How are they working for you?
How do they work?
Cooling? Amazing. All 3 have preformed perfectly for the past 40 days or more in cooling.
- They ramp up slowly so no surge on the grid / inverter (as expected)
- They run hard until the room is cool then ramp down and just sip power to maintain temp
- The 12k will run on as little as 150 watts AC to maintain room temp
- They are Cooling Beasts. I have used 5 tons of them (3 units) in the day to "replace" my 5.5 tons of Ducted Heat Pump and I can keep my house 8 - 12 degrees F cooler on PV power.
- I expect them to "save" me about $1200-$1500 a year in Grid power
In AC and DC input mode
- If running on Grid / Inverter Power ~ AND ~ PV input power, They prioritize DC PV power extremely well Using on average only about 40w of AC power or less if the sun is out ...
- And if set in "AC Limit" mode, will greatly limit AC input power when clouds move over
- Running in AC and DC combo input keeps the PV MPPTs on all the time, so no matter how bad the weather in the day
1. The MPPTs stay on
2. They use all available PV input power that is available down to 0 (zero) watts.
- The AC Limiter keeps even the 24k units from using any more than about 500 watts even at night
- So in AC / DC input combo mode they work really well
In DC PV input Only Mode
- They leave some to be desired
- They need at least 350-400 watts of input power to stay on (understandable)
- If Clouds move over, One of my 24k Units seems to really struggle to bring the compressor back on once the sun comes back out
- The other 2 units (24k and 12k) do OK with clouds but not great
- If they do power off during the day, you must manually turn them back on. The MPPT will seek for about an hour or so and then shut down if it does not find enough power. My one 24k unit struggles to restart the compressor when the sun returns and sometimes just shuts down in full sun
- But when they power off at the end of the day, They come back on the next day automatically no problem.
- So this MPPT seek thing makes me suspect of their value IF you only wanted to run them in DC PV only mode. In other words, they are probably not good fit for a situation where no grid or inverter supplement power is available
The App
- It works well, but leaves a lot to be desired in Functionality
- There are features you might expect that just are not available such as the ability to program a set temp in the cloud timer
- To use the timer feature, you need an internet connection for the Mini Split A/C because there is no timer control in the unit
My Purchase from Signature Solar (SS)
- As always, they are fast to ship
- BUT ... so far (after over a week) they have NOT responded to my issues with the MPPT of the one 24k unit
- That same unit also now seems to be having issues staying connected to the LAN (wifi network) here
1. I am getting no wifi connection or weak wifi connection when I scan the network
2. The app for that one unit sometimes does not respond when I try to send commands, but does with the other 2 units.
3. So I assume that is the weak wifi connection ...
4. BUT maybe it is a 2nd developing issue to the already existing MPPT. I do not know yet.
- But over all I would say dealings with SS have been about 50/50
1. They were really good about getting me a new remote when 1 of the 3 did not switch from C to F for temp
2. But on the MPPT it has been crickets.
