Most reacted posts

Hahahaha! Family heirlooms. In 20 years I'll pass the money saved on to my son because I went with the cheap Chinese "garbage" and he can buy any inverter he wants, or a flying car. And with 10 year warranties I'll only need to replace it once in those 20 years with something newer. Heck, I'm a...

My AHJ requires everything over 24 volts to have a permit filed by a master electrician. On top of that solar panel installations are "construction" so you need a licensed engineer to sign off on those. In contrast the PTO only requires a single line drawing that doesn't need a stamp. My...

At this point I'm just here to see if we ever get a capacity test

Reversed the black and red for the second string and it's back to operating normally. I recall the installer saying his guys who put the panels on wired that string backwards.

Found a solar installer and will be installing a 5.28kw ground mount alongside the EG4 gear. Payback, assuming all goes right, should be around 4.2 years. I've found that after reaching out to 14 companies, 3 will respond, 2 will be willing to do the job, and 1 will follow through. I shouldn't...

Can confirm standalone 18kpv will seamlessly pass though grid when needed. Here's a screenshot of my heat pump doing a defrost cycle: Can you send screenshots of your settings page, specifically "Working Mode" and "Max. AC Input Power(kW)"? There's a lot of info that's missing and seeing your...

Well that settles it, I'm tearing out my 18kpv and powerpro batteries and installing a pecron instead. The black and orange look really heavy duty and when I want to go somewhere I can just disassemble the whole mess and throw hundreds of pounds of equipment in the back of my truck. Maybe then I...

Yeah, realize it shouldn’t have worked, but should there be loud pops and sparks inside the inverter because of that? Is that something that would normally fry an inverter? Not bring confrontational, just curious.

Will mentioned companies exploiting that in the original post. It’s just a marketing ploy to get you to overpay. What I’m saying is if a company is gonna say American made for that reason then let’s take it all the way so you pay more: service connected disabled veteran female owned in America...

Check the Ercot grid and market conditions and especially the "real time location prices," "fuel mix," and "combined wind and solar." The "free nights" is a money making scheme but I don't think it's just a malicious play by power companies to get one over on the consumer. Texas has a large...

I'm trying to figure out the best way to connect 4 EG4 Powerpro batteries to 1 EG4 18kpv in a way that will pass inspection. I've mocked up some diagrams but let me know if I'm way off base here or if there is a simpler way to do this. I didn't consider adding all 4 to the same busbar since that...

Blackouts are for other reasons and not the point of the conversation here. And yes, there are charges built into the bill for recovery from snowmaggedon in 21 when they had to beef up the grid.

Shout to Eric for figuring out what the problem is. We'll see in the next few days if it's solved. The problem is my grid frequency and voltage were higher than the setpoints. Recommendation from Eric was "setting the "Grid Freq Connect High (Hz)" to "61" and setting the "Grid Volt Connect...

Haven't seen it explicitly called out but can the GridBoss do Grid Assist when power demand is higher than the attached inverter's capability. i.e. Load is 20 kw and the inverter is providing 12 kw will the GridBoss get the extra 8kw from the grid? And a follow up: I already have a 18kpv so if...

Another inverter and 1 more battery would be ideal and still be good for ROI. Gonna see how my current setup handles the winter and then gotta get approval from the boss (wife).

This guy LOL. Sir you are sending me on a dangerous path that I am stupid enough to go down. But seriously, if that's the case then this problem just got a whole lot easier to solve. Thanks.

What I've seen here is a lot of people who aren't in TX saying they will boot you off. Is there anyone in TX who has first-hand experience being kicked off a free nights plan? These companies know they're will be a few, very very few, customers who will get more out than they put in but most...

You gotta be careful when looking at these "free nights" plans. A lot of them will still pass the TDU charge on to you at $.045403 (Oncor). Green Mountain, Reliant, and Direct Energy are a few that offer truly free nights but the rates, free times, and base charges differ so you need to know...

Never noticed that. That's how it's been since installed. That's the picture from the old inverter before it blew and before I removed all connections. Maybe that's why that string isn't working in my new inverter. I'll wait until daylight and test. Like was mentioned, it's just twisted and...

You don't like "postmodernist" design elements of new houses, I don't like random rectangles that don't even try to look like part of the structure. The only good looking PV modules are Tesla's solar tiles but I'm certainly not paying for that. As for the OP, I sympathize with your neighbors...

I love this. From now on I promise to only buy made in the USA meat, movies, cars, houses, and couches. As for the taliban I was fighting against, you're tax dollars are paying them directly. Thanks USAID. And will a 10% tariff change buyer behavior? My guess would be no. Check out this guys...

