diy solar

diy solar

EG4 new AIO rated 12K output and 18kPV aka "EG4-18Kpv-12LV"

Something I'm interested in seeing is a side-by-side comparison with a pair of the 6500s. Does it have the same little issues that the 6500 had?

In my mind I see the 6500s as the inverters people point back to when the hear about EG4. It seems like the 6500s really exploded growth for SS (just my thinking, no data to back this up).

Obviously the numbers on paper show that the new 18/12k will exceed everything the 6500s can do. So will this inverter become the new "EG4" inverter? Will all those people that purchased 6500s jump to this model?

I wana see if it's gonna live up to the hype.
 
Will Prowse said:
If you guys want me to test something, let me know.

I cannot release my results till I post my video on YouTube. But it's on my wall in front of me right now.
Click to expand...
i think a decibel reading from the inverter would be nice. At idle and max output. I get more and more questions along those lines from people. I think the manual has somethmnijg on it. But real world readings would be cool.
 
Last edited:
What I care a lot about right now @Will Prowse is the installation complexity-- is the product designed for installation, or have they made it too small. The wiring compartment matters to me. Beyond that I want to see efficiency and noise level in normal mode at a few different load levels, and the losses (and capabilities-- can it still function as a UPS) when in energy savings mode. Maybe a running leaderboard... and a pony.

The step loading capability is hard to test fairly. I had a habit of blowing up UPS inverters in field commissioning with step loads at their stated limits (back in the 6-pulse UPS days). My test was unfair for reasons I understood completely, but the manufacturer kept publishing the data and selling equipment on that basis... and it mattered because we needed to design around their real-world capabilities. The same is true for a lot of equipment.
 
And a subjective opinion of the noise. You can have two sets of inverters with the same decibel reading, but one is a lower tone white noise and the other is a nails-on-the-chalkboard whining.
 
Will Prowse said:
If you guys want me to test something, let me know.

I cannot release my results till I post my video on YouTube. But it's on my wall in front of me right now.
Click to expand...

If I had a unit to test, I would go through all the little issues I've had with my 6500s and then go through some of the claims of the new unit's performance. Here's some of the things I would test.

- I agree with @Gavin Stone a decibel reading would be nice to know at idle and under load.
- When you have lights hooked up, do you notice any flickering?
- Do you have any voltage on your un-earthed PV frames?
- If you run a pulsing load (ex washing machine on agitation cycle) do the lights pulse with it?
- Does it have the same quirks that the 6500s have while in grid-bypass (doesn't use all solar for loads, can't grid charge and solar charge at the same time, etc).
- Is the idle consumption truly close to 70w?
- What do you think of the new EG4 smart monitoring solution?
- Would love to verify the remote firmware update process works
- Can it handle surges of 16k for up to 5 min?
- What kind of phase imbalance can it actually handle?
- Does the rapid shutdown feature work?

I could go on, but probably enough to look at for now I guess.
 
Last edited:
Will, this is kind of a loaded question/request, but I know you're not a big advocate of BMS communication with your inverters, but can you explore if they do communicate properly, with the plethora of Server Rack batteries you have?
 
Will Prowse said:
If you guys want me to test something, let me know.

I cannot release my results till I post my video on YouTube. But it's on my wall in front of me right now.
Click to expand...
@Will Prowse know you’re doing a lot of testing but wound truly appreciate if there is a way to test grid-tied self consumption. I cannot sell to the grid in my location but would like to power critical loads and feed any extra back to main panel with no power going past the main panel to meter.

Thanks again for all you do for this community.
 
Will Prowse said:
If you guys want me to test something, let me know.

I cannot release my results till I post my video on YouTube. But it's on my wall in front of me right now.
Click to expand...
Thanks Will for getting this back on topic. Many of us are curious about the product itself and the off-topic bickering was becoming tiresome.

As far as testing, if you can, please test the ability for it to feed back to a main panel (non-critical load) with zero-export to the grid.
That's one thing I'm looking for as I am looking to upgrade my 6500s to be able to utilize excess PV load without moving some of my larger loads (HVAC and Water Heater) over to a critical loads panel as I don't need those to be available in a grid down situation. (Plus I'd need to double my battery capacity).

Thanks!
 
Would like to see the voltage checked from PV wires to ground/neutral. Also would be interested in knowing more about the generator automatic start function! Would be awesome for being fulling off grid in the winter months. I need something to replace my dangerous Growatt inverters with, hoping this is the inverter I need!
 
robby said:
Will-P I did not come here to complain about the Inverter or Signature Solars Customer Support.
There was already an ongoing war on that up until page 4 and then I stepped in at Post #108 to relate what I had seen with the Inverter (My Dealer has one) and also what I had heard from Fortress Power about the Inverter.

My ending statement was that it should works fine and will fix the issues you had with the Megarevo. (You gave my post a Thumbs Up and then removed it when James made a Post saying I was giving false information and then gave his post a Thumbs Up). So please do not say I came into this thread to complain about SS products.

