It makes you wonder about Enphase’s decision to drop the powder coating on their current 215’s. 250’s I don’t know.
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of August Goers Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 10:38 AM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] micro-inverters Here’s a pic of an M210: burned enphase m210.jpg I guess a picture is worth a thousand words. August From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of frank -bz products Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 12:25 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] micro-inverters Re 190's. Not much to learn from dissecting a swollen 190. Most of the time the swelling is caused by electrolytic capacitors that have failed. Some very high current capacitors actually have brackets to bolt them down to minimize swelling. Frank BZP. BZ Products INC. 8801 Gravois Rd. St.Louis MO 63123 USA 314-644-2490 www.bz-products.net On 9/14/2016 1:58 PM, Benn Kilburn wrote: You guys should really cut one of those swelled up ones and share the photos with us :) Benn Kilburn SkyFire Energy Inc. 780-906-7807 On Sep 14, 2016, at 11:14 AM, Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarag...@gmail.com> wrote: The 190's had component issues which case them to balloon up Jerry On Sep 14, 2016 10:11 AM, "William Miller" <will...@millersolar.com> wrote: Colleagues: We have M190s fail in beach installations. Some have had the cases swell up like there is a tumor inside. I haven't cut them open to see what's inside because they need to go back to manufacturer. William On Sep 14, 2016, at 9:32 AM, Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarag...@gmail.com> wrote: Mike I also work near the ocean, its all around me here in Hawaii, we have had the 190's fail but not to environmental conditions and very few issues with 215's. Do you have any pics of the damage as l have seen very little salt issues. Jerry On Sep 13, 2016 9:11 PM, "Mike Nelson" <mdelectricso...@gmail.com> wrote: I've had so many Enphase failures it's kind of ridiculous. We install most of our systems near the ocean so corrosion has played a big factor. The newer micro inverters are holding a much better, 215 and 250's. I have learned over the years that SMA makes the best product, and I mostly stick with them. Sometimes micro inverters are requested or really fit the installation particulars, so I still use them occasionally. I haven't yet tried solar edge. Michael D Nelson MD Electric & Solar, Inc. 707-684-0064 mobile 707-884-1862 office www.mdelectricsolar.com Sent from my iPhone On Sep 13, 2016, at 6:23 PM, Rebecca Lundberg <rebecca.lundb...@gmail.com> wrote: Esteemed wrenches, I'm hoping the experience of this list can help give us a broader perspective on the current market performance and as a secondary concern, tech support (or lack thereof), from solar micro-inverter manufacturers. Are others having much trouble with micro-inverters? We have had repeated issues with several different brands on our systems in Minnesota: - 8 Enphase systems with mostly M210 and M215, have had to repeatedly go back to sites to replace units. The new replacement ones seem to be lasting better (we sure hope they will). Enphase is harder to contact in recent years, but we're happy they at least provide a predictable stipend. Are you also having to replace a lot of this brand of product? Are the newer models holding up better? - We gave a new inverter busbar design concept a try (tenKsolar) and though the micro-inverters were supposed to take turns and be 'redundant,' the ones with APS micro-inverters needed 100% replacement and the ones with Lead Solar micro-inverters have a problem where if one of them fails it appears to send a signal to all the rest so the entire busbar stops working -- in action it's far from redundant. When we purchased the tenKsolar Rais Inverter Bus (RIB) the spec sheet didn't tell us what brand of micro-inverter they would use as the OEM so we couldn't research the viability of the product or company or warranty stipend (or lack there-of) of the micro-inverter OEM. We assumed it was a tenKsolar product and they would provide warranty replacements, service, and tech support, but our experience has been far from that. When something goes wrong tenK says 'it's not our product that's failing' because they don't actually manufacture the micro-inverter (it's an OEM), the micro-inverter company says 'it's not our product' because tenKsolar has it wired and used in a very unique manner specific to the tenKsolar product, so both manufacturers are backing away from any responsibility. A 25-year warranty on the inverter busbar is a great concept but if/when something goes wrong there is no support and no apparent warranty at all except maybe they will send us a new component that needs several hours of work to re-install, so either the installer does the warranty work for free or the customer has a very unexpected expense to get their system back up and running a year or two after it was installed; we think both scenarios are unacceptable (from our installer perspective :-), do any of you have experiences you can share here? I'm wondering if the climate in MN makes us an anomaly. Based on these micro-inverter experiences we feel like the Rapid Shutdown rule has forced us to use dc optimizers on residential applications whether we want to or not -- is that pretty much what all of you are doing too? Rebecca Lundberg _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _____ <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> Avast logo This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>
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