Deciding between Victron, Enphase and possibly Sol-ark. Input?

Nobodybusiness said:

Funny thing is David Poz went with EG4 after bashing Sol-Ark and praised EG4 mercilessly until Schneider threw him a 6848 now he runs 2 of those.


Take these YT experts with a grain of salt and find out who is supplying them gear.

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Got my bag of salt for sure But sometimes the YT Yahoos running a test that is reasonable to them are more meaningful than the manufacturing showing one they know will work!

And the Ben guy he seems connected with has about 5 videos where he pulls out a Schneider for a Sol-Ark and 5 more where he pulls out a Sol-Ark for a Schneider.

I did see the Sol-Ark firmware up the single phase to 5200watts. But is it still a hard-stop at 5200? That 9000watt starting load on the air compressor example is real for me. Sure could add soft start or auto transformer but at some point for the price I have to ask why. I just want them ALL to be better an they are getting there. Feeling like Sol-Ark is resting on some laurels maybe/unfortunately..

Curious though I don't see anything suspect in the test video I posted. Seemed pretty reasonable to me, no?

Nobodybusiness said:

As far as post # 41 I suspect they had earlier units with old firmware or horrific unbalanced panels.

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I just can't give Sol-Ark a pass on this one though. Starting a single load isn't something that can even be balanced. Two loads that have to be run on the same circuit is reality.

smr.ruby said:

I did see the Sol-Ark firmware up the single phase to 5200watts. But is it still a hard-stop at 5200? That 9000watt starting load on the air compressor example is real for me. Sure could add soft start or auto transformer but at some point for the price I have to ask why. I just want them ALL to be better an they are getting there. Feeling like Sol-Ark is resting on some laurels maybe/unfortunately..

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Not sure about hard limit.

Ran my house off 2 12ks for couple of years.
Never had any issues after upgrading the firmware.

I switch to the 15ks because I could eliminate the transfer switch and the wiring is easier and more robust.

I suspect the 15ks will probably (if not already) taken over the 12ks market in larger usage applications.

smr.ruby said:

I just can't give Sol-Ark a pass on this one though. Starting a single load isn't something that can even be balanced. Two loads that have to be run on the same circuit is reality.

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Again you don’t know the context.

Could have been older units or older firmware or and imbalanced panel.

Any number of things.

Definitely shouldn’t happen with a 15amp load with updated firmware.

Johneb said:

Outback 8048A-01 prebuiltwith 2 fm100 scc's.

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I was thinking the Mojave would be good for that.. but either set-up requires some heavy conductors to bring all that PV current.

Nobodybusiness said:

This guy is definitely not the one to based your assumptions on.
Lots of people on here run Sol-arks with zero issues.

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I run 2 12ks I have not had any issues with them starting any loads. How about the EG418K with the power pro battery? I do like Victron. I have Victron gear in my RV and I would of had it in my house if it would of passed inspection. You do need to buy a lot more equipment with Victron. Where as sol-ark you just wire it up.

zanydroid said:

Regarding the SPOF - I don't see how you can avoid one if you only have one battery. My discussion of the MID is irrelevant since it is off grid, so I withdraw that. Electricians/solar installers/solar salespeople aren't engineers, I don't really trust them to do this kind of analysis unless they're involved in designing some big metal utility or industrial kind of system, not a cabin or house.

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I would have some questions about just how well Enphase systems would work off grid. The IQ8s work great when they are grid tied. In a grid down situation, where they are being used as part of a backup system, until recently they didn't work at all. Maybe there is something in the Enphase batteries / system controller that allowed the IQ8s to function. In any case they finally did a firmware update that allows IQ8s to run without a grid tied connection. There are still some questions about how stable these systems would be with rapidly changing loads. Are they now better than nothing in an emergency grid down situation? Probably yes. Are they adequate for long term off grid use? I sure haven't seen that. Their ads say that they can run in a grid down situation for an "Extended Period of time". How long is an extended period of time? A couple of days? They also require that you install a couple of Load Controllers. Without the Load Controllers installed you can't even commission the system. So even if you have no large loads, you still need to buy them and install them.

There are also limits between PV output allowed and storage required. An Encharge 10 may have a 10 KWH capacity, but the built in inverters can only supply/store 3.8 KW. The 10 KWH battery is the absolute minimum for any system. With 20 IQ8s running you potentially have 6000 watts being produced. If these panels are running full out and you have a sudden drop in load, that power needs to go somewhere while the output is ramped down. A single Encharge 10 won't handle that. Also is 3.8 KW enough to run everything in your home? I hope you don't have an oven. I hope you won't run your toaster and microwave at the same time. Just starting my AC required 14,400 watts before I installed a soft starter. That would require 4 Encharge 10s to do that. My dual Schneiders easily handled that, however it would occasionally trip one of the batteries. Since I have the soft starter I now have no problem running the AC off battery power. This installer appears to have designed a system that won't actually work properly. A second Encharge 10 would fix that, but add another 10-15 K to the price.

I have 35 IQ8s AC coupled to a pair of Schneider XW 6848s. It took 1.5 years to get the IQ8s to work in a grid down scenario. Do they work well enough now to charge a battery during an outage? I think so. Are they a replacement for honest to god charge controllers for a true off grid system? No way.

S610 said:

Enphase 8kW with 10kW battery, rack mount, and install included ($32k)

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I would not recommend an AC coupled system for off grid. As emergency backup that sort of work. Even Enphase say there system will work in a grid down situation for "an extended period of time" They don't define how long that is. It will be far more expensive should you decide to add additional battery storage.