Anenji inverters - 11.2kW parallel system for only £900

If these inverters were either a) not working b) electrocuting people or c) setting on fire, since they are the majority of inverter sales in the world (due to their price - but please correct me if you have evidence to the contrary) we would be hearing about it from SOMEBODY.
I'm not passionate about this model, just interested in the low prices, because it changes the way I look at my inverters, and the need for them to last ten years or whatever, without failure, goes away.

Hey you seem like you are capable and done your research so go for it. Someone has to be the virgin.

Quattrohead said:

They certainly look like MPP / voltronic units. Too cheap, do yourself a favor.

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They resell voltronic units and have are actually make their own Anenji brand in their own factory.
I bought one unit to test. My experience is excellent.
Unlike mpp who refuse to use real time media Anenji use WhatsApp and are very fast to answer queries. Their 5600 hhp machine is more efficient, more accurate, quieter and has a far better charger than mt6000 which I have from voltronic/mpp. They resell voltronic units and sako units but when you get to know them they are happier selling their own units and prices reflect the fact that they are direct sellers not resellers of their own brand. Someone asked about manuals. I have manuals for all the anenji I verter, once requested they sent them on whatsapp

Well.... seduced by the low price and features- I've done it and ordered an 8k2W Anenji hybrid inverter from ebay. Made an offer on their £485 asking price and they accepted. Totally understand the warnings above but this will make a great retirement project. I'm aiming to spend <£2k on a DIY 5kw Solar + 5kw battery hybrid system with no ambition on MCS approval nor feed-in. I SHOULD save £1k per year. Currently investigating buiding my own 48v 400ah Power wall... I shall report back when the unit arrives.

Inverter arrived - seems tough enough at first physical look. Well made. Currently reseaching best panels and will report back when i get the unit connected.

Brenmurph said:

They resell voltronic units and have are actually make their own Anenji brand in their own factory.
I bought one unit to test. My experience is excellent.
Unlike mpp who refuse to use real time media Anenji use WhatsApp and are very fast to answer queries. Their 5600 hhp machine is more efficient, more accurate, quieter and has a far better charger than mt6000 which I have from voltronic/mpp. They resell voltronic units and sako units but when you get to know them they are happier selling their own units and prices reflect the fact that they are direct sellers not resellers of their own brand. Someone asked about manuals. I have manuals for all the anenji I verter, once requested they sent them on whatsapp

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Hi! Can you say anything about the standby power consumption of the Anenji 48v inverter from the battery and from the grid when it is not using the grid? Thank you!

Just think, for MORE than the price of an entire Anenji 5.6kW all in one inverter, you could buy one MPPT charger from Victron, that does (I think) only about 3.5kW:

Who is buying Victron and why? The cost is extortionate. All based on wishful thinking and buyer's 'lock in' - i.e. "I spent a fortune on this Victron stuff, and rather than feel bad because I've found I could have bought a couple of AIOs (All In One inverters) for a fifth of the price, I'll tell myself that cheaper inverters must be rubbish."
Brenmurph, I couldn't make sense of your first sentence "They resell voltronic units and have are actually make their own Anenji brand in their own factory." So are you saying Anenji resell Voltronic units (which I believe they do, going by the manual they sent me for one of their models) and they also build their own Anenji only models?

Can you attach some of the manuals to a post here? I'm sure that would be useful for a lot of interested people.

Installed my 8.5kw Anenji hybrid inverter - tested up to 5.7kw with electric oven and kettle and all seems ok. Currently running as solar only.

Next job is batteries...

Will be interested to see your later thoughts on the Anenji hybrid. I'm looking at a 6.2kw, hybrid unit to install in my static caravan on the West coast of Scotland, with currently 2.4kw of solar and a new diy 48v LiFePo battery pack. Only interested in running it in off-grid mode as we have no mains hookup on our site. This is really to replace AGM batteries, Epever charge controllers (x4) and one 240v invertor.

SwitchDoctor said:

View attachment 170846

Installed my 8.5kw Anenji hybrid inverter - tested up to 5.7kw with electric oven and kettle and all seems ok. Currently running as solar only.

Next job is batteries...

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Good looking unit anyway

Hooked up my leisure batteries to the Anenji inverter today. working great so far - tested to 6kw with cooker,toaster, air frier, kettle loads and all seems ok.

Big moment: i just made my first 'off-grid' cuppa! woop

SwitchDoctor said:

Hooked up my leisure batteries to the Anenji inverter today. working great so far - tested to 6kw with cooker,toaster, air frier, kettle loads and all seems ok.

