My Solaredge system dead. How to figure if it's an optimizer or inverter that's bad?

[kny]

For an update, the installer came this morning and swapped out the P300s for the proper P400s. I took the opportunity to show them the piercing star grounding washers that came with the optimizers and explained how they are to be used to, you know, actually ground the equipment. Sigh. But, anyway, I've now got properly sized optimizers for my Sunpower E-20 327 panels, they are grounded properly, and even my wire management under the panels is cleaner.

But, the error remains. ERROR 31: AC VOLTAGE TOO HIGH. As suspected, the root problem is in the inverter. SolarEdge is sending out a "new board", whatever that means.

And every hour my meter continues to tick in the wrong direction.....

[Six4KilowWatt]

Let us know how the service goes. Some say Solar Edge customer support is terrible...some say Enphase is bad. Don't believe everything you hear on the net. But good luck.

I bet it was a known fault. Why would Solar Edge replace a part so quick if they didn't know something was up. These things happen with electronics.

[jasonvr]

This has been an interesting read. I was about to post my own thread on a problem I am having on my newly installed Solaredge based system

I have an SE6000 with 19xP400 optimizers (though after reading this thread I went up on the roof and checked) paired with Panasonic 330W panels. I received PTO from SoCal Edison last week on Tuesday. On Thursday I logged into the Solaredge site and saw NO production whatsoever. Now mind you, even though PTO was granted recently, the system has actually been producing since SCE installed the line side tap. Everything was going fine until Thursday.

I went home on my lunch break and saw the inverter in a boot loop. It would try to come up, show a high DC voltage, no AC power being produced. When it rebooted it would give an error code of 3x99. Looking in the error log on the inverter (which only has 5 entries) it gives a repeated set of error 153 which translates to "HW Error". Not very useful.

I contacted my installer and opened a ticket. Sometime about an hour later I saw that the production had picked up so I figured they did something remotely. I called that evening and it turns out they did nothing.... Not a good sign. They said they would continue investigating and contact Solaredge.

Fast forward to the next day, same story, high DC voltage, no AC output. So, I tried turning off the inverter and then back on and BAM, I'm producing.

It's been like that since. Every day it doesn't start up on its own, but I power cycle it and it works fine for the rest of the day. Installer is doing an inverter replacement (approved today). They already tried pushing a FW update which didn't change anything. However (and this is how it relates to this thread), what I noticed is that when the inverter is coming out of Night Mode now, the DC voltage is quite high - about 440V. Steady state voltage before the problems started were at about 360-370. After I "reboot" the inverter, the voltages drop to the right nominal level and all is well.

So I'm wondering if the two situations are related since one of the initial symptoms in this thread was DC voltage way too high. Thoughts?

My data is up on pvoutput, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to show Voltage if the production is 0, which means my weird voltage in the morning won't show to anyone but me it seems... Screenshots of voltage from both Solaredge and Pvoutput are below though

https://tinyurl.com/ydgt2pll

Solaredge.JPG

image_9401.jpg

[sensij]

So I'm wondering if the two situations are related since one of the initial symptoms in this thread was DC voltage way too high. Thoughts?

The high DC voltage is typical when power is not being produced, even on a healthy inverter. I'm not sure I'd agree that it suggests a common root cause. Thanks for sharing your experience, though...

[kny]

Let us know how the service goes. Some say Solar Edge customer support is terrible...some say Enphase is bad. Don't believe everything you hear on the net. But good luck.

I bet it was a known fault. Why would Solar Edge replace a part so quick if they didn't know something was up. These things happen with electronics.

Experience thus far with SolarEdge is terrible. I'm now down for nearly a month. Took 2 weeks for my installer to get P400s to swap out the incorrect P300s. But, of course, that solved nothing. SolarEdge is supposed to send out a new "communications board" under RMA, but it's been 2 weeks and still nothing shipped. And I have no doubt this will fail to solve the problem and I will wait more weeks for an inverter replacement to ship out under RMA.

I'm pretty close to simply buying a new inverter and installing myself.

[sensij]

At one point the system was performing ok up to a particular power, at which point you got the AC overvoltage error. Is that still the case? If so, have you tried limiting the inverter to stay under that level and at least get some good out of it in the meantime?

[ButchDeal]

Experience thus far with SolarEdge is terrible. I'm now down for nearly a month. Took 2 weeks for my installer to get P400s to swap out the incorrect P300s. But, of course, that solved nothing. SolarEdge is supposed to send out a new "communications board" under RMA, but it's been 2 weeks and still nothing shipped. And I have no doubt this will fail to solve the problem and I will wait more weeks for an inverter replacement to ship out under RMA.

I'm pretty close to simply buying a new inverter and installing myself.

I don't really understand why you are complaining about SolarEdge. Your installer miss installed almost everything, and failed to support it in a timely manner. SolarEdge is just the manufacturer. That it took your installer 2 weeks to get the correct P400 is clearly the installers fault not SolarEdges. The P400s are available at almost all distributors. I am frankly shocked that SolarEdge is going to RMA the communication board on such a clearly miss installed system. The installer should replace it.

