diy solar

diy solar

An Enphase Ensemble Installation

Whenever I try to go to those dashboard or reports locations, it keeps just going back to Enlighten. What am I missing?
 
Curious... there are a few times where a slightly higher inverter temperature correlates with a production drop.


From the datasheet, the max ambient conditions are 65°C (149°F), ambient maximum over that time frame (see below) was 93.6°F. The maximum inverter temperature over that span was 138.2°F.

That does look like it was limiting due to temperature; any blockage or anything you can do to keep it cooler?

But why does the temperature shoot up? Moth on the inlet? Fan intermittent?
Reduced output should make it cooler; this looks like cooling stopped causing the spike.
 
That does look like it was limiting due to temperature; any blockage or anything you can do to keep it cooler?

But why does the temperature shoot up? Moth on the inlet? Fan intermittent?
Reduced output should make it cooler; this looks like cooling stopped causing the spike.
Enphase Micro inverters are fan less ;-)
 
Whenever I try to go to those dashboard or reports locations, it keeps just going back to Enlighten. What am I missing?
Huh! I get the same thing when I click that link. Must have to be authorized before you arrive. It does take me there if I go to https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/systems/siteID/overview first and then click the "dashboard" button in the upper right.

That does look like it was limiting due to temperature; any blockage or anything you can do to keep it cooler?
It's still well below the maximum ambient temperature, and there are other dips without corresponding spikes.

But why does the temperature shoot up? Moth on the inlet? Fan intermittent?
As @fromport says, the devices are sealed, so no air-flow which considering my salty conditions is a good thing.

The only reason I can think of for the temperature to shoot up like that is if the inverter is working harder (e.g., exceeding it's continuous output). But, the power before each dip is not at the max, so it's not clipping or anything.

It's quite a mystery to me. Currently thinking to wait for a cloudless day to collect some additional data. But open to ideas.
 
1659612991338.png1659613016447.png

I circled what I thought were a couple of outlier spikes, but as I looked closer at 9AM and 7PM I noticed the power output dipped with them too.

Wonder how it did yesterday?

Same microinverter as before (east side), but no T spikes yesterday:
1659613736424.png
Yesterday's data for a different microinverter on the west side, 2 spikes
1659613936794.png

So, doesn't happen all the time on the same inverter. Different inverters see it. As there does appear to be a correlation it's probably not erratic data from radiation affecting the sensor.

Voltage increase would make the sensor reading appear higher and might knock the microinverter offline for 5 min, but the data resolution is at 5-minute intervals and some of the temperature spikes are multiple readings so they can span greater than 5 minutes.
 
Last edited:
Looking in the logs, the microinverter to the right had a "DC Power Too Low: Set" at 7:42 pm, so that's the panel not producing enough volts from lack of sunlight. Nothing in the log for the morning event, the "DC Power Too Low: Clear" occurred at 7:30 AM and the "Microinverter failed to report" at 8:05 PM.

What's also interesting is that the microinverter started reporting data at 6:45 AM; some 45 minutes before the clear. I had always assumed the device was just starting up at that point, apparently, it's when the inverter starts up or stops as opposed to the processor.

I did see one interesting set of events in another microinverter, a grid profile reset:
JSON:
[       "232257",
       "No Grid Profile: Clear", "9148",
        "Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:47 AM EDT"   ],
[        "232256",
       "Grid Instability: Clear",  "9148",
        "Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:42 AM EDT"],
[       "232253",
       "No Grid Profile: Set",   "9148",
        "Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:42 AM EDT"],
[        "232252",
       "Grid Instability: Set",  "9148",
        "Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:42 AM EDT"],

So, there's a temperature spike during the 10:42 reset. Possibly that's heat from the CPU
while doing something intensive? Maybe the sensor is very close to the CPU or actually
measuring CPU Temperature?

The logs scrolled off for the original data points, so can't see them.
The "end" spikes (post above and right) don't have resets, so not all spikes are
related to resets.
Corresponding data to the events for 9148:

1659619937909.png
 
Last edited:
Svetz, what settings are you using for your backup mode...self consumption, full backup...? How long does it take to go off grid when the grid fails in each mode?
We recently installed one encharge 10t and controller 2. Our first outage this morning while in self consumption mode took 10 seconds to transition to off-grid. Chatted with customer service and they said it was normal. Curious your thoughts.
Thanks,
WL
 
Svetz, what settings are you using for your backup mode...self consumption, full backup...?