Big moment: i just made my first 'off-grid' cuppa! woop

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Is that grid tied or completely off grid?

Adrian R said:

Hi! Can you say anything about the standby power consumption of the Anenji 48v inverter from the battery and from the grid when it is not using the grid? Thank you!

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I'd also love to hear about this.

Adrian R said:

Hi! Can you say anything about the standby power consumption of the Anenji 48v inverter from the battery and from the grid when it is not using the grid? Thank you!

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so far it looks very frugal, i only see it drawing 10w from the grid but i'll report back on battery use as i'm not so sure as to whether i've configured it to 'prefer' battery power.

SeaGal said:

Is that grid tied or completely off grid?

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It's a classic hybrid which 'could' run completely off-grid if i wanted but that's not how i have it configured.

At my off-grid moment i was boiling the kettle using only solar and battery power that i'd harvested.

I run the house and charge the batteries from the solar and use the battery energy to fill the gaps. I only have approx 4kw of storage (more likely 2kw usuable) so ut's usualy gone by 18:00 and we're back on utility power overnight. The Inverter does have a Solar>Utility>battery option so it will work as a UPS but that's not how i have it configured.

I have it on Solar>Battery>Utility for supplying the house and only solar for charging the batteries.

Short Vid of my solar install

The inverter also has a grid tie option that will pipe the spare back to the grid but i have no MCS cert so no point (Watching debates re octopus energy non MCS feed-in tarrifs)

SwitchDoctor said:

The inverter also has a grid tie option that will pipe the spare back to the grid but i have no MCS cert so no point

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Makes sense - I guess it is not G99 compliant so couldn't run it in grid-tie mode in UK anyway.

SeaGal said:

Makes sense - I guess it is not G99 compliant so couldn't run it in grid-tie mode in UK anyway.

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now madly googling G99....

i did have an idea of turning grid-tie on and off on wash days to try to offset some of my laundry power needs. I have these on a completely different utility spur...

or to apply for one of the non MCS schemes to gain a few pennies but if my system fails some sort of basic compliance

Nervous now that it may go bang if i turn the option on... googling it all now..

It may not go bang, but it is illegal to grid-tie in the UK, if the following procedure has not been followed:-

Inverters under 16A per phase output (3680W) need to be G98 compliant and you must inform your DNO within 28 days of installation.

Inverters over 16A per phase output (3680W) need to be G99 compliant and you must request approval from your DNO before installation. The DNO may limit the power you may output depending on local network topology.

This is to protect the safety of line engineers as well as maintain the quality of the network, especially for your neighbours.

Inverters which are compliant will be on the ENA type test register (https://www.ena-eng.org/gen-ttr/) and you will need to provide this information to your DNO on the relevant G98/G99 application forms.

I've had my Anenji inverter installed for a couple of months now and figured i'd leave a 'lessons learnt' for anyone else considering these units:

Pro:
The units seem well made. It hasn't exploded or set on fire
It does work and is saving me money.
I've enjoyed the journey and the self-build elements
Anenji support is fast (barring time differences) - their watsapp support works well

Cons:
It seems 'immature' from a software perspective.
I can't see any mechanism to 'update' the software.
It doesn't seem to like my old fashioned flooded 4s1p (4 x 12v lead-acid leisure batteries).

The scenario i was looking for was:
To use solar when available to power the house.
Use 'spare' solar to charge the batteries.
Use the battery power first when no solar
When no solar or battety - revert to mains
Revert to mains for all under-power scenarios.

In reality when i set it to Solar>Battery> Utility and Only Solar charging (which in theory delivers the above scenario). It works fine all day but then at night it just seems to flatten the battery completely (and i mean completely - way past low voltage limits). This resulted in the unit beeping loudly in the middle of the night - very annoying. The only fix from Anenji was to manuall change the parameters at the end of each day - no way that is a sensible fix.

To fix this i've installed an external power transfer switch connected to a dusk-dawn sensor that will bypass the inverter at night. This has an added benefit of being able to easily bypass the inverter if we're cooking a big sunday lunch in the middle of winter and need loads of appliances on. (cooker, microwave, air fryer, toaster and kettle all on will break the 8.2kw limit).

Conclusion is that i'd give the Ananji unit just 7.5 /10.
It's a great device that's let down by immature programming. It maybe tries to hard to do everything rather than being great at one thing. I'm sure that the version 2 or 3 of this device will be great.
I'm pleased with my purchase and have saved a fortune but if i started again i'd maybe choose an inverter from the approved lists that SeaGal very helpfully pointed to in the post above.

That's a great write up and very useful info for those considering an Anenji