My only statement is a factual one. This is not a cheap Inverter, your paying Teir1 money for this Inverter and it's price is the same as a Sol-Ark 12K and only 24% cheaper than a Sol-Ark 15K which produces more continuous power.

This is the exact same argument I gave to Fortress Power and it is why I did not create a thread about the Inverter even though I knew about it months in advance of most people on this forum. I also did not participate in any thread about the "Envy" because as I told Fortress Power, it's not a good value for the money.
Your buying into a whole new design that is going to have / Does have Issues that are still being fixed and also has no track record yet for reliability.
I hope you include that in your video because people need to know what else is out there at a relatively close price point.
Click to expand...

On the topic of the actual thread, how does the Sol Ark 15k produce more continuous power? I'm new to solar in general and I am considering this inverter (if I can get a local installer to work on it for net metering agreement requirements), but as far as I can read from the spec sheets, that does not seem to be the case, unless I'm missing something.
 
robby said:
Yes I hate intermittent problems. I use to have junior engineers call me in to say that they just saw the circuit glitch out when they tried a certain input combination. They would excitedly redo the steps for me to witness it and nothing bad would happen. ?
I would then get the stuttering response of "Sir I don't understand, it happened just a minute ago."
I would always reassure them that I 100% believed their story and that they should keep perusing the issue until they can find a reliable way to recreate it.
This could take hours or days and cost lots of money but in the end they typically did find a way to find it and solve it and that saved us from having a deeply embedded issue in the hardware.
Click to expand...
I wish more places would do that. In this day and age of OTA updates and firmware and all that, way too much stuff is alpha tested, put out in the wild, and then let the market finish the beta testing :rolleyes:
 
Silvard said:
On the topic of the actual thread, how does the Sol Ark 15k produce more continuous power? I'm new to solar in general and I am considering this inverter (if I can get a local installer to work on it for net metering agreement requirements), but as far as I can read from the spec sheets, that does not seem to be the case, unless I'm missing something.
Click to expand...
Sol-Ark 15K will produce 15KW continuous from PV to AC.
The Luxpower will only do 12KW.
 
robby said:
Sol-Ark 15K will produce 15KW continuous from PV to AC.
The Luxpower will only do 12KW.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see now what you mean, it can do 15kw all to AC on PV. I thought it was only 15Kw from PV to both AC and batteries (i.e. how this one can do 18kw from PV). Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but this means the Sol Ark 15kw can't charge batteries if it's doing 15Kw to AC, right?
 
(8250-5599)/8250= 32% reduced

$500 battery credit per inverter =$5099
8250-5099= 38% reduced

many cases where 1 15k will be slightly small an 18k will with the LoadSurge and line balance feature will do the job, (also 21kw max solar vs 17kW) the game is no longer direct convert to AC it is utilize and storage simultaneously. if you want a grid tie inverter the base growatts have good reliability and cost a quarter of the price.
The off-grid capacity is just a different world than the 15k, much better, (even doesn't make any of the cheap lights flicker that the 15k in our lab does)

There's the math folks. definitely a bet on a disrupter but very rewarding, thousands on hand in the next 30 days and the most trained and fully supported product ever from us.

There will be a serious shortening of RMA in the case of defective hardware; the human error variables of this unit with are wildly reduced compared to budget units; our conundrum of rapid service vs. not repeating the same issue 3 times with assuming the customer is right won't be here because of tech support will have remote access to firmware upgrade over the air, support and even commission alongside customers.

If I could do it over again we would have brought out the champagne first vs the rubbing alcohol to the DIY party as the champagne folks just won't put it down...
Going forward tinkerers will continue to benefit from improving and leading value products that fit their budget and if you want white glove you pay slightly more for white glove
 
Last edited:
robby said:
Sol-Ark 15K will produce 15KW continuous from PV to AC.
The Luxpower will only do 12KW.
Click to expand...
Yes. And on paper this seems to be the only downside, spec wise, when compared to sol ark 15K. Would love for someone to prove me wrong about this.

But the line balancing function alone is a huge advantage over sol ark. At least on paper...
 
Unless I am missing something.
Both , this "18k (pv)" and the Sol-Ark "15k" .
Can only output 12k, from the batteries alone.
To me , the word "continuous" means non stop.
Not just during sunny days, or when grid is available.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Freep
EG4 18Kpv Documentation
Replies
1
Views
347
tmprof
T
01Time
Connecting 320A Service to a Single Hybrid Inverter?
Replies
19
Views
241
01Time
01Time
P
Off Grid build -> Grid Tie first build
Replies
0
Views
103
pilotguy12
P
D
EG4 18KPV Generator Size & Variable Charging
Replies
8
Views
1K
Gubman
Gubman
Millennium
No longer selling -- 2x EG4 18KPV-12LV AIO Hybrid Inverters
Replies
7
Views
1K
ksmithaz1
ksmithaz1

diy solar

diy solar
Back
Top