So a little backstory:
Im building a 100% off-grid house in a remote area. When I started researching solar power options I, like many of you, stumbled upon Will Prowse's videos. I learned a lot and started putting together the system I wanted to build. I had originally planned to build the split phase 6500ex 48V system he outlined but when the 18K was released I took advantage of Signature Solar's rebate program for folks who had purchased the 6500's to upgrade to the 18K.
Installed it back in September with 12x Lifepower4 batteries and 20x 395W panels in two 10 panel strings on the roof. Had a master electrician look over my work and everything fired up and was working great. The monitoring app was easy to navigate and understand and I thought everything was ok.
Then last Thursday my system shut down unexpectedly and out of nowhere. Mind you, I live 5 hours away and still work a full time job so having to pick up and leave is a huge inconvenience. There were no notifications of any problems in the app, it just shut down, which subsequently cut the wifi (yeah yeah, I need a UPS of some kind, I know) so I could no longer even see if this was something much more serious.
When I finally got in front of the machine the next day everything was 'normal' aside from the unit being off. I powered back on and looked over the alarm history and it had dozens of 'battery voltage high' alarms dating back to October 22, a month after I installed the unit all culminating in a 'battery fault' that shut down the system. I checked every battery's voltage at the terminals. All were good, ranging between 52 and 53. With the unit powered on the screen read my batteries altogether were at 55.1 volts...also a completely nominal reading.
I hopped on the phone with Signature Solar and they started looking at my unit remotely and agreed, all of these readings were normal and within the parameters determined by the software. They also said their event history went back to the 9th of December so it had a week lag. I confirmed this in my app (which SIDEBAR: the fact that the app doesn't actually alert you of an alarm code going off is INSANE).
SS told me that this was likely a software bug and as I sat on the phone I watched the unit tick off multiple 'battery voltage high' alarms even tho everything was normal. They said they would forward it on to EG4 to look over, but since no one works weekends there has been no response.
I'm pretty disappointed with the overall experience at this point. I am no electrician, I'm no scientist. I appreciated how user-friendly these systems were to install. I have even been happy with how it has performed up until Thursday. But if, through no fault of my own, this system can just decide to shut down based on false readings what good is it. ( OH, and don't get me started with my EG4 6000ex experience...SHEESH)
Has anyone had any similar issues?
EDIT: tagging @EG4_Jarrett @Markus_EG4
Im building a 100% off-grid house in a remote area. When I started researching solar power options I, like many of you, stumbled upon Will Prowse's videos. I learned a lot and started putting together the system I wanted to build. I had originally planned to build the split phase 6500ex 48V system he outlined but when the 18K was released I took advantage of Signature Solar's rebate program for folks who had purchased the 6500's to upgrade to the 18K.
Installed it back in September with 12x Lifepower4 batteries and 20x 395W panels in two 10 panel strings on the roof. Had a master electrician look over my work and everything fired up and was working great. The monitoring app was easy to navigate and understand and I thought everything was ok.
Then last Thursday my system shut down unexpectedly and out of nowhere. Mind you, I live 5 hours away and still work a full time job so having to pick up and leave is a huge inconvenience. There were no notifications of any problems in the app, it just shut down, which subsequently cut the wifi (yeah yeah, I need a UPS of some kind, I know) so I could no longer even see if this was something much more serious.
When I finally got in front of the machine the next day everything was 'normal' aside from the unit being off. I powered back on and looked over the alarm history and it had dozens of 'battery voltage high' alarms dating back to October 22, a month after I installed the unit all culminating in a 'battery fault' that shut down the system. I checked every battery's voltage at the terminals. All were good, ranging between 52 and 53. With the unit powered on the screen read my batteries altogether were at 55.1 volts...also a completely nominal reading.
I hopped on the phone with Signature Solar and they started looking at my unit remotely and agreed, all of these readings were normal and within the parameters determined by the software. They also said their event history went back to the 9th of December so it had a week lag. I confirmed this in my app (which SIDEBAR: the fact that the app doesn't actually alert you of an alarm code going off is INSANE).
SS told me that this was likely a software bug and as I sat on the phone I watched the unit tick off multiple 'battery voltage high' alarms even tho everything was normal. They said they would forward it on to EG4 to look over, but since no one works weekends there has been no response.
I'm pretty disappointed with the overall experience at this point. I am no electrician, I'm no scientist. I appreciated how user-friendly these systems were to install. I have even been happy with how it has performed up until Thursday. But if, through no fault of my own, this system can just decide to shut down based on false readings what good is it. ( OH, and don't get me started with my EG4 6000ex experience...SHEESH)
Has anyone had any similar issues?
EDIT: tagging @EG4_Jarrett @Markus_EG4
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