Enphase IQ8

[jasonhc73]

The Enphase IQ8 microinverter and any HYBRID inverter/charger will change the world.

If you can get a battery to store the energy from the sun to give you enough energy for let's just say 48 hours, you will never need the grid again, and you can live as you live on the grid.

What I mean is the IQ8 does not need the grid to get its frequency to match. The IQ8 listens to the line first, and if there is no frequency to match, it just makes it.

To make things even more appetizing, it's output is A/C! That means on any hybrid inverter with A/C input can simply have as many solar panels with an IQ8 you can stand.

This is the zombie apocalypse way to be off-grid with A/C powering everything directly from the solar panels. As long as you can charge the batteries with the daylight and still have enough juice to do the laundry and make popcorn in the microwave and have all the wifi up and running, what else could you need?

 

[DThames]

Question....If it is grid tied and the power goes out, how does it know not to energize the line?

 

[gnubie]

Probably the same way as grid tied units do now, attempt to tug the supply to measure its impedance. If it's high, by mains standards, action is taken to isolate from the mains.

Just a guess.

 

[jasonhc73]

Question....If it is grid tied and the power goes out, how does it know not to energize the line?

It is not grid-tied, that is what makes it so significant.

 

[Darkstar]

That looks useful. Not sure why though. If you had access to those today how would you use them on your system? How would they make your system better? Do they simply let you eliminate a stand alone charge controller?

 

[jasonhc73]

That looks useful. Not sure why though. If you had access to those today how would you use them on your system? How would they make your system better? Do they simply let you eliminate a stand alone charge controller?

Enphase micro inverter changes the DC output from the solar panel to A/C.

That A/C is then directly used.

Every micro inverter(or grid-tied) made before the EQ8 only worked when there was a frequency to match to.

The EQ8 rethinks the entire purpose of self generating electricity and is a clean sheet design. Armed with the idea of the philosophy of Elon Musk, "less is better and none is best", and a decade of micro inverters.

The EQ8 (or IQ8) reduces all the parts of a inverter to nearly half. It eliminates the string inverter/combiner box entirely from the system.

Now, a HYBRID inverter does the ultimate in power control when it comes to solar input / battery backup(charger/discharge) / A/C input / A/C output.

The hybrid inverter switches to battery backup when there is no A/C.

The hybrid inverter charges the batteries from solar and or A/C.

The hybrid inverter has input for DC solar panels, it's a MPPT inverter. The hybrid inverter is limited to what ever it is designed to handle. But it also has A/C input. Now the limit is basically 60 amps A/C.

 

[newbostonconst]

I do like enphase as I have a 24 panel system but their new system is nothing new and is more complicated then they are laying it out to be.

 

[jasonhc73]

I do like enphase as I have a 24 panel system but their new system is nothing new and is more complicated then they are laying it out to be.

Does anything Enphase have before the EQ/IQ8 work off-grid?

 

[newbostonconst]

I bought a GS4048 from Outback and it will create a micro grid and power up my IQ7's all automatic. The micro grid will be on the critical loads panel and power everything in it. When the grid is up the GS4048 passes power straight through it to the critical loads panel. I can also shut off the main breaker and back feed from the critical loads panel if I want to power the whole house.

For it to work like this, you wire your micro inverters into the critical loads panel. The unit has 4 connections (batteries, critical loads, power in from main panel, and generator)

The Enphase solution seems to have multiple components that need to be wired thus more complex. They don't show it that way though. There are many other solutions like the Solarch solution that can do this, though a lot more expensive. Just my opinion.

 

[Supervstech]

How will this comply with the voltage disconnect code requirements?

 

[gnubie]

Remove DC from GS4048 with switch/break AC output to microgrid, output ceases, enphase devices detect loss of grid and shutdown output. That'd meet the requirements of lowering the PV wouldn't it?

 

[Supervstech]

Remove DC from GS4048 with switch/break AC output to microgrid, output ceases, enphase devices detect loss of grid and shutdown output. That'd meet the requirements of lowering the PV wouldn't it?

How? If the microinverters aren’t gridtied, but still generate ac to the hybrid... what disconnects their output?

 

[gnubie]

Unless I really am misunderstanding the microinverters...

If they are used in a conventional grid tied installation, when the grid goes away they detect that and turn off their output. Replace the grid with the GS4048 and now when you turn that off (or break the AC output from it) the fake grid goes away, the microinverters detect that and again turn off their output.

The microinverters are not supplying the GS4048, they are being supplied by the GS4048 to the extent that they use it to detect grid presence. Once active they assist the GS4048 to run the devices on the critical loads panel.

 

[newbostonconst]

The critical loads panel is powered through the unit. When the grid goes down the unit opens its pass through relay and the inverter kicks in with in a second. The light in the house just barely flash. The inverter makes its own grid in the critical loads panel. The micro inverters or other solar inverter is tied into this panel. If the solar creates to much power the inverter frequency shifts to a higher frequency till the micro inverters start shutting down per UL 1741.

 

[newbostonconst]

 

[jasonhc73]

How will this comply with the voltage disconnect code requirements?

If you are off-grid, you don't have to disconnect from it when the grid is down.

That is the entire point of the EQ8s!

 

[Picasso]

My understanding of them, The new enphase battery option has a stack of eq8's on a life4 battery. If you have a house now with iq7's and get the battery from them and the grid disconnect if the power is out the system disconnects from the grid and the eq8/battery provides the waveform to blackstart the eq7's. eq8's also have an offgrid option to just start making the waveform right away as in the first video posted over a year go. but you need to watch balance. enphase has two disconnect options one has a transformer to balance phases in use 120/240 systems. Ive been a happy enphase investor over the years. and looking forward to playing with a stack of eq8's and my own cheap used cells.

 

[Supervstech]

If you are off-grid, you don't have to disconnect from it when the grid is down.

That is the entire point of the EQ8s!

No, but to be a legal installation, when the meter is pulled, or the main power is shut off at the main panel, the solar panels need to stop production.

if the IQ8’s can produce regulated power without a reference voltage, the panels would be producing voltage when firemen shut off the main panel.

 

[jasonhc73]

No, but to be a legal installation, when the meter is pulled, or the main power is shut off at the main panel, the solar panels need to stop production.

if the IQ8’s can produce regulated power without a reference voltage, the panels would be producing voltage when firemen shut off the main panel.

Did you see this?

 

[Supervstech]

Did you see this?

I just watched it...

seems to break the rules of NEC2017...