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Ecoworthy Solar Hybrid 5k inverters....

A

alvinecigs

New Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2024
Messages
40
Location
Houston, TX
Ended up ordering 24 200w panels from ecoworthy to put on their dual solar tracker systems.. I also have a Generac 20k Whole home back up generator.. But my main question is if I should go ahead and get a 5k ecoworthy inverter for now.. then add another one when I add more panels in the near future.. or get a solark15k or something? Just trying to grid tie for now..
 
Hard to keep track of all the rebranded AIO's but I believe the Eco Worthy one is not a grid tie but is instead an off grid unit. It also is not UL listed. The Sol-Ark is a fully listed AIO that does grid tie/hybrid but is out of my experience.
 
alvinecigs said:
Hmm.. https://www.eco-worthy.com/collecti...dc-to-120v-240v-ac-split-phase-power-inverter .... I thought this would do grid or battery...
Click to expand...
From a quick look it appears to be one of those that can assist with grid on output to load (SUB mode) but is not a grid tie that exports by design. Some of these can work without battery but are not very stable running that way. They are more akin to a computer's UPS (uninterruptible Power supply) that allows choice of grid or inverter but not usually both to out put to the load.

Problem with the AIO's that allow blending grid and inverter for loads is there exists an opportunity for unintended minor grid export. This requires an interconnect agreement with your utility and therefore they look for UL listed equipment.
 
I've been looking for an All In One as well. I haven't found a lot of review info on the ECO Worthy, but the posts from the few people who have them seem encouraging. There are questions about how to configure them and how to parallel them, but they seem to work.
 
I got the deal on the dual axis tracker with 200W panels. There was a substantial discount around the holidays and cash-back offer. With the 30% tax credit the total cost ends up at around $600+/-. I got some used Enphase micro-inverters off eBay (already had the gateway) and hooked everything up on a warm day in December. A problem I discovered is that the MPPT minimum voltage on virtually all the Enphase micros is slightly higher than the MP voltage of the panels. So if anyone is thinking about using micros with Enphase, it won't work very well. In the cold weather, I've been doing pretty well, but that's likely because of the voltage rise with decreasing temperature. I expect that as temps warm up in APril or so, the array will not be producing as efficiently.

I ordered three SPWR-A5 micros that are re-branded Enphase with the right specs for two Ecoworthy 200W panels in series. Going to eventually install those to see if there's a big difference in output. Since it's on a tracker, I'm not as concerned about shading of one panel affecting output.

Has anyone else run into this and solved it a different way?
 
JeffB1961 said:
finally a review from a reliable source :)
Click to expand...
Welcome to the SRNE club @Gavin Stone. Nice video.
Does that one still have option 34 in the menu? It is capable of exporting to the grid if you set 34 TOGRID, if they didn't update the firmware to get rid of it.
Would be nice to see someone test if it works... (assuming you have an export agreement).
 
So far in my testing this appears to be a solid AIO. The ECO-Worthy 5KW does have a Menu Item 34.
I may have to buy a second just to evaluate the parallel/240vac performance.

I will test whether this AIO feeds (or can feed) back to the grid.

I have "Grid/Utility" input from a 120vac outlet. I have a switch installed in the extension cord inline with the black/hot as I wanted to evaluate the Neutral and Ground bond in the Inverter, particularly between Grid In and AC out. Menu Item 63 (N-G Automatically Connect) is poorly worded in the user manual (on or off, no automation), if Enabled a relay bonds the AC out Neutral and Ground. If Disabled the relay is deenergized and there is no bond. I need to further verify if because the AC In neutral and ground are bonded back at the main panel, by bonding the AC Out does it also bond the AC In via the AC out ground bond.

I have mapped all the "Menu Items" to their respective Modbus registers and have verified them.

This is my test setup sitting right next to my computer.
20250424_164445.jpg
I can modify any menu setting from this screen which also means I can automate it
Screenshot 2025-04-23 165159.jpg
Monitoring
Screenshot 2025-04-24 174931.jpg
 
You are having tooo much fun! I was thinking I could sell my dual EG4 3K units off now that their new price is so high and pick up a couple of 5k's or the 10k...

Everything is working so hard to make the jump. having that extra 1.5kw on the kitchen leg would keep my wife from overloading. Then again I could take them out of spit phase and put all on 120V parallel...

Once everything is working I hate to take it apart. That is what winter is for... ok, rambling..

You got me excited. Keep up the good work. I would rather take that relay out and do any bonding/combining on the outside.
 
Do you appreciate the low pitch of the fans compared to other offerings? That's the first thing I noticed years ago with my ASF.
A couple hours ago I hit 10MWh solar through my pair of ASPs (~6 on one and ~4 on the other). They have been rock solid since I commissioned them at the beginning of July..
 