That's somewhat reassuring. Next time I'll have some music pumping so we can make a party out of those fireworks. The cost of the 18kpv is $2k-$3k less than the closest competitor (Sol-Ark 15k) depending on sales and promotions. Signature Solar is a two hour drive from me so replacing a unit...

AI told me to look here NFPA 855 and then found this since I’m not gonna pay for that https://www.mayfield.energy/technical-articles/code-corner-nfpa-855-ess-unit-spacing-limitations/

In "on grid" mode the grid will provide anything you need over 12kw and the grid will take the initial brunt of surges (HVAC turning on) for a few milliseconds. In "off grid" mode if you exceed the inverters rating it will switch to grid only.

With this system my ROI is less than 4 years. By the time the warranty runs out I'll have more than doubled what I spent. And considering the pace of technology I'll be more than happy to replace once 10 years comes around.

Well that's it then, inverter number 3 is toast. Send it back and get your fourth one. On my third 18k here and, after watching your surging fans videos, I realize that mine does that too. I'm gonna hold onto it as long as I can to avoid being in the 3x RMA'ed 18k club with you.

Depends on what you're designing for. Mine was designed for my very reliable grid connection and to take advantage of the free nights electricity plan. I expected to lose power when the grid went down if I overloaded the inverter. At that point I would just manually flip the breakers off for the...

My house is 3300 sqft and besides your normal household things I have: - 2x chest freezers - 2x Heat pumps (4 ton downstairs and 2.5 ton upstairs) - 2x water heaters that, combined, draw 10kw (These are connected in parallel. I need to change to series and use one as an in-line spare) - Pool...

I'm assuming a total cost just under $14k. Always gotta ask for that veteran discount 😜 Currently I'm paying over $12/day but with net metering and monthly credit rollover I should be down to about $1.62/day. <-Assuming all goes right. This would lead to a <4 year payback.

Exactly, negative prices overnight will start to even out the higher prices during peak demand when the REPs have to purchase power at a higher cost than they can sell it for, $200+/mwh. If anything the free nights plans won't go away but the window and peak kwh rate will be adjusted to make...

My normal setup is SBU during the day. My biggest concern is what if I wasn't at home when this happened? I have since started adding some automations in solar assistant and will be getting soft starts. I have 3x powerpro wallmounts. I can't attach spreadsheets or csv so putting inverter data...

Does LCD v20 need to be installed via usb and does v18 need to be installed first?

West side of DFW here and 250v-253v is the norm. Pay attention to 06:00-20:00 when I'm running on my own power and not pulling the grid voltage down. 20:00-06:00 is free power and the grid voltage sags when I start pulling 30kw.

I was sent a EG4 USB Read/Write Cable right after I got my indoor powerpro batteries in April '24 but it's marked as RS485. I also was able to run BMS tools with that. Can I update the firmware using that or do I need another cable?

DC->AC = 12kw, Grid Assist / AC passthrough = 200 amps.

Does this 9540A doc indicate it is up to code to put up to six of these together regardless of number of inverters: link

Solar panels are ugly and that's why I opted to install my panels on top of a pergola. That being said one thing I learned while installing my array and working with solar installers is that while there is a federal protection for installing solar panels on your roof and the HOA can't deny that...

Never thought about those last options. I'll have to look into those. I have no idea. I would assume so. The last thing I want to do is void my home insurance because I have an unauthorized battery install. Permits for my city aren't very helpful here. There is a PV permit which requires...

Just need to know how long I should plan for the batteries to be down. Got three that I need to update and only two rs232 cables. Thanks in advance. Bonus question: does battery SoC matter when doing the update?

Wow, in my evolving calculations I forgot to include a full battery recharge and was only accounting for recharging based on usage. This is why we do code reviews in software engineering. Changes the payback to under 5 years and the daily charge to $3.75. The negative numbers don't include the...

They may have changed the terms since you last spoke with them but from what I'm reading they do refund TDU as well (Direct Energy EFL). If you switched over to that then you would only need enough batteries to carry you through the summer afternoon heat unti 9, and enough inverter capacity to...

I don't see anything in Local Data, must be because I don't have installer privileges. The attached file is from August. At 15:16 I had everything running and grid assist was doing it's thing.

Update: found someone to do the job. Thanks for everyone's input. Trying to keep my costs down so planning to procure the equipment myself and have someone install it. Looking for an electrician near Willow Park, TX who can pull the permits and do the things that only a licensed professional...

