Lost microinverters due to power surge. How common is that?

[solarix]

I have seen cases where our local utility paid for damage caused by power "surges". It was a very clear case though with lots of damage and refrigerators, etc in the same neighborhood all died at the same time...
We choose not to install microinverters precisely because they are too hard to service.

[peakbagger]

I mess with larger power systems on occasion for combined heat and power systems in predominantly Massachusetts. I am not aware of any rules or regulations that utilities are required to keep transient power quality data and make it available to the public. I seriously doubt that it would be practical or very useful. On my NH system when I applied for permission to connect my grid tied system I had to sign a contract fairly standard agreement that I would hold harmless the utility for any potential damage introduced from the utility system into my system.

Generally if there is suspicion that the utility has power quality issues, they send a tech out and temporarily install a power quality analyzer hooked up the voltage and current transducers that are connected to their metering. They leave it a few weeks and then analyze the data to prove or disprove the problem. If its on their end, they chase it down and fix it and frequently do not talk about the fix. On the other hand if they think it may be from inside the customers system they will throw it back on the customer. In most cases the 13,8 KV systems we are installing and monitoring are behind at least one set of transformers at the utility substation and transformers can dampen out transmission issues and cause local issues on the circuit to propagate. One thing that many folks learn with power quality issues is that its usually a combination of separate issues and its just as likely the issues are inside the owners plant. Power factor correction capacitors can be a real problem, Most banks are either on or off and how they are controlled may cause power quality issues even though they are keeping the power factor within an acceptable range. Switched mode power supplies also can cause lots of issues. They can generate a waveform that looks like a AC sign wave but interposed on the sine wave are highly level harmonics that can randomly(and not so randomly) synchronize and generate short term blips that are two fast for conventional metering to pick up but enough to fry poorly isolated electronics. Good practices to isolate an electronic device costs money and in a competitive environment where a firm like Enphase was losing money on every inverter they built in hopes of eventually turning a profit, the easy way out is to go cheap and hide behind a warranty.

[casan]

so enphase doesnt' stand behind their product. Why the hell does the grid going on/off line several times make their warranty invalid?
why the heck is it the installers problem?
nothing makes sense to me!

To tell you the truth, that's exactly what we think. It doesn't make sense at all that the microinverters cannot take a power surge or why some kind of protection wasn't included in the installation.

It is not the installers problem, they referred us to the installer to get the microinverters replaced, at our cost of course.

[heimdm]

Last summer I had a lightening strike come through my aluminum fence, it got close enough to the downspout across the flashing and into the electric via the radon fan.

Did you have a whole home surge protector at the panel level? In our case, they paid for the homeowners deductible. Depending how big the surge is, in some cases you aren't going to stop it. In our case it traveled down the neutral wire and sheered all the insulation off of it. If you look at most of the whole home surge protectors they still allow quite a bit of voltage through. In many cases 600v+ is let through.

If I am following, Enphase denied the claim because there was bad weather in the vicinity? What is Enphase's recommendation for surge protection?

[khanh dam]

The surge was caused by a wind storm that made us (and the whole region) lose power several times in a 24 hrs period. We went to Enphase originally, but they checked and denied the claim. So homeowners insurance it is. Not very happy with our installers though.

so enphase doesnt' stand behind their product. Why the hell does the grid going on/off line several times make their warranty invalid?
why the heck is it the installers problem?
nothing makes sense to me!

[casan]

The surge was caused by a wind storm that made us (and the whole region) lose power several times in a 24 hrs period. We went to Enphase originally, but they checked and denied the claim. So homeowners insurance it is. Not very happy with our installers though.

[Ampster]

.......The grid data should be available to look at.
.....

That would be useful information to have when filing a claim with either Enphase or insurance.

[khanh dam]

I'm not a lawyer or warranty law expert, so I'm not going to self deny myself a warratny claim based on what I guess happened. Just open up a claim and see what enphase says.

[SunEagle]

Good idea except the warranty does not cover damage by surge since that is considered an Act of God.

I would think that an act of God was due to a lightning surge but not a power surge caused by the POCO's grid. The grid data should be available to look at.

I only mention this because I worked on an issue in Nevada for a High School in Carson City. Their 2 500kw solar inverters kept going off line due to the grid power dips and phase angle changing.

[Ampster]

....... get enphase to replace the micro invertes underwarranty. bonus there is no deductable.

Good idea except the warranty does not cover damage by surge since that is considered an Act of God.

[khanh dam]

why put a negative mark on your home owners insurance! get enphase to replace the micro invertes underwarranty. bonus there is no deductable.

[solarix]

Despite Enphase whitepapers that "prove" high reliability for their microinverters, the real world is not so friendly to electronics. The standard warranty on virtually all consumer electronics is just one year as opposed to the 25 years that Enphase offers. To put electronics in a hard to service location and expecting 25 year reliability is asking for trouble IMHO....

[casan]

I honestly don't know how the installers connected the solar system to my electrical system and if there was some surge suppressor. I guess there wasn't any. We asked them to add one on the replacements.

[bcroe]

We had some heavy lightning near here, no direct hit on the property. But it
did knock out some of my antenna mounted preamps, similar things could
happen to any electronics. My string inverters were OK. Bruce Roe

[Ampster]

.......
I haven't been able to find another case similar to ours, but I can't believe we are the only ones. Has anyone had something like this happen?

I have always had a whole house surge suppressor so that has not happened to my micros. It did happen to a friend of mine so you are not alone.