SolarSamAK
New Member
Enphase claims a failure rate of 0.05%. Of what, I have no idea? 0.05% per year, per hour or per KWH? What does 0.05% of blank mean? Sol Ark claims a failure rate of 0.1-1.0% per year after year one. I can quantify that, though the range is rather large. I have a Sol Ark 15k with one open MMPT duel channel. I may want to add a ground mount to my solar system as this is my launch year and doing so will maximize both my solar system and tax benefits. With a ground mount vs roof mount I am more concerned about shading on the ground. Lots of trees and mountains where I live so roof mounting is the best option but space is limited. My house faces south and that roof line is full of panels. Hence I may use AC coupled input via microinverters rather than the open MMPT.
I do not feel the Enphase 0.05% failure is per year as those numbers do not match real world data, so I often wonder what the failure rate is and what 0.05% means? Perhaps out of the box failure rates? This brings up the question of what micro inverter to use? Do they all have similar failure rates? My friends have issues getting Enphase to honor the warranty. Is this common for Enphase owners? Apparently you have to send the defective unit back to them for an exchange? Again this is based in a state with no real Enphase support other than installers who do not warranty the labor. However removing one from the middle of a roof mounted array is a big deal. My one friend took down a part of his array to get to a bad microinverter. The new microinverter exchange took 3 months here in Alaska. He just bought a new micro inverter, easily available here, used that in the mean time to get his system back up and running. To me that is a warranty that will not work. I am open to microinverters as I see some benefit to them in a ground level array but would like to know what brand or options are out there? I do not wish to discredit Enphase as I have never used of their products, that being said word of mouth seems to suggest they do not always have the best support. Open to being corrected if I am wrong on this. I just want a durable system with support when I need it.
I do not feel the Enphase 0.05% failure is per year as those numbers do not match real world data, so I often wonder what the failure rate is and what 0.05% means? Perhaps out of the box failure rates? This brings up the question of what micro inverter to use? Do they all have similar failure rates? My friends have issues getting Enphase to honor the warranty. Is this common for Enphase owners? Apparently you have to send the defective unit back to them for an exchange? Again this is based in a state with no real Enphase support other than installers who do not warranty the labor. However removing one from the middle of a roof mounted array is a big deal. My one friend took down a part of his array to get to a bad microinverter. The new microinverter exchange took 3 months here in Alaska. He just bought a new micro inverter, easily available here, used that in the mean time to get his system back up and running. To me that is a warranty that will not work. I am open to microinverters as I see some benefit to them in a ground level array but would like to know what brand or options are out there? I do not wish to discredit Enphase as I have never used of their products, that being said word of mouth seems to suggest they do not always have the best support. Open to being corrected if I am wrong on this. I just want a durable system with support when I need it.
