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

[solardreamer]

Well, I paid for it out of pocket instead of waiting endlessly for a comm board and then endlessly more for a replacement inverter. I've lost all leverage to be reimbursed by doing so, but don't care. Between delays by SolarEdge to get replacement equipment and delays by my negligent installer to do anything with it, it could easily be 2018 or legal action before my system was back up otherwise.

In summary, I now have:

• SE-7600 inverter
• P400 optimizers
• 8 AWG wire and 40 amp breaker
• properly grounded equipment
• clean wire management

It was a painful lesson to learn, but it was educational. And with the 7600 inverter I can add about 4 panels at some point in the future. Current strings are 13+9; roof can fit 16+10.

Thanks to all; this has been a very helpful forum.

Given your experience with SolarEdge support, would you use it again for a new install or pick another string inverter brand?

[JSchnee21]

I wonder if SE is a "victim" of their own success. Speaking with my installer, he's on the phone with SE almost everyday (not sure why so often), but usually has to wait ~1hr on hold to get through every time. Strangely, he always seems to get the same tech, knows him by name, every time. Seems like SE need to hire more staff. In my case there was an install question about how to install the consumption monitoring kit -- this is only the second one my installer has done -- seems like there was some confusion that the breaker supplying power to the monitor needed to be 2-pole (aka 240VAC). Regardless, once he got through it was a simple fix.

I had one interaction with SE myself so far, I posted a highly technical pre-sales support question through their web support form. A real engineer called me within 5min and I spoke with him on the phone for more than an hour during my drive home. Really helpful, enthusiastic, and informative.

Totally anecdotally, I had mentioned to my installer who's worked in solar for the past 10yrs in NJ, that originally I had wanted to do an Enphase system and no one I spoke with would sell me one. As a large, reputable, private firm they do a lot of repair and support of pre-existing residential and commercial systems whose installers have gone out of business. He looked at me and smiled, and said, "I'm so glad you didn't" and then he proceeded to show me a large box full of Enphase microinverters. He said, "these are the ones I swapped out this week. We have 3 to 5 repair calls a week to swap out failed micros -- I have one FTE dedicated to this alone."

Now, he didn't say which model Enphase Micros were failing, it sounded like it was mainly some of their older models -- many of which had issues. The newer Gen 4/5/6 seem quite a bit better, but they are all fairly new (<3-4 yrs or so) so it's hard to say.

[ButchDeal]

In my case there was an install question about how to install the consumption monitoring kit -- this is only the second one my installer has done -- seems like there was some confusion that the breaker supplying power to the monitor needed to be 2-pole (aka 240VAC). Regardless, once he got through it was a simple fix.

It seems like your installer is the problem here. It is pretty clear it needs both legs power and thus a double pole breaker on the consumption meter from the manual. An Electrician should have no problem understanding this.

https://www.solaredge.com/sites/default/files/solaredge-meter-installation-guide-na.pdf

[kny]

Given your experience with SolarEdge support, would you use it again for a new install or pick another string inverter brand?

SolarEdge wasn't my problem; my installer was. SolarEdge has been slow to get out the RMA replacement which is/was frustrating, but the root cause of all my issues has been my installer.

[Six4KilowWatt]

Wouldn't it have been better to get SolarEdge warranty support? You bought a new inverter, when the other one was under warranty. Sure waiting is not good, but now that you have a new inverter added to your existing bill, the rate of return on your invest sinks lower. What is your calculated paypback now that you spent an additional inverter? Maybe it was worth it to you, but I would have waited.

Are you intending to get an inverter replacement for the one you paid for? There is no way you can sell your inverter for anywhere near it's full retail when you get a replacement. But hey, good on you for getting it done. 6kw is nice...I wish I got close to that.

[kny]

Wouldn't it have been better to get SolarEdge warranty support? You bought a new inverter, when the other one was under warranty. Sure waiting is not good, but now that you have a new inverter added to your existing bill, the rate of return on your invest sinks lower. What is your calculated paypback now that you spent an additional inverter? Maybe it was worth it to you, but I would have waited.

Are you intending to get an inverter replacement for the one you paid for? There is no way you can sell your inverter for anywhere near it's full retail when you get a replacement. But hey, good on you for getting it done. 6kw is nice...I wish I got close to that.

Yes, probably financially better to wait. But I don't care. Also, this time of year I'm generating about 1.2MWh per month, which with the DC SREC market plus net metering is about $660 per month. So, another month and a half outage and I've lost the cost of the inverter. Would I be back up and running within a month and a half? Probably. But, maybe not. I'd already been down a month with no end in sight. Another month and a half of outage is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Plus, my net meter is still reading negative and keeping it that way is worth value to me as well.

But, yes, purely financial consideration and I should have sucked it up and waited out the process.

[J.P.M.]

Yes, probably financially better to wait. But I don't care. Also, this time of year I'm generating about 1.2MWh per month, which with the DC SREC market plus net metering is about $660 per month. So, another month and a half outage and I've lost the cost of the inverter. Would I be back up and running within a month and a half? Probably. But, maybe not. I'd already been down a month with no end in sight. Another month and a half of outage is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Plus, my net meter is still reading negative and keeping it that way is worth value to me as well.

But, yes, purely financial consideration and I should have sucked it up and waited out the process.

Small claims court ?

[solardreamer]

SolarEdge wasn't my problem; my installer was. SolarEdge has been slow to get out the RMA replacement which is/was frustrating, but the root cause of all my issues has been my installer.

