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  • solar inverter replacement

    Hi, We have an SB 6000 US Sunny Boy inverter manufactured and purchased in 2008 that recently died. It is giving the "Disturbance, fac-bfr" error for line frequency. Line frequency is fine and powering down/power it back up does not clear the error, so I called SMA and they said they do not repair inverters that are out of warranty. I am looking at replacing it with either a new SMA or a SolarEdge inverter. I have two questions:

    1) Is 11 years service within the normal range for an inverter?
    2) Which brand inverter do you recommend?

  • #2
    It is definitely believable that power electronics operated 24/7 for 11 years will fail just due to end-of-life for electrolytic capacitors, depending on too many factors (design margin, heat, capacitor quality, etc.) If you're in a warm climate, that would make things worse. In addition to wearout of capacitors, other components are subject to wearout or random failure, again depending on the exact design and operating conditions. Although we all dream that our systems will last 25 years, 11 years is quite reasonable.
    7kW Roof PV, APsystems QS1 micros, Nissan Leaf EV

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    • #3
      10-11 years was the expected life for inverters 10+ years ago. Newer ones tend to be a little more robust.
      SolarEdge is nice, but you would have to go install optimizers on each panel, which isn't super practical.
      I would stick with SMA, or maybe Fronius.

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      • #4
        Thanks for the responses. I read up on the SolarEdge after posting here and saw that it requires power optimizers on each panel as you said emartin00. Didn't seem worth the extra effort so I purchased a new SMA Sunny Boy SB6.0-1SP-US-41 which was also less costly. Got the old SMA SB6000 off the wall today.

        What do you do with old inverters? Anybody recycle the PC boards? I can recycle the aluminum case and copper wiring.

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        • #5
          SMA Sunny Boy is my choice

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          • #6
            Originally posted by tomofreno View Post
            Thanks for the responses. I read up on the SolarEdge after posting here and saw that it requires power optimizers on each panel as you said emartin00. Didn't seem worth the extra effort so I purchased a new SMA Sunny Boy SB6.0-1SP-US-41 which was also less costly. Got the old SMA SB6000 off the wall today.

            What do you do with old inverters? Anybody recycle the PC boards? I can recycle the aluminum case and copper wiring.
            The old SunnyBoy has a transformer, the new SunnyBoy is transformerless. Many older panels were grounded.. The new inverter requires panels b ungrounded. Not all older panels can be used ungrounded. They may work for a while but could degrade quickly. What brand & modell are the panels?

            Andy

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