It's complicated... <sigh>... We don't have TOU here yet, so my batteries are primarily for emergency backup. As LFP degrades faster when held at 100% (see SoC degradation of LiFePO4), I try not to stay in full backup. I do have stormguard on, so it switches to full backup when needed or if I know something is coming I can switch it manually.

Normally, I'm in "savings mode" at 80% reserve in summer (when the power is likely to go out) and 60% the rest of the time. I set my peak rate from 4 AM to 9 PM forcing the system to only allow itself to recharge from solar during the night. Since that's impossible it can only recharge from solar when the SoC dips below the reserve and only ever charges to the reserve. So with that technique, the battery SoC stays at the reserve value 24x7.

Or, it should -- there's some bug that doesn't account for all the losses with my first-generation gear. Over a few months the Envoy reading gets out of sync with the true value, the Envoy is higher than the actual SoC. Eventually, the battery's true SOC hits 10% and that triggers a reset of the Envoy's SoC value and it charges back up.

I've reported it but haven't seen a fix. The workaround I use is to manually reset it to full backup once a month for a day, which I figure also lets the BMS rebalance the cells. You can also set it to self-consumption with a 10% reserve, the batteries will run out early and reset the SoC value for the Envoy.

How long does it take to go off grid when the grid fails in each mode? ...in self consumption mode took 10 seconds to transition...
That's not right, mine is sub-second like a UPS in all 3 modes. Computers don't reboot, clocks don't reset.

Well, in summer it can be drawing more power than the system can supply ... in that case when the power does go out the system trips and there's a 5 minutes reset (which gives me some time to flip some breakers off ; -).

...Chatted with customer service and they said it was normal...
Find on their web page where they advertise it's like a UPS and no interruption. If they tell you the same BS point them to it. Tell them you want it fixed. If that doesn't work, ask to speak to a supervisor. Let us know how it goes!
 
Did some functional testing by switching off main breaker under similar conditions and system performed flawlessly with no delays.
So far we have stayed in self-consumption mode with a 50% discharge limit.
Adding batteries made it obvious we need more solar.
Thanks for your input Svetz.
 
How can I select which week to report? It only shows this past week on the report. This week was cooler than last week. This week, one of the IQ8's got as high as 138.8F, at 299W. The Hoymiles was 143F but was had an output of 356W. Works for me. I don't have an IQ8H to compare them.
 
How can I select which week to report?...
For a specific microinverter's data as displayed in #439 (e.g., microinverter temperature), AFAIK it's currently only the prior 7 days in the report for a specific microinverter's data. They probably have the data, it's just the UI isn't sophisticated enough to fetch it.
 
For a specific microinverter's data as displayed in #439 (e.g., microinverter temperature), AFAIK it's currently only the prior 7 days in the report for a specific microinverter's data. They probably have the data, it's just the UI isn't sophisticated enough to fetch it.
I just pulled up the data for one of my inverters for the first week of january

Screenshot2022-08-13_crop.png

It might be that this is a "feature" for installers only.
 
I don't have enlighten manager. That's an extra cost, right? I just use the Enlighten portal, or the Envoy local pages.
 
I don't have enlighten manager. That's an extra cost, right?
I have Enlighten Manager and don't recall paying for it. I think it is free. I login via this URL. Under your name on upper rigtht side is a piull down that lets you enter Manager view. Also I can toggle between regular view and Classic view.
 
Last edited:
So it seems my installer has to enable manager mode for me, and it is (or was at some point) a $249 one time fee to add it.
 
So it seems my installer has to enable manager mode for me, and it is (or was at some point) a $249 one time fee to add it.
When an installer provisions a system, an email is sent to the owner of the system with a link/data how to access the enlighten part for the owner. There are no costs involved, I know that for sure.
Do you have a link with this manager mode and the $249?
Never heard of that before
 
Back
Top