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Moved into new place with a ~5kw SolarEdge system w/18 panels. System was non-functional during home inspection. I have monitored and completed the below, but am now at a spot where I am looking for advice to minimize my costs and/or time. Any advice is appreciated!
Previous home I had a 10kw SolarEdge system installed, familiar with the optimizers, monitoring, etc. Also have a family background in electrical, father & uncle are electricians. Avid DIY'er and have already read up on some of what's available on SolarEdge's site.
Timeline:
Inverter is a SE5000A, it was producing no power and continually cycling - opening up DC generation and before AC output was throwing error 13 - AC voltage too high. It had no connection to internet, and was showing P_OK for 17 of the 18 optimizers. System had generated 3.3mW in the past at some point, but was showing nothing recently. It was on old firmware 3.1256, the new error code would have correlated to 2xD I believe.
I had reset it several times, and sometimes it would read P_OK for 18 of 18 optimizers, other times only 16 or 17 of 18.
Pulled the permit, the installer was out of business.
Reached out to SolarEdge - they were able to provide basic information... it was never registered in their admin system, and it shipped in 2015 so was still under warranty until 2022.
Read up on several forums regarding the error, and a few mentions were that the old firmware could cause this problem.
Installed the latest firmware, Error 13 went away and now it is throwing a "DC Overvoltage" message and still cycling. Error does not appear in the error log. Still does not produce anything.
Readings at the inverter are:
Attempted to re-pair the optimizers, and now it is only picking up 2 of the 18 optimizers.
Figured I did what I could and was hoping a professional installer could diagnose better. Called out one company - they opted to just not touch it since they didn't install it. Called out another company, they were less than helpful and insisted it would be $765 to wire it to the internet, pull the panels off the roof to log the optimizer location, and then build out the map online - as they had to do all of that before they could move forward. I felt that was incorrect - I had read about setting up the portal and while yes if an optimizer was throwing an alert they would have to go hunt for it, it should display data without them spending the time and my money to build the map out. And on top of it, that doesn't solve for the current problem, it just gets them to a bit easier place to diagnose.
Instead I dropped a Cat 5 cable myself to the unit, registered as an installer, and set up the monitoring portal online. Got the unit talking to SolarEdge although that didn't provide much insight.
No alerts or errors are present. It is picking up the two optimizers but nothing more.
Looking for advice on what would be recommended for next steps - my thoughts are:
Previous home I had a 10kw SolarEdge system installed, familiar with the optimizers, monitoring, etc. Also have a family background in electrical, father & uncle are electricians. Avid DIY'er and have already read up on some of what's available on SolarEdge's site.
Timeline:
Inverter is a SE5000A, it was producing no power and continually cycling - opening up DC generation and before AC output was throwing error 13 - AC voltage too high. It had no connection to internet, and was showing P_OK for 17 of the 18 optimizers. System had generated 3.3mW in the past at some point, but was showing nothing recently. It was on old firmware 3.1256, the new error code would have correlated to 2xD I believe.
I had reset it several times, and sometimes it would read P_OK for 18 of 18 optimizers, other times only 16 or 17 of 18.
Pulled the permit, the installer was out of business.
Reached out to SolarEdge - they were able to provide basic information... it was never registered in their admin system, and it shipped in 2015 so was still under warranty until 2022.
Read up on several forums regarding the error, and a few mentions were that the old firmware could cause this problem.
Installed the latest firmware, Error 13 went away and now it is throwing a "DC Overvoltage" message and still cycling. Error does not appear in the error log. Still does not produce anything.
Readings at the inverter are:
- DC Open - 18.5v
- L1 to L2 - 253v
- L1 to neutral/ground - 127v
- L2 to neutral/ground - 127v
Attempted to re-pair the optimizers, and now it is only picking up 2 of the 18 optimizers.
Figured I did what I could and was hoping a professional installer could diagnose better. Called out one company - they opted to just not touch it since they didn't install it. Called out another company, they were less than helpful and insisted it would be $765 to wire it to the internet, pull the panels off the roof to log the optimizer location, and then build out the map online - as they had to do all of that before they could move forward. I felt that was incorrect - I had read about setting up the portal and while yes if an optimizer was throwing an alert they would have to go hunt for it, it should display data without them spending the time and my money to build the map out. And on top of it, that doesn't solve for the current problem, it just gets them to a bit easier place to diagnose.
Instead I dropped a Cat 5 cable myself to the unit, registered as an installer, and set up the monitoring portal online. Got the unit talking to SolarEdge although that didn't provide much insight.
No alerts or errors are present. It is picking up the two optimizers but nothing more.
Looking for advice on what would be recommended for next steps - my thoughts are:
- Pulling a few panels and shortening the string to say 4-6 optimizers/panels to see if I can get it producing.
- If so, then the inverter is good. Process of elimination should help produce the bad optimizer.
- If not, then retest with different optimizers and panels to confirm a bad inverter.
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