Fascinating Todd! Enphase AC batteries are underpowered - especially the 4 x IQ8X's - and overpriced and the total power is limited to 64A ESS into the IQ system controller. But a single 3T is good enough and sufficient to form a microgrid. I've always wondered when someone clever would come up with a creative solution to add inverter power and battery energy and stack it separately! Hoymiles inverters are great for this!
UL testing/listing is expensive, out of reach for many small companies like yours and mine. Checkout ETL or Intertek.
Enphase needs to kick other inverters off the microgrid when SOC is nearing max limit. They can do this via frequency-watt shifting and as a last resort via the PV disconnect relay, but only for inverters supporting FW. All other non FW inverters need to stay on the non-backup main panel.
I'm fed up with Enphase, they are trying to lock you in with the sunlight-only backup hype so your only choice for adding battery backup later is Enphase. So I have started to AC-couple 2 Schneider XW 6848 inverters with IQ8+ inverters and add a PV disconnect relay between the PV AC combined output and the backup load panel. This is exactly what FranklinWH or CSI EP Cube or many others like SunGoldPower are doing with their AC PV On/Off coupling, nothing fancy like FW or VW or VV. But it allows for high SOC in the backup inverter batteries but puts more stress on the batteries.
Enphase can do direct power control of the IQ8 inverters for rapid ramp-up and ramp-down power production much faster than FW, VV or VW.
While they advertise no limit on the number of IQ8 inverters, there is a 48 inverter limit for IQ8's on a single 3T AC battery because of timing and PV inrush current on a grid-fault.
IEEE 1547 specifies direct power control for DER and ESS. Enphase does not publish these power control commands and keeps them hidden. It is only a matter of time until someone cracks how the IQ gateway communicates with the IQ system controller and/or batteries. That's why they use encrypted ZigBee and not open CAN bus hardwired daisy chaining. But change is coming, installers and users are fed up with the wireless interconnect reliability and ZigBee problems.
Other clever forum users have started to insert a hard-wired USB sniffer between the IQ gateway USB port and the ZigBee modem. Let's see what they find out!
UL testing/listing is expensive, out of reach for many small companies like yours and mine. Checkout ETL or Intertek.
Enphase needs to kick other inverters off the microgrid when SOC is nearing max limit. They can do this via frequency-watt shifting and as a last resort via the PV disconnect relay, but only for inverters supporting FW. All other non FW inverters need to stay on the non-backup main panel.
I'm fed up with Enphase, they are trying to lock you in with the sunlight-only backup hype so your only choice for adding battery backup later is Enphase. So I have started to AC-couple 2 Schneider XW 6848 inverters with IQ8+ inverters and add a PV disconnect relay between the PV AC combined output and the backup load panel. This is exactly what FranklinWH or CSI EP Cube or many others like SunGoldPower are doing with their AC PV On/Off coupling, nothing fancy like FW or VW or VV. But it allows for high SOC in the backup inverter batteries but puts more stress on the batteries.
Enphase can do direct power control of the IQ8 inverters for rapid ramp-up and ramp-down power production much faster than FW, VV or VW.
While they advertise no limit on the number of IQ8 inverters, there is a 48 inverter limit for IQ8's on a single 3T AC battery because of timing and PV inrush current on a grid-fault.
IEEE 1547 specifies direct power control for DER and ESS. Enphase does not publish these power control commands and keeps them hidden. It is only a matter of time until someone cracks how the IQ gateway communicates with the IQ system controller and/or batteries. That's why they use encrypted ZigBee and not open CAN bus hardwired daisy chaining. But change is coming, installers and users are fed up with the wireless interconnect reliability and ZigBee problems.
Other clever forum users have started to insert a hard-wired USB sniffer between the IQ gateway USB port and the ZigBee modem. Let's see what they find out!
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