is dead.

    I live on the 45th parallel in Oregon. So far this spring and summer, when ever the sun is out all day, I get some clipping. (See attached) But, my power production is very close to the estimate provided by the installer using Aurora so I am not too worried by clipping.

    OK, here's my question for you:

    1) Are my issues with the SMA 7.7 inverter typical for a string inverter?

    2) I have asked my installer to replace my SMA inverter under warranty, but I wonder if another brand of inverter would be better. What do you think?

    Thanks,

    Phil
    Attached Files
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