Cornwallav8r
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2021
- Messages
- 65
Thought I'd share experience so far with a new set of Growatt SPF5000ES inverters.
I set them up in a paralleled, 20kW install, with a 50kWH set of LiFEPO4 batteries and it's been a disaster since.
Worse, I'm getting a big runaround from Growatt. I've been through 3 sets of requests for replacements, to no avail. The just keep starting over, asking symptoms and blaming the user. Mind you, I'm a registered EE in 17 states, and am no beginner with electronics by any means.
I wired the 4 as pictured in the manual, matching phases properly, and installing the current sharing red/black wires and the DB25 parallel cables between them exactly as shown in the manual. Set each one's settings for parallel operation, 240V single phase. When I'd turn each one on individually, they'd appear to boot up properly, and feed 240V to the open output circuit breaker. I could run the house on one by itself, and typically saw no more than 65% load. (I overbought in case of big workshop electrical loads). But no matter how I'd start multiple inverters in parallel, they'd go nuts and throw 50A-2p input and output breakers, even the main 100A incoming system breaker. Though never once, the onboard 40A breaker, so I doubt those even function.
At first, there didn't seem to be a real hardware failure, but after a couple attempts, 3 of the 4 developed hard failures. Communicating with Growatt's been ridiculous. They're blaming me for the failures, despite supplying no startup procedure or other information. The things were wired correctly. I even sent a video of one of them showing 175% output (which is impossible by design anyway) with no connection to the AC output at all, and they blamed me for overloading the unit, so no warranty. The other one reads 240VAC output, with my Fluke DVM connected, showing exactly 120VAC. The third one, I can't tell, because all the information on the screen is wrong, like 60v DC battery voltage, 240V where there is none, and random fault codes.
I don't know what to do at this point. I'm pissed.
I set them up in a paralleled, 20kW install, with a 50kWH set of LiFEPO4 batteries and it's been a disaster since.
Worse, I'm getting a big runaround from Growatt. I've been through 3 sets of requests for replacements, to no avail. The just keep starting over, asking symptoms and blaming the user. Mind you, I'm a registered EE in 17 states, and am no beginner with electronics by any means.
I wired the 4 as pictured in the manual, matching phases properly, and installing the current sharing red/black wires and the DB25 parallel cables between them exactly as shown in the manual. Set each one's settings for parallel operation, 240V single phase. When I'd turn each one on individually, they'd appear to boot up properly, and feed 240V to the open output circuit breaker. I could run the house on one by itself, and typically saw no more than 65% load. (I overbought in case of big workshop electrical loads). But no matter how I'd start multiple inverters in parallel, they'd go nuts and throw 50A-2p input and output breakers, even the main 100A incoming system breaker. Though never once, the onboard 40A breaker, so I doubt those even function.
At first, there didn't seem to be a real hardware failure, but after a couple attempts, 3 of the 4 developed hard failures. Communicating with Growatt's been ridiculous. They're blaming me for the failures, despite supplying no startup procedure or other information. The things were wired correctly. I even sent a video of one of them showing 175% output (which is impossible by design anyway) with no connection to the AC output at all, and they blamed me for overloading the unit, so no warranty. The other one reads 240VAC output, with my Fluke DVM connected, showing exactly 120VAC. The third one, I can't tell, because all the information on the screen is wrong, like 60v DC battery voltage, 240V where there is none, and random fault codes.
I don't know what to do at this point. I'm pissed.
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