I have the 440w version of these Aptos 440w Bifacial I have not updated the firmware yet. I bought them before EG4 changed the warranty exclusion terms to state that they must be on the latest firmware so I'm not really in a hurry. IIRC the big change was the cycle count and heater logic so...

Don't know about other parts of the country but the pool should be running/filtering year round so it doesn't turn into a pond during the off season. Running when the weather is below freezing is to protect the above ground plumbing from bursting. There's the option of draining the above ground...

That's the plan. Pay it forward

Good question. I've taken my past two years of smart meter readings and loaded them into a database. Then I use excel and some simple sql queries to get my avg usage/month/hour so I have a starting point of my energy needs throughout the day. Once I have that I can start running scenarios for...

My inverter did update the time but something weird happened with my working mode time settings. Here is a link to the last I saw from EG4 about DST being manual only: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/daylight-savings-eg4-not-right.93618/post-1250406

Have you tried enabling and disabling Grid Boss mode both in the web portal and on the unit and seeing what happens? What is connected to the gen port? Does removing that change anything?

Just thought about checking the logs and it looks like it was automatic. But the question remains: why didn't the TOU settings take effect until I looked at them?

Similar issue here as well. I have 3x powerpro batteries with an 18kpv and get free night time charging so during the day I have my batteries set to discharge down to my On-Grid cutoff at 10% SoC. When everything was set up it was using SoC to charge and discharge so when I charged at night the...

Which soft start are you using?

@EG4TechSolutionsTeam can you confirm if the time change is manual or automatic?

Your first screenshot is broken for me. What is your "Max. AC Input Power(kW)"?

Same problem here in the DFW area on a free nights plan.

This is impressive. Especially if your water heater draws ~5kw when on like mine does. For reference my 18k can easily start a 4 ton AC without a soft start when there are NO other loads. When I had 4.5kw of loads running and that same 4 ton AC w/o soft start kicked on the inverter blew up...

Here is the EFL for Green Mountain "Pollution Free All-Nighter 12": https://signup.greenmountainenergy.com/files/0901751883732abd.pdf

If you're in Sugar Land and subject to city inspections and plan on getting this permitted then the NEC states a maximum of 80kwh of batteries.

3x powerpro indoor

Not an HVAC specialist here but my backup heat strips turn on whenever my heat pump goes into a defrost cycle. I'd make sure you don't need those heat strips for the defrost before moving them to smart load. I run hybrid mode so grid-assist covers the difference. Do you have your interconnect...

You're right, I must've confused it with another company. EFLs are purposefully confusing and they're formula was the only place I could see the TDU was refunded: Price per kWh = [Base Charge + TDU Delivery Charges per Month + (Monthly billed kWh Usage multiplied by the(Energy Charge + TDU...

@EG4TechSolutionsTeam , what's going on here?! I installed a Tesla 48 amp charger yesterday and after my free energy started at 8pm I started charging when I got home. Tesla charger started pulling 11.5kw and, combined with my other loads, had ~24kw of load (100 amps). Looked at the battery...

I am planning to sell to the utility / be connected in parallel to the grid. I'd rather not give insurance companies any reason to deny a claim if something goes wrong.

That question is beyond my scope of knowledge but something is wrong. EG4 and Signature Solar are off for the weekend but tag em anyways @EG4TechSolutionsTeam

Hey all, on a TOU plan here in TX with free nights from 2000-0600 so I'm trying to set up my inverter to Charge the batteries from AC at night and use SBU from 0600-2000. Kinda works but there have been some hiccups where the inverter wants to pull power from the grid. For instance, this morning...

I don't know you and have nothing against you so don't take this personally. Why would I choose to pay extra to buy a Midnite that doesn't support veterans when I can buy a SolArk that does or just buy EG4 and support this veteran directly? And Sig Solar has a veteran discount.

My highest all time peaks are in winter at 29kwh during the freezes. Hence why I chose a hybrid inverter with 200 amp passthrough. My average peak usage for a month is 8.17kwh in July around 4pm. Average usage per month is 93.5kwh/day and $370/mo @ $0.13/kwh. My house runs on electric except...

And to clear up any confusion or troubleshooting for the PV. The PV, and the rest of the inverter, have been functioning almost perfectly up until now with hiccups unrelated to the PV.

#1 has red tape on the end of the wires to denote string 1 and #2 is in MPPT #2.

Looked up the state code 1305.00.6: work not specifically regulated by a municipal ordinance that is performed in or on a dwelling by a person who owns and resides in the dwelling; My local municipality requires a permit for everything over 24 volts.