The installer is definitely the root cause and I hope you get back your money. However, based on your story, SolarEdge did not seem that helpful. It's one thing to have to wait for replacement but it's another to wait for only a part that does not seem likely to resolve the problem. I don't know what the other inverter manufacturers would be like in similar situation but generally manufacturers good at customer support don't just do the minimum or things that are unlikely to resolve customer problem even if the problem was caused by a dealer. I happen to value good customer support and your experience with the installer and SolarEdge does not look like good customer support

[ButchDeal]

You don't know what the installer told solaredge. I doubt they informed them of all the mistakes that they made on the install. If they had solaredge likely would not have replaced anything under warranty as improper installation voids the warranty.

[kny]

You don't know what the installer told solaredge. I doubt they informed them of all the mistakes that they made on the install. If they had solaredge likely would not have replaced anything under warranty as improper installation voids the warranty.

Here's how it went, Butch.

My installer contacted SolarEdge (and presumably did not mention that the POs were undersized 300s and not grounded) and the first response from SolarEdge was that it was just a monitoring issue and that my system was actually working fine, which I knew to be laughably wrong. The action to be taken was that SolarEdge would run a remote firmware update, which they did and which, of course, did not solve the problem.

Two plus weeks went by before the installer got P400s and got out to install them. While a necessary step, of course the root problem was not solved.

More time went by with no action, so I called SolarEdge myself and explained that the firmware update had not worked. That the installer had removed undersized P300s and replaced with properly sized P400s and properly grounded this time. But, the root problem still remained.

At this point I expected to hear that the installer would be responsible to replace the inverter due to their negligence and warranty was void, but instead the support tech assisted in an hours worth of remote diagnostics and concluded that I need a new comm board (and maybe another board, kind of got confused). Said it would come in 3-5 days.

Wait, wait, wait - comm board never came. SolarEdge not helpful on why it hasn't shipped. Installer obviously doesn't care.

On a parallel track, about 7-10 days in I started to see the writing of how this was going to play out, so bought myself 22 P400s and an SE-7600. Did not need to use my P400s as installer did get those themselves and install them, but I did upgrade the wiring and breaker myself and then install the SE-7600 myself, too.

Anyway, that's how it went down. I've no doubt the installer did not inform SolarEdge of their negligence. I, however, did, and it did not cause SolarEdge to hesitate on at least being willing to replace a comm board under warrany, and then only after that failed (presumably - we never got that far) to replace the entire inverter.

[ButchDeal]

They generally will contact the installer before shipping any parts. We have received all replacement parts in a few days. I have had installers tell me that they have not received the parts before because they don't have time to do the repair right away, Their tune changes when I call the owner and give them the tracking info that I get from solaredge.
Installers are busy and don't like to interrupt new installs for repair work. Though it is possible solaredge is having problems shipping your part, I don't know but it would but out of the norm I have seen.
i do think you should take your installer to small claims court though and talk to the regional solaredge Rep about them. You are a good cudstimer that basically purchased two inverters.

[solardreamer]

Here's how it went, Butch.

My installer contacted SolarEdge (and presumably did not mention that the POs were undersized 300s and not grounded) and the first response from SolarEdge was that it was just a monitoring issue and that my system was actually working fine, which I knew to be laughably wrong. The action to be taken was that SolarEdge would run a remote firmware update, which they did and which, of course, did not solve the problem.

Two plus weeks went by before the installer got P400s and got out to install them. While a necessary step, of course the root problem was not solved.

More time went by with no action, so I called SolarEdge myself and explained that the firmware update had not worked. That the installer had removed undersized P300s and replaced with properly sized P400s and properly grounded this time. But, the root problem still remained.

At this point I expected to hear that the installer would be responsible to replace the inverter due to their negligence and warranty was void, but instead the support tech assisted in an hours worth of remote diagnostics and concluded that I need a new comm board (and maybe another board, kind of got confused). Said it would come in 3-5 days.

Wait, wait, wait - comm board never came. SolarEdge not helpful on why it hasn't shipped. Installer obviously doesn't care.

On a parallel track, about 7-10 days in I started to see the writing of how this was going to play out, so bought myself 22 P400s and an SE-7600. Did not need to use my P400s as installer did get those themselves and install them, but I did upgrade the wiring and breaker myself and then install the SE-7600 myself, too.

Anyway, that's how it went down. I've no doubt the installer did not inform SolarEdge of their negligence. I, however, did, and it did not cause SolarEdge to hesitate on at least being willing to replace a comm board under warrany, and then only after that failed (presumably - we never got that far) to replace the entire inverter.

Just curious, did SolarEdge offer you an option to replace the whole inverter based on the fact that your whole system was down? Perhaps with some kind of deposit that could be potentially refunded later based on analysis of the returned unit?

[kny]

Just curious, did SolarEdge offer you an option to replace the whole inverter based on the fact that your whole system was down? Perhaps with some kind of deposit that could be potentially refunded later based on analysis of the returned unit?

No. I even expressed skepticism that this was a "comm board" issue, but not knowing precisely what a comm board does, I could not exactly be adamant about it. And, who knows, maybe the comm board was the problem.

[Six4KilowWatt]

The product you have is under warranty, so you should get a new one if need be. Are you going to wire the old one back up, so that if it is in fact bad, you get a new one? I assume they'll want a reported failure from the computer.

So the new inverter works...it's not your installers fault that the inverter failed...I mean yeah they made some mistakes, but if it was indeed defective, or had failing components, why sue them? Maybe you should get SolarEdge to take your other unit back and see if they'll give you a complimentary extended warranty for your headache. That would be a good happy medium of negotiation.

Anyways, good luck.

[ButchDeal]

it's not your installers fault that the inverter failed...I mean yeah they made some mistakes, but if it was indeed defective, or had failing components, why sue them?

It definitely is the installers fault. They made major mistakes and miss installations that were not the required or even to code.
it was a dangerous poorly done install.