I just had a 8KW system installed by an installer. Now I don't trust them...

[wwu123]

I am the OP.
For a week the installer has ignored me. Envoy has gotten no communication with the micros for two days already because I specifically kept the interfering devices on 24x7. They should have gotten some warning if they were monitoring my system. Keep in mind that this is not new. They knew it was there and told me it is acceptable.
I will propose to release them from the warranty service (which they don't provide), I will ask for a $3k credit. I will need the map of serial number, and ask them to enable me to watch the per panel monitoring so that I can then remove them from enlighten (according to the Enphase support - see my post#6).

Some other installers might think I am not being reasonable. I think as a consumer paying full price, I have to right to ask a working system. I just happen to know what to expect from each component of the system so I am being demanding. A lot of homeowners simply trust their installers to do the job.

Keep in mind that you may be able to remove the installer from monitoring your system, but having per-panel viewing privileges for your user account does not necessarily give you all the controls that an installer account has. In particular, I have per-panel viewing on my account, but don't see a means by which you can modify the panel map or add/remove microinverters from the system. I believe you need an installer account to make those changes.

[derekc]

Where do you plug in your Envoy?
How many bars you have and for how long it's been working?
How many bars do you have right now?
If you had 4 bars and have been working for months and now it's not working then may be you have problem with your Envoy itself.
Enphase can hardly help you with the communication problem between the microinverters and the Envoy.
The Envoy has to be plugged in as close to the main circuit breaker panel as possible to get at less 4 bars of signal.

I would never expect somebody would keep an eye on my system at all unless I called them that I have problem.

On that day last Monday they installed the envoy, they saw the problem... sometimes it shows 5 bars and all 29 micros online, sometimes it dropped to zero and no micros online. When he left he said oh it was normal, just needed time. And that Enlighten Activation Checklist was stuck at stage 3 failing "Good Communication Established". So I trusted him and he left. For days, it has been stuck at stage 3 then I stepped in and researched what's going on. I read the troubleshooting guide and finally pinpointed one circuit (running UPS backup for my servers) giving the interference. They never bothered calling me back to ask or even replying my emails requesting for service (and they have their manager account to check my system and to see micros going offline). I turned off that circuit for a day and finally the activation checklist was completed. Now I just got the ferrite torroid and I installed it just now and everything is working FINALLY. I have 5 bars and I see all 29 micros.

Again, they have the manager account to see the system and they have more control than I do. They chose not to care.

[derekc]

On that day last Monday they installed the envoy, they saw the problem... sometimes it shows 5 bars and all 29 micros online, sometimes it dropped to zero and no micros online. When he left he said oh it was normal, just needed time. And that Enlighten Activation Checklist was stuck at stage 3 failing "Good Communication Established". So I trusted him and he left. For days, it has been stuck at stage 3 then I stepped in and researched what's going on. I read the troubleshooting guide and finally pinpointed one circuit (running UPS backup for my servers) giving the interference. They never bothered calling me back to ask or even replying my emails requesting for service (and they have their manager account to check my system and to see micros going offline). I turned off that circuit for a day and finally the activation checklist was completed. Now I just got the ferrite torroid and I installed it just now and everything is working FINALLY. I have 5 bars and I see all 29 micros.

Again, they have the manager account to see the system and they have more control than I do. They chose not to care.

Hmmm, in that case, I will ship them back the envoy and I will buy a new one (and deduct the $) and I will set it up myself, totally isolating the installer from the system. Can I do that? Will Envoy see the serial numbers of the micro-inverters and give me trouble?

[myfriendSUN]

In particular, I have per-panel viewing on my account, but don't see a means by which you can modify the panel map or add/remove microinverters from the system. I believe you need an installer account to make those changes.
I have the Enlighten Manager view. I did modify the panel map myself because the map provided to Enphase by my installer was not accurate.
On one side of the roof the map has to be turned 180 degrees.
The Enlighten Manager view is what you need to monitor your panels and it is the view that the installer has.

[derekc]

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[myfriendSUN]

I will ship them back the envoy and I will buy a new one (and deduct the $) and I will set it up myself, totally isolating the installer from the system. Can I do that? Will Envoy see the serial numbers of the micro-inverters and give me trouble?
The Envoy should be under warranty. And it should be just plug and play. Just call Enphase to activate with the new serial number of the Envoy.

[myfriendSUN]

Again, they have the manager account to see the system and they have more control than I do. They chose not to care.
At this moment I don't think the account for your system is set up yet.
If the account was set up already you and Enphase should be able to see it when you called Enphase and logged in to your account.
Now Enphase needs the map info to set up your account.
After the activation of your account ask them how you can see your individual panel performance.

If you don't have the map you need to contact the installer to forward the map info to Enphase.
Otherwise you are going to need to find out the serial number and location of each microinverter on your roof yourself.

[JCP]

When I first got my Envoy, I had a similar problem whereby it would not see some panels at time. It seemed to have gone away over time.