BarracudaBob said:
You are having tooo much fun! I was thinking I could sell my dual EG4 3K units off now that their new price is so high and pick up a couple of 5k's or the 10k...

Everything is working so hard to make the jump. having that extra 1.5kw on the kitchen leg would keep my wife from overloading. Then again I could take them out of spit phase and put all on 120V parallel...

Once everything is working I hate to take it apart. That is what winter is for... ok, rambling..

You got me excited. Keep up the good work. I would rather take that relay out and do any bonding/combining on the outside.
Click to expand...
If you would just quit boiling lobsters (or other friends and family).
It's coming together and I am having fun. I now have a base to also develop the data for my SunGoldPower 10kw (non-parallel). There are some differences in the menu items which I need to account for so the menu choices are correct, automation is correct and the "ToolTip" popups are worded (slight modifications from chinglish to english).

I have a great "Debug" tool where I can change a menu item on the inverter and see what registers the Inverter changes. My software picks up these changes; both the Modbus Register and the value. If I change the Battery Type the inverter changes a number of register values.

Many of the multi choice settings are really stored as an integer/number and you need to know the number to correctly automate the item in the inverter.

Menu 1
EW-5K SunGoldPower 10kw
PV1ST SOL=0
AC1ST UTI=1
BT1ST SBU=2
MIXLOD
 
Last edited:
42OhmsPA said:
Do you appreciate the low pitch of the fans compared to other offerings? That's the first thing I noticed years ago with my ASF.
A couple hours ago I hit 10MWh solar through my pair of ASPs (~6 on one and ~4 on the other). They have been rock solid since I commissioned them at the beginning of July..
Click to expand...
The ECO-Worthy 5KW is very quiet. The fans "pull down" and exhaust out the bottom so I don't know how long this "quiet" will last as the fans are pulling the hot air through (suction) themselves and over their bearings rather blowing the air over the heat exchangers
 
That concerns me a bit as well but the highest temps I've ever seen were ~57C with ~14KW PV coming in.
 
It looks like a larger eg4 3k unit. Put some PV on there and see if the fans take off. That seems to be the loudest I see.
 
marionw said:
So far in my testing this appears to be a solid AIO. The ECO-Worthy 5KW does have a Menu Item 34.
I may have to buy a second just to evaluate the parallel/240vac performance.

I will test whether this AIO feeds (or can feed) back to the grid.

I have "Grid/Utility" input from a 120vac outlet. I have a switch installed in the extension cord inline with the black/hot as I wanted to evaluate the Neutral and Ground bond in the Inverter, particularly between Grid In and AC out. Menu Item 63 (N-G Automatically Connect) is poorly worded in the user manual (on or off, no automation), if Enabled a relay bonds the AC out Neutral and Ground. If Disabled the relay is deenergized and there is no bond. I need to further verify if because the AC In neutral and ground are bonded back at the main panel, by bonding the AC Out does it also bond the AC In via the AC out ground bond.

I have mapped all the "Menu Items" to their respective Modbus registers and have verified them.

This is my test setup sitting right next to my computer.

I can modify any menu setting from this screen which also means I can automate it

Monitoring
Click to expand...
Mine does not have Menu Item #34. It just skips it, Were you able to see Menu Item #34 when you used Solar Assistant ?
 
BarracudaBob said:
It looks like a larger eg4 3k unit. Put some PV on there and see if the fans take off. That seems to be the loudest I see.
Click to expand...
I wonder if it is a rebrand. I know I've seen an older EG4 3k 48 video comparison where the guy had a ver 1 and ver 2, side by side. The version 2 is what I bought a few months back. The version 1 in that video was physically larger.

I'd wished I'd known of these for that price a few weeks back (for that price). My brother liked my EG4 3kw 48 system so much, he wanted me to reproduce one to power his equipment barn, but the EG4 units had went up in price significantly since the tariffs. (We went with standard solar setup instead of AIO...a Victron CC and a separate inverter).
 
42OhmsPA said:
It would be under Input/Output - Solar feed to grid.
Click to expand...
It would be, if it was there ... 🤣

Output Mode: Single Machine Output. Not messing with _that_ it's all about phases and splitting.
Split Phase: Disabled. Phew. See above.
AC Output Freq/Voltage...
AC Input Voltage Range: (UPS)
Remote Switch: On.
Output Source: Solar/Batt/Utility
Overload Bypass: Enabled
Overload Restart: Enabled

That's all I have! So the unit does support option 34 (even if it shouldn't) as it's on the UI but SA doesn't let me change it.
 
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