EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

[fromport]

Buss rating is 225a. I have 125a main breaker. But if I'm line side tapped, the buss rating doesn't come into play. So I would just have a 60a breaker in the box for the inverter. Way good on 120% rule. As far as NEC goes...

Afaik you can not "draw" power from a supply line hookup, **only** put power in.
And that makes sense if you follow this logic:
If your main breaker is 200 amps, and your fused disconnect the minimum 60 amps, you could pull 260 amps from the grid without any fuses triggering. But the meter socket and the wires to the transformer of your utility are only rated for 200 amps (max fuse of your main breaker panel)

Imo as soon as you install a hybrid inverter with batteries & loads, you can not hook that up to supply side.
You have to hookup the LP on the load side of the setup.

 

[rs50pilot]

I get what your saying. I'm not drawing power from the line side. Enphase is putting power in on the line side.
The supply for the inverter would be on the load side.

Wait, I guess it is drawing power. Power comes in from the inverters on the line side, and if the house needs power it takes from there. Hmmm. My main breaker is 125a not 200.

 

[fromport]

I get what your saying. I'm not drawing power from the line side. Enphase is putting power in on the line side.
The supply for the inverter would be on the load side.

Wait, I guess it is drawing power. Power comes in from the inverters on the line side, and if the house needs power it takes from there. Hmmm. My main breaker is 125a not 200.

In that case you would connect half your enphase to the supply side and the other half to the critical load panel behind your LP inverter.

 

[rs50pilot]

Cool, now I just need to find out if anyone has actually used enphase with this inverter.

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

Cool, now I just need to find out if anyone has actually used enphase with this inverter.

i do, but its connected to the gen port, if charge first is selected the ac couple will charge the battery, then support the load last export to grid.
keep in mind either you're on-grid mode, export to grid must be enabled to activate the relay of the gen port.

 

[fromport]

i do, but its connected to the gen port, if charge first is selected the ac couple will charge the battery, then support the load last export to grid.
keep in mind either you're on-grid or off-grid mode, export to grid must be enabled to activate the relay of the gen port.

Did you test both iq7 and iq8 ?
Prefer one over the other ?

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

Did you test both iq7 and iq8 ?
Prefer one over the other ?

iq7 and m series only..
iq8 to expensive to upgrade..

 

[rs50pilot]

i do, but its connected to the gen port, if charge first is selected the ac couple will charge the battery, then support the load last export to grid.
keep in mind either you're on-grid or off-grid mode, export to grid must be enabled to activate the relay of the gen port.

Export is not a problem for me. I'm grid connected in CA. I'm just using the inverter to cover peak charges and then for battery back up.

I'm don't really understand the either off grid or on grid statement. Can you go into that a little deeper?

 

[fromport]

iq7 and m series only..
iq8 to expensive to upgrade..

Currently have 4 x IQ7 and couple of IQ8's but not hooked up to LP.
I think I will need to replace my SMA SB7.7 with a LP and then I can start experimenting with IQ AC coupled.
Not enough hours in the day and that thing called work...

 

[Watts Happening]

Fired up my new 18kpv today and seem to be having a heck of a time with the basic settings. I can get connected to it locally, but can't register (apparently I need a code, why this wouldn't be included, I have ZERO idea). I have an EG4 LL connected to it, and have attempted to change battery settings to "lithium" and pick the appropriate battery type, but all I see is Lithium 0-19 and others that say "reserved".

Any input/thoughts here? Sure would like to connect to this thing and start making changes/testing it. The onboarding process is leaving a fair bit to be desired. The implementation of the code situation on a screen that simply says "*Customer code (distributor..." isn't what I'd call incredible. Leaves you to believe you just need to put something like "Installer". But, you're met with an error upon submitting that says nothing more than "unknown error"...

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

Export is not a problem for me. I'm grid connected in CA. I'm just using the inverter to cover peak charges and then for battery back up.

I'm don't really understand the either off grid or on grid statement. Can you go into that a little deeper?

"off-grid" refers to not being connected to the electrical grid.

 

[rs50pilot]

"off-grid" refers to not being connected to the electrical grid.

Ok, I thought that's what you meant, but also thought there might be something else.

One more question, if the inverter is turned off, does it still allow the 200a bypass to work, meaning will it allow power to flow through it?

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

Ok, I thought that's what you meant, but also thought there might be something else.

One more question, if the inverter is turned off, does it still allow the 200a bypass to work, meaning will it allow power to flow through it?

No it will cut off the pass through if the inverter is off... if you need a bypass when the inverter need to be service, either you can install a manual transfer switch or interlock bypass.

 

[Quattrohead]

No it will cut off the pass through if the inverter is off... if you need a bypass when the inverter need to be service, either you can install a manual transfer switch or interlock bypass.

Sol-Ark or EG4 bypass when inverter is faulty AND grid down

There are a bunch of threads around bypassing inverter either through manual or automatic switches when the inverter fails. In the bypass mode, the critical load panel gets power from the grid through the main panel. This works fine when the grid is up and the inverter fails. But what if the...

diysolarforum.com

James say's totally the opposite here....come on guys what is it ???

 

[rmacgurn]

Hey all I tried to see if Gilbert had any idea but he didn't so now I will throw it out there. last three days my system is not switching back to solar but staying on grid. it is producing the correct 400V or so but without any load and the inverters just says on grid it worked fine since June 28 now this. I have not changed any setting and the system just does seem to see the available power? ideas. as you can see there is sun and lots of supply voltage on solar. but system is stuck on grid. sad as it was running on a daily consumption from gird of 0-1.5kwh since the start now its consuming much more.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

Sol-Ark or EG4 bypass when inverter is faulty AND grid down

There are a bunch of threads around bypassing inverter either through manual or automatic switches when the inverter fails. In the bypass mode, the critical load panel gets power from the grid through the main panel. This works fine when the grid is up and the inverter fails. But what if the...

diysolarforum.com

James say's totally the opposite here....come on guys what is it ???

After reading James' statement on that I'm actually surprised he would recommend it, no matter how robust the unit is. I know if I'm going to be working on my system, I'm going to throw the transfer switch. I'm siding with Gilbert on that one, if only because that way I have zero doubt about being safe.

 

[rmacgurn]

forced a restart and all ok again same as yesterday but this sucks as I wanted a whole house backup no wanted to do a restart even day, I did find one thing I change 2-3 days ago I set PV arc on but now I turned it back off. before doing a restart I tried the disconnect on the panels and reconnect but that didn't do it. so its looking like a new bug in the firmware. and to confirm I had this happen on 10.11 and now on 11.11 (latest released firmware). please EG4 people do not downgrade the firmware again as it did the same on that and neither of these firmwares backed the grid which was the reason to use 10.11.

 

[rmacgurn]

lastly here you can see what was normal behavior of the panels before the problem started around a bit before 6am they start producing...pic is of one string but both are the same curves and panel counts. the big drop of is once the batteries are charged.

 

[rmacgurn]

lastly there is another bug in the math of the calculations being down on the 18kpv see foto..below. if battery supplied 2.2kwh since midnight and solar used 2.8kwh that is a total of 5kwh but shows consumption as 4.6kwh? its even more off if you consider that solar made .3kwh as some went to house (rest to battery recharge). Just saying.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

Sol-Ark or EG4 bypass when inverter is faulty AND grid down

There are a bunch of threads around bypassing inverter either through manual or automatic switches when the inverter fails. In the bypass mode, the critical load panel gets power from the grid through the main panel. This works fine when the grid is up and the inverter fails. But what if the...

diysolarforum.com

James say's totally the opposite here....come on guys what is it ???

It is the way I said