[wwu123]

In particular, I have per-panel viewing on my account, but don't see a means by which you can modify the panel map or add/remove microinverters from the system. I believe you need an installer account to make those changes.
I have the Enlighten Manager view. I did modify the panel map myself because the map provided to Enphase by my installer was not accurate.
On one side of the roof the map has to be turned 180 degrees.
The Enlighten Manager view is what you need to monitor your panels and it is the view that the installer has.

hi myfriendSUN, Enlighten Manager view is where I go to see per-panel viewing and reports. I don't see any options there to change the panel layout or add/delete microinverters. I've been all over the settings interfaces, as I've used them in the past to give public access, provide API access to export the data to pvoutput.org, and other things. But I've not been able to find a place to fundamentally modify the system itself. Can you walk me through exactly where in Enlighten Manager you find the settings to modify the map?

Particuarly I'd like to break out the panels into two groups so I can monitor each roof plane's performance separately, and I'd like to remove some personal info my installer put into the public-facing labels.

Warren

[myfriendSUN]

hi myfriendSUN, Enlighten Manager view is where I go to see per-panel viewing and reports. I don't see any options there to change the panel layout or add/delete microinverters. I've been all over the settings interfaces, as I've used them in the past to give public access, provide API access to export the data to pvoutput.org, and other things. But I've not been able to find a place to fundamentally modify the system itself. Can you walk me through exactly where in Enlighten Manager you find the settings to modify the map?

Particuarly I'd like to break out the panels into two groups so I can monitor each roof plane's performance separately, and I'd like to remove some personal info my installer put into the public-facing labels.

Warren

Log in to Enlighten Manager view/Setting(the last tab on right)/Array Details(down in the middle).
Click "Open Array Builder" right underneath the "Array Details" button.
Have fun!!!

BTW you need to use a computer or laptop, not a mobile device.

[wwu123]

Log in to Enlighten Manager view/Setting(the last tab on right)/Array Details(down in the middle).
Click "Open Array Builder" right underneath the "Array Details" button.
Have fun!!!

BTW you need to use a computer or laptop, not a mobile device.

Ah, as I suspected, I don't have the "Open Array Builder" option on that page. On Array Details, I can customize some descriptive labels and fields, and adjust some assumption about predicted performance (e.g derate factors). But I can't modify the array itself.

I suspect you may have an installer or DIY installer account, while under my user account, I have my installer listed as "manager" of my system. I notice I can re-assign that, but only to the e-mail of someone who is in their database as a registered solar installer. I don't want to risk going down the route of creating a professional or DIY solar installer account in Enlighten's website in order to re-assign management privileges.

[Bikerscum]

Not sure how things work with Enphase, but with Solaredge the installer can control what you can & can't see/do. I wanted to make sure I got complete control so I made up an installer name & set up the account myself. There is a new installer page on their website, you just fill it out. Solaredge didn't seem to care, as long as the inverter & optimizers were reporting. It took one day for the account to get authorized. My installer didn't care, actually thanked me for doing it so they didn't have to.

They have an IPhone app that lets you scan the bar codes on the inverters (actually peel off stickers that you make a "map" with). You arrange them all in the app, then upload the file to their site.... it's all done. You can edit things after if you want to.

Maybe you can take that route with your Enphase setup.

Good luck.

[myfriendSUN]

Warren,
First, Array Builder is not supported by mobile device. Have to use computer or laptop. I cannot do it with my iPad.
This is what I have in my setting: Under Access the user is me the owner, the companies is my installer ans the system maintainer is my installer. I believe I have the same power as my installer.

The story was I didn't wait and chase my installer to set up and activate my account. My installer only provide the map information to Enphase. I called Enphase to help me to set up the wifi and they activated the account for me and I have total control as an owner and installer.
The mapping for my east roof was unloaded up side down so I called Enphase for help. They walked me through the phone to try to fix the map but I couldn't find the Array Builder because I was on my iPad. They told me to call my installer to fix that. The next day I found out that Array Builder is not supported by ipad.
I used my computer and it worked.

How about make a call to Enphase Support and express your concern. They have been a great help to me.

[wwu123]

Warren,
First, Array Builder is not supported by mobile device. Have to use computer or laptop. I cannot do it with my iPad.
This is what I have in my setting: Under Access the user is me the owner, the companies is my installer ans the system maintainer is my installer. I believe I have the same power as my installer.

The story was I didn't wait and chase my installer to set up and activate my account. My installer only provide the map information to Enphase. I called Enphase to help me to set up the wifi and they activated the account for me and I have total control as an owner and installer.
The mapping for my east roof was unloaded up side down so I called Enphase for help. They walked me through the phone to try to fix the map but I couldn't find the Array Builder because I was on my iPad. They told me to call my installer to fix that. The next day I found out that Array Builder is not supported by ipad.
I used my computer and it worked.

How about make a call to Enphase Support and express your concern. They have been a great help to me.

Thanks, I have been on a PC all this time - I know the mobile web view is signifcantly more limited. It sounds a bit like what was described by Bikerscum - that there might be settings by the installer on what I can or cannot access in Enlighten. I in fact did pre-emptively create an Enlighten account before my system was installed, but my installer had also gone ahead and created a user account with my contact information, so I ended up using the account he created in the end.

I may just ask my installer, since I do like the company and the work they did, to see if there are indeed options he can set to give me more or total control over my account.

[myfriendSUN]

I did created an account myself before the system installation. I was told to turn on the system myself so I did it right after the replacement of the net meter by my utility company. I downloaded all the installation and troubleshooting guides online and tried to get the monitoring to work by myself. It was working six days after the system was turned on.
I still think you should call Enphase and they can fix it with a couple of mouse clicks.