Once the poor install fried the equipment, correcting the install is unlikely to fix the fried equipment. (the P400s were unlikely to fix the problem though they were part of the cause).

[kny]

I don't really understand why you are complaining about SolarEdge.

I am only complaining about the speed of the SolarEdge RMA. It's been 2 weeks since they said they would RMA it and nothing has shipped. I, frankly, wish SolarEdge would not RMA it and the burden of getting me running rested on the shoulders of my installers. But, SolarEdge remotely diagnosed and said they would send out a new comm board, and now I'm stuck waiting, waiting, waiting. And after the new comm board doesn't solve anything I will again be stuck waiting, waiting, waiting for them to send out a new inverter. Because SolarEdge has said they will RMA it I feel I have no leverage over my installer. Perhaps I just buy an inverter, install it myself, and give my installer two options: (a) pay the bill or (b) get sued. But, it seems I should just wait, wait, wait.

[kny]

At one point the system was performing ok up to a particular power, at which point you got the AC overvoltage error. Is that still the case? If so, have you tried limiting the inverter to stay under that level and at least get some good out of it in the meantime?

No, the inverter now almost instantly goes into AC VOLTAGE ERROR upon coming up. And it goes click-click-click audibly within its internals. Everything is just off now waiting for comm board to arrive and surely not solve anything.

[Six4KilowWatt]

AC voltage is likely too high because the utility grid is sending in a greater voltage. The most probably culprit is the installer did not properly account for voltage drop and the wiring is not right. This error will likely persist.

http://solarprofessional.com/articles/design-installation/voltage-drop-in-pv-systems/page/0/2

[kny]

AC voltage is likely too high because the utility grid is sending in a greater voltage. The most probably culprit is the installer did not properly account for voltage drop and the wiring is not right. This error will likely persist.

http://solarprofessional.com/article...stems/page/0/2

It would be miraculously coincidental that after 18 months the utility grid voltage increased and increased permanently at the exact moment the PV system was handling its all-time load high of 6700 watts, and it was at that moment that the AC VOLTAGE TOO HIGH error appeared never to go away.

I've checked the wiring connections at the breaker, the ac disconnect and within the inverter. All looks good.

[sensij]

I've checked the wiring connections at the breaker, the ac disconnect and within the inverter. All looks good.

Hopefully there isn't a bad spliced connection hidden in the conduit somewhere. Again, based on what you've shared of this installers work, it is hard to rule anything out.

If it is shutting down almost immediately now, has anyone tried taking high speed voltage readings at the inverter to at least see if the voltage error is real? A regular multimeter may not be fast enough, and SolarEdge might not be able to do that remotely. If the voltage does spike at the inverter, does it also spike at the service panel? If the voltage does not actually spike at the inverter, you can have more confidence that inverter repair/replacement will help.

[solardreamer]

Experience thus far with SolarEdge is terrible. I'm now down for nearly a month. Took 2 weeks for my installer to get P400s to swap out the incorrect P300s. But, of course, that solved nothing. SolarEdge is supposed to send out a new "communications board" under RMA, but it's been 2 weeks and still nothing shipped. And I have no doubt this will fail to solve the problem and I will wait more weeks for an inverter replacement to ship out under RMA.

I'm pretty close to simply buying a new inverter and installing myself.

Does SolarEdge think your problem is likely due to a bad communications board?

[inetdog]

The high DC voltage is typical when power is not being produced, even on a healthy inverter. I'm not sure I'd agree that it suggests a common root cause. Thanks for sharing your experience, though...

The voltage on a simple string will be high when no current is being drawn. But the output of the individual optimzers should be only 1V DC when they are not in communication with the inverter.
And when the inverter is in control, I would not necessarily expect it to let the string voltage rise that high just because it is not willing to produce an AC output.

[inetdog]

It would be miraculously coincidental that after 18 months the utility grid voltage increased and increased permanently at the exact moment the PV system was handling its all-time load high of 6700 watts, and it was at that moment that the AC VOLTAGE TOO HIGH error appeared never to go away.

I've checked the wiring connections at the breaker, the ac disconnect and within the inverter. All looks good.

FWIW, the voltage at the grid tie inverter terminals will be greater than the grid voltage at your POCO transformer secondary by an amount which is proportional to the current being delivered and the resistance of the wiring and connections, including the service drop and the transformer windings. So first seeing the error when at maximum production is reasonable. What is not reasonable is that it also come up every time the inverter starts, including while the sunlight on the panel array is still low in the morning.

Possibly something happened to greatly increase the circuit resistance.
One simple test to conduct would be to turn off the inverter and then temporarily connect a load, like a heat gun, hot plate, or portable electric heater at the inverter AC connection point and looking at the voltage drop. It would take an electrician to wire that up if you do not have a receptacle installed right now.