Time of use as a backup plan but ideally planning to sell back to the utility during peak times 7-9am and 7-10pm. The rest of time use grid power at the off peak rate. This would make my power bills virtually 0. Keeping costs low this would lead to a <4 year payback. If I have to do time of use...

Got two of these arriving today.

I wanna start by saying that I love my 18kpv inverter and I still have one in my garage, albeit my third 18kpv. The first one arrived, in April 2024, with a dead DC side and my installer was able to RMA that one the next day. Now to inverter #2: On October 23 at 11:53 the power went out and we...

That's still true. A plethora of Retail Electric Providers competing drives down the prices and almost makes it not worth the effort to go solar. And power delivery is very reliable as well. When I first moved to TX two years ago we had outages every time it would rain hard for a few minutes...

I'm on a TOU plan in TX that gives me free electricity until 6am and I was watching Solar Assistant this morning and noticed at 5am (because of the time change) that I switched to running on battery power instead of continuing to use grid. Checked the unit time and it had not changed with...

The company I'm going with is charging $2.20 / watt and is using bifacial panels. Keeping in mind that I already have the inverter, batteries, and all cabling for that setup I had one company quote me $3.77 / watt for a 4.8kw system with cheap standard panels. The guy couldn't understand how...

I'm gonna let all the big brains on this forum chime in on this one because I don't know much about the difference between the grid assist on the hybrid 18kpv and the off-grid 6000xp. But as far as logs filled with errors while connected to grid I have none.

Power supply for Tigo is still good and I can see the panels in the app. Problem is one string is stuck in rapid shutdown

Rhythm: PowerShift Solar Buyback 12 And I was wrong about the morning peak; it's 6-9am. Evening peak starts at 4pm and Ultra peak starts at 7pm. The rest of the time it's ~$0.08/kwh.

Oh, and I do not have soft starters on my hvac units but will be getting some now. After seeing the signature solar video of them starting a 5 ton I naively assumed I was fine.

I'll be placing this in the garage where the ESS limit is 80kwh. Are you suggesting connecting like shown in this post: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/paralleling-the-eg4-powerpro-wall-battery.67796/ That would be ideal and once EG4 gets those configurations approved that's what I'll be doing.

I only use solar assistant to monitor and log. All times are set on the inverter through EG4’s monitoring website.

https://eg4electronics.com/warranty <-- No mention of 80% DoD. Calee from Signature Solar also confirmed that going beyond 80% does not void the warranty. From what I've learned LiPO is less susceptible to the micro-cracking of extreme charge/discharge than other lithium technologies. But I'm...

My plumbing is for a swimming pool. I don't have any solar water heater panels.

Not a bad idea. I had no ideas timers existed for water heaters. Any time the temp dips below 36 my pool kicks into freeze protection mode which means I have 3.75hp worth of motors running. When we have the freezes it runs 24/7. Other than that heat pumps aren't as effective when it gets really...

Texas here and my free TOU stops at 6am. Woke up this morning at 6am and looked at the microwave and realized that DST had hit. Logged into the EG4 monitor at 6:08 and saw that it was still using grid power (should be battery after 6:00). Went into Configuration>Stations>Station Management and...

That's kinda like arguing that since we have one ugly thing we might as well have more. Slippery slope

It's something I'm considering and, even with a 12 panel 4.8kw system at $240/panel (installer markup), it would lessen the payback period. The hurdle is talking my wife into it and then finding an installer willing to use my inverter and batteries. Not out of the realm of possibility.

Unfortunately when the Vbus over range fault occurred the logging stopped on my end. EG4 and my installer must have access to more in-depth logs. Attached is a screenshot of all events since the unit was installed.

From searching around and y'alls responses it appears that if you live within city limits and they require permits it's just too much of a hassle to do anything but hire a company to install and use their equipment. I have no idea why but just guessing it must not be enough of a profit margin...

Not sure if that first line is sarcasm but I was able to start my 4 ton when it was the only active circuit. Never expected it to kill the inverter though when there were other things running. Just to be clear the red and black were wired in backwards (or opposite/mixed up/red is black and...

Thaks for taking the time What I'm curious to know is how much of that has to be PV for Batts+PV and should I only expect to see those surge numbers when I'm not connected to grid? I only have a 6.6kw array so I don't produce much PV power and, most of the time, don't need to. These arrived...

@EG4TechSolutionsTeam can you chime in if this is expected behavior or if there is some setting that I don't have access to to change this 100